The Outdoor Line Forum

What's your favorite trolling speed for blackmouth when fishing gear or bait?

Mine is around 2.0 to 2.5 mph for gear and around 1.2 to 1.7 when I'm running cut plugs. Worms in the hood, choked herring, and Secret Squirrel can be towed along with the gear at any speed and they'll still get bit. Of course it kind of depends on whether you're running with the tide or against it...just looking for some general speeds in ideal conditions.

Thoughts are welcome

Whatever "speed" you're trolling you have to reconcile the digital GPS speed over ground reading with your visual estimation of the downrigger wire angle. If you're 1.6 to 2.6MPH with less than a 45-degree wire angle, you're in the right neighborhood.

Keep in mind that you can get pushed by significant tail currents (Midchannel Bank comes to mind) pull a wire angle of less than 45 degrees and experience an SOG (Speed Over Ground) of 6+ knots and catch the crap out of them!

Why? because it's all about the gear's presentation speed through the water column. Ground speed is nothing more than a reference.

Conversely, if you're trolling into a significant current, 'rigger wire angles can exceed 45 degrees with 15 pound balls and you can barely make 1 MPH!

Going with the tidal currents is usually the best bet, but there have been lots and lots of salmon caught trolling into the current as well.

Whatever speed you're trolling Robbo... You're going too fast!
It's just killin' ya... aint it...

I never have looked at my water speed and instead I rely totally on the angle of my cable with a 12 lb ball. Id say 45 degree is the standard for me but so much of that is depending on my ground speed. I look at that all the time and I never even pay attention to my water speed. I use my ground speed as a tool to just make sure im fishing right and right presentation. So many times at MCB the tide will doing something crazy on me that I dont expect from reading the charts. The ground speed helps me catch that. Same with that rock that rimes with raven... lots of crazy swirls on a flood. It varies from different places. I spend damn near all my time at MCB with a handfull of days at PNP and a few at the Bar. All 3 of those places have heavy flow and I never ever go against the tide except maybe when im doin hot laps at the shed. When Im at MCB im always staring at my ground speed and paying attention to my wire angle. Thats a big place.. the north end could be floodin and the south end could still be ebbin. And words cannot describe how many times that would make the difference between fish and no fish.

Just my 2 cents.

Im like a kid in a candy store waiting for the 16th to get here...

Not really. Just figured it was a good question for the board since you and I argued about it for 6 hours yesterday. There's got to be someone else out there that trolls with herring lips. Someone...anyone

Sounds like you had some fun fishing and good debates along with way! Glad you got Mr. Shelton out - great guy.

We typically troll between 1.5 and 2.5 knots as measured by the gauge on the helm which comes from the wheel on the transducer. We also use the Navionics iPad app which shows GPS speed over the ground and typically it will be showing some other speed - so honestly, I am not sure exactly what speed we are traveling given wind and currents.

Like others have mentioned, I do watch the degree angle on the downriggers closely to ensure it is between 30-45 degrees. This is one person’s opinion, but I like to find the bait and fish on the electronics first and just keep working gear with long approaches – similar a long drift when fly fishing.

We will vary the boat speed, move up and down the downrigger balls in the water column close to the bottom, make slight turns the correct the direction, switch direction, spray fresh herring scent on the gear or herring, try new gear that worked in the past and use a couple of other “proprietary” tricks. There are fish down there and hopefully something will work including varying the speed.

If we see the bait and fish and have pulled out all stops then the rituals start like taking a leak off the back of the boat, getting more coffee, make fun of someone that lost the last fish…

…if all else fails, then I go to the pitcher’s mound and tell Nuke to hit the bull mascot with the next pitch and start thinking of Susan Sarandon.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... uHfP6X_axY

So Rob or Nelly-

when we're trolling, aside from the obvious visuals, should we be paying attention to the speed thru the water or speed over ground? Slightly confused. I usually gauge the cable. So when you say 2.0-2.5, is that thru the water?

Thanks!

spencerw wrote:So Rob or Nelly-

when we're trolling, aside from the obvious visuals, should we be paying attention to the speed thru the water or speed over ground? Slightly confused. I usually gauge the cable. So when you say 2.0-2.5, is that thru the water? Thanks!

Hey Spence,
GPS speed is usually expressed in SOG or "Speed Over Ground". SOW or "Speed Over Water" can only be accurately measured by a paddle wheel which is usually attached to the depthsounder's transducer or attached directly to the transom.

I have to confess that I have not used a paddle wheel speed indicator in years.

Your comment on watching the cable angle is absolutely spot on. So, in a zero-current ideal world, if you're pulling a 45-degree cable angle and the SOG is 2.0-2.5mph, You my friend, are in the money!

Thanks, Nelly! It sounds like I've been doing things correctly then. Good deal. Perfect sense.