Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Hutchinson
Crazy man?! How the devil do you keep track of what is where, especially once you have a fish on  When the hooked fish is being reeled in, do all the other lines come it fast? The kids must me masters at this point.
As requested, keep sharing when you can. Enjoying the heck out of it. |
Let’s just say it’s got a learning curve compared to what I used to do in Alberta.
Without trying to make it sound confusing but accepting that it IS confusing...
I build a spread based on the sea condition (swell/wave size), speed of the boat, if I’m trolling into, with or beam on to the wind or current, if the current is with or against the wind, size of fish I expect to target in relation to the size of lure I put out, what lures work together as a package, what colours have been working, etc.
Then each lure has a position it’s suited for, some are made to run short and some long, some with a low to point and some with a higher tow point. Some for calm seas some for heavy seas etc. The they have to be individually tuned in the water with the seas you’ve been given and the speed I’m trolling. So as they go out they have to be adjusted for distance behind the boat and height of the tow point (via the height of the rod tip or outrigger) and can be adjusted by moving the outrigger, the halyard or clipping the line down closer to the water.
Then you constantly watch the spread and make sure each lure is doing what it’s supposed to be doing and breathing at the correct interval. If sea conditions change, speed changes, direction of travel changes it’ll all have to be adjusted again. It sucks in the beginning but eventually becomes intuitive.
As for your actual question, I keep track of them because I put them in the water and I know which lure or bait is running in which position and if it’s a J hook or circle hook. After that, the clickers alert you to the strike and a tiagra clicker at 89 decibels certainly gets your attention. Then you have a brief moment to see the direction it’s exiting the spread, what the fish might be based on its behaviour and if the boat needs to be turned a certain way to have it exit the spread without tangling and if the trolling speed should be maintained to try and entice multiple hookups.
Then we decide if we can handle the fish without bringing in any other lines or if some of the spread has to come in or if all of it comes in. On meat fish the first attempt is to thread the needle and bring it up between the lines. If that won’t work the boat is turned and the fish is fought off one side, usually the lines on that side are cleared and the fish gaffed then the spread redeployed. During the fight we just make large turns to that side and keep the fish on the inside but away from the lures still in the water.
On billfish we clear everything and try to discourage additional strikes. Only a few times have we had multiple billfish strikes and luckily only stayed attached to one each time. The spread isn’t very quick to pull and it probably takes two or three minutes to clear. After a billfish has cleared the spread and is off to one side, I’ll turn and start chasing it on the troll but it’s common to have 600-900m of line out before the gear is all in the boat and we can properly chase the fish. That’s why the reels have 1500m of line on them. Only a few times have we been at risk of being spooled but with a good fish it’s always a real possibility. I’ve read of many large blues that will dump a spool of line in under 3 minutes and be gone. We just don’t stick into very many large fish cause we don’t spend enough time out on the shelf. From what we’ve seen the difference between a 150kg fish and a 3-400kg fish is the difference between a whitetail and a bison. Not even close to the same thing.
A few times we’ve had as many as seven lines go down, the best we’ve managed is to land five fish out of seven simultaneous strikes. Yea there is a lot going on and there’s pandemonium on deck when it happens. My sister told my wife I was “bossy” when we had four lines go down. I had to chuckle a little cause yea of course I had to direct traffic. It’s all part of the game and what makes it fun. Hearing line being pulled off a reel at 80-100km/h with that clicker howling is like an IV of adrenaline.