Trolling for fish in blue water

[john_morris_uk]

As we prepare for our Atlantic Crossing and Sailing in the car, we are thinking about our fishing capabilities. Has anyone had any experience of trolling for fish in blue waters? The advice I’m getting is that ideally one need a boat rod and a rather expensive multiplier reel. I appreciate it’s possible to troll with a hand line, but I hear you lose a lot of fish and it’s hard work trying to real them . The idea of the rod was the it takes a lot of the shocks and allows you to mount a proper multiplyer reel. However the reels that are recommended when I do a Google search are rather expensive. I appreciate you need a reel with a bigger capacity for lots of quite heavy weight line but which sort and make of reel is adequate rather than ‘best’. Any other tips?

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Think about the whole process first! Big fish are heavy, strong, violent, crash about and take a lot of killing. Then they release a lot of blood and should you mange to get them cut up, they provide a lot of meat most of which you have to store in a freezer, unless you've got a crew of 20.

In the end we found the whole cost of a proper fishing rig wasn't worth the hassle. Some people never catch a fish anyway, but when we did (just the once) it was a pretty stressful time with the rail mounted antenna and self steering gear feeling very vulnerable. We also didn't have a freezer which made it feel very wasteful as well.

We sold all the fancy gear and bought a handline with very small lures which gave us fish of a manageable size.

 

[Jodel]

Shimano TLD 20 at about £120 or TLD 25 at about £10 more will do you fine.

 

[Goldie]

Crew was an experienced sea-angler, but not experienced at blue water trolling and lost far more fish than were landed - all due to broken tackle. In the end, he ran out of lures but had success using the fingers of a rubber glove and tin foil. I can’t advise on tackle other than it was a multiplier reel and a 5 or 6ft boat rod, but don’t stint on the strength of the line and trace - and take plenty of lures!

 

[Stingo]

Set the lure so that its still in your wake. The theory is that the fish cannot see it clearly, so they go for the strike in panic.

Use bright coloured lures on a dull/overcast day and dull coloured lures on a bright, sunny day.

If you're using a reel with a "clicker", disengage the clicker as soon as you have a strike because a: less resistance when reeling in the fish b: your reel will have less wear and tear

 

[KevinV]

We used a hand reel with a 5 inch pink squid to great effect in the Caribbean. Caught bonito, barracuda and dorado - the former two being easy peasy, the latter "lively".
Killed on deck with booze in the gills - quick and safer than sharp knife around a thrashing big fish, or trying to bludgeon the bugger. Then you can bleed and gut them over the transom.

We used a length of bungee tied to the line and lead round a spare winch to absorb the shock and alert us to the hit - worked really well.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Other tips: I had great success with trawling on a trans Atlantic using fluorescent pink rubber squids for Dorado. We trawled just with rather thick line then hauled in by hand (with gloves). It was quite hard to do for a 4' Dorado. Also take a lot of lures as we did lose a lot. Hence rod would be better.

 

[rotrax]

Google 'Cuban Yo-Yo' and get a big one, a pair of gloves and some lures.

Then hold on tight.......................................

 

[goeasy123]

get this.... Cruisers Handbook of Fishing 2/E (INTERNATIONAL MARINE-RMP): Amazon.co.uk: Bannerot, Scott, Bannerot, Wendy: 8601400009710: Books

We found more success with a cheap yo-yo set up, with a bicycle inner tube for shock absorption, than with a rod and reel.

 

[Stingo]

Make your own lures

 

[john_morris_uk]

get this.... Cruisers Handbook of Fishing 2/E (INTERNATIONAL MARINE-RMP): Amazon.co.uk: Bannerot, Scott, Bannerot, Wendy: 8601400009710: Books

We found more success with a cheap yo-yo set up, with a bicycle inner tube for shock absorption, than with a rod and reel.

Thanks. We’ve actually got a copy of that book and that’s where some of the advice has come from that appears slightly contradictory. (Perhaps I ought to read it again?) They certainly recommend reels and rods rather than yo-yos although they do say a multiplier clamped onto the rail can work.

I thought it was going to be full of practical advice, but a lot of the advice seems to be towards catching bigger and bigger fish. Certainly a lot of reports of very large fish being caught and how to catch bigger fish! We just want small fish that we can eat.

 

[Pete7]

John, I like the older Abu for quality. No need for a new one, something like this will do nicely. If you are sailing at 6 knots with a fish on, you don't really want to stop, so need a reel capable of bringing in a large fish. Same with the rod. The knack is to lift the rod up pulling in the fish then drop it quickly and reel in the slack, rather than trying to winch a medium or large fish in.

Linky Abu 7000

I am left handed so stick with the slightly smaller Abu 6501 series which are LH.

Alternatively, something like this: Log in to Facebook

A short heavy boat rod about 6-7 feet will be fine. Log in to Facebook

See a lot of the YT crowd using a large plastic ring the size of a dinner pulling in fish. Needs gloves to handle the heavy fishing line.

A sharp filleting knife would be useful afterwards along with a set of these to deal with hooks.

Surgical pliers Linky

Find some way of clipping/tie the rod to the boat whilst not being held or it will disappear over the side in a flash.

 

[Pete7]

We just want small fish that we can eat.

Unfortunately even a small fish can take a large lure so there is no way of targeting smaller fish. You just need to reel them in, and have lots of fishy dishes for a while, or turn them into a fish curry for a change

Pete

 

[LiftyK]

Big Jon in the USA used to make a simple but beautifully constructed rail-mounted hand operated downrigger that may have been an easy approach. They only seems to do an upmarket model now. The Gadabout. Nope, that's a fancy bit of kit. I was thinking of something like this: Manual Planer Reel (Clamp-On)

 

[phanakapan]

I had a yo-yo with thick handline on, a bit of bungy elastic to soften the strike, pink squid lures and/ or homemade ones ( caught a small tuna on a tasseled crisp packet), a pair of gloves to haul the line in with, and a bottle of Cape Verde grog (disgusting stuff,) to kill the fish with.

 

[Bajansailor]

The points below have already been mentioned, but I will second them - they worked for us on 2 transatlantics.
We only threw the line out if we wanted fish for supper - and we didn't have to wait long.
Just a simple (but strong) hand line, with a length of strong shock cord to absorb the initial impact when the fish bites.
Alternatively you could lead the line around a spare sheet winch the 'wrong way' so that when the fish hits the lure, it pulls the line out - you need to experiment a bit with how many turns of line to put on the winch.
We literally just had the lure dancing and skipping in the wake, about 1 - 1.5 boat lengths behind.
Small pink squids work well - but we have also caught fish with a bit of rag on a hook - I can see how they would be attracted to a psychedelic crisp packet!

Your 'ideal' catch is probably a small dorado or mahi-mahi - be aware that in the Caribbean these are called dolphins, much to the consternation of visitors who sometimes think that Flipper is on the menu in the restaurant.
Along with a small bonito tuna, as per the fine specimen being shown off by Phanakapan above.
Good potential for home caught sushi....
You can also make ceviche, where the fish is essentially 'cooked' in a marinade of lime juice, soya sauce, and whatever else you like to add to it.

 

[capnsensible]

My top two tips. Keep the boat moving whilst reeling supper in. When it's near the transom, don't be shy with using a gaff to the gills. Otherwise it will wriggle off the hook.

Whilst you are in Gib, you could try the chandlers down in the old dockyard. The manager is an old friend, Simon,. He is probably Gibs best angler and wins competitions. Has also sailed across the Atlantic. His advice is priceless!

I didn't take fishing too seriously on our yacht. All I did was use a couple of jubilee clips to secure a cheapo reel to the wind generator pole. Worked a treat. Plus gaff and filleting knife.

 

[GHA]

Had best success closer to the tropics just with an old green toby.
But never much luck til lat was down near the canaries.

Pressure cooker & some kilner jars vital so you have the worlds best canned tuna. ?

think it's either 50Kg or 80Kg line with a 2m wire trace.

 

[Roberto]

We have a stand-up rod and a Senator 9 reel, lures are rubber squids. On a first Atlantic circuit we caught about one fish a month, on the second one about one fish a day, same kit and roughly same waters, go figure...
Sometimes one can just wonder at the size of the beast as you hear the clicking sound of the reel being madly accelerated during a few seconds before everything is snapped.
Should you want to try the (supposedly) best fresh fish, google "ike jime"; it may seem cruel but if you want to eat fish you have to kill it first, and it's not the worst way.
We ate a lot the sashimi way, though I would not do it again without means to follow the correct procedure against "anisakis", which is essentially the capacity of freezing fish to very low temperatures, we do not have freezer.

We also "fished" a number of high seas birds, they kept on trying and grab the lure and one eventually succeeded; once you reel them in they are quite excited, the best line of defense we found against their beaks was to bring the line in through a a few fenders hung on the stern, so you can approach their paws without danger and set them free.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

From all the mentions of lost lures, I would infer that the use of a trailed log is ill-advised?