Trolling for fish off the back of the boat

[MILLPOND]

I would appreciate tips as to how to catch fish off the back of the boat whilst cruising off the Devon coast.

Is cruising at 5 knots too fast? Is a simple spinner adequate? Where is best - offshore or close to the coastline in shallower water?

Thanks!

 

[Sgeir]

Well, I'm no expert, but we usually fish for and catch mackerel when we're "out" for a few days. I'd guess that 3-4 knots is about as fast as you want when trolling. Simple spinners, even hooks with just a some silver paper wrapped around are fine. My only tip would to be buy a ParaVane (trade name) that planes the lures in deeper waters. If you don't fancy buying one, perhaps someone on PBO could show you how to make one with stuff recovered from the skip.

 

[Tranona]

You can buy ready made lines with 6 hooks decorated with coloured ribbons and a weight on the end. Works fine. The weight keeps it down when trolling at under 5 knots, although a paravane is a good idea as it shows when you have hooked something. However, in my experience you only catch when you hit a shoal and you can feel the difference in the weight on the line. Exciting if all hooks are successful at once.

 

[Matador]

Hello, last weekend on the way back from the Yealm to St Germans we caught 5 mackerel and 1 pollock using a handline with a single spinner, as been mentioned a large weight is useful, keeps the line down. 5 knots is about as fast as mackerel can swim, we were motorsailing at about that speed. Made some mackerel pate, delicious! Good Luck.

 

[KellysEye]

5 knots is fine for mackerel. Buy swimming lures (they have a metal plate on their chin) about 4 to five inches long in a range of different colours. The reason for the different colours is different fish take different coloured lures at different times of year. For example east of Gibraltar we were towing a red and silver lure and a blue and yellow one all the mackerel took the blue and yellow. You don't need a paravane all fish, except flat fish, come to the surface if they see swimming food.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

you have a number of options and it depends what fish you are going for. IMO mackerel is only fit for my cab pot as bait, but if you are odd and like it, then you can troll for mackerel using a paravane thingy and with the lure maybe 8 ft behind that. The lure is usually an imitation small fish since mackerel arent veggies. Best be down at 2 to 3 kn. You will have far less success at 5.

Alternatively, you can heave to at some suitable sea bed feature and using a rod and some feathers, jig them up and down. Weight on the bottom of the bait, drp it down towards the sea bed and then move the rod up and down. If you drop the bait to just a few feet above bottom you stand a chane of getting pollack which are much nicer.

Caught a bass yesterday off the stern of the boat using prawn as bait just off the bottom. But I'm very much a beginner knowing just enough to realise that there is as much skill and knowledge in fishing as there is in sailing the boat. So a few tips on here wont be the holy grail - if you want to learn how, you'll have to put some effort in and spend some dosh. Or youcan settle for just mackerel

 

[bjl]

You're not odd if you enjoy mackerel. If you catch some mackerel then you should try them and make your own judgement.

 

[Searush]

You're not odd if you enjoy mackerel. If you catch some mackerel then you should try them and make your own judgement.

So fresh they curl up in the pan!! Fabulous meaty fish & full of Omega3 too. Heads are fine for the traps tho. The great beauty of them is that you don't need to interrupt or delay your passage to catch them.

 

[MILLPOND]

Thanks all for the advice. I will try feathers and a weight. Presumably I want to let out enough line for the feathers to be a reasonable depth below the surface - but how far below?

And as far as mackerel are concerned, I agree with Searush and bjl - great fish! Grilled or pan fried with a squeeze of lemon juice...

 

[nigelmercier]

I've just chucked away a nasty hand-reel of fishing line, like you get with a kite. Has anyone seen a stubby rod with a reel for this purpose?

 

[[70521]]

you have a number of options and it depends what fish you are going for. IMO mackerel is only fit for my cab pot as bait,

You sound just like my mum until I came back from my first climbing holiday to Arran where I had some amazing smoked and unsmoked mackerel. I had to bring some back and she loves the stuff now.

 

[Searush]

This is what we tend to use (with a trace of 6 feathers & a 400g weight)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HANDLINE-SEA-SIDE-FISHING-CRAB-MACKEREL-LINE-HARPER-CARDOC-5C-TOP-QUALITY-rmp2-/280888610775?hash=item4166440fd7

View attachment 33414

You do need a decent length of line tho if travelling at 5kts otherwise it just skitters along the surface. Depth is important, but depends on where the sand eels or whatever are that the mackerel are hitting. Keep an eye open for large flocks of gulls hovering & diving over loads of tiny splashes. they are all in a feeding frenzy & towing a trace thro that lot will get something on every hook.

headlands & overfalls are good spots to find mackerel, but take care, having to haul in 200m of line with six hooks & three or four angry thrashing fish on the end tends to disrupt the cockpit whereby sail handling & steering can become compromised. :0

 

[nimbusgb]

If you do buy a 'paravane' the loads on the line become quite 'interesting' above about 3 knots. At 6 knots the line was stripping off against the reel brake!

 

[Quandary]

Paravanes are easy to make, think of a crude kite flown the other way up. Piece of wood about 7" x 3"x 1/2". Tie hole at the back with about 2m. of line to bait. Two or three holes in line from about 1/4 way back from front, use the forward one if going quicker, use those further back to go deeper at slow speeds. More stable if you taper the back edge and round off the corners of the leading edge but not essential, a bit of instability is good as it swoops about a bit like a fish. Bought ones are heavier with fins to stabilize etc. but the tail line to the bait will do that well enough if it has a bit of drag. It will flip up to the surface as soon as a mackerel takes it. You need a fairly strong line if you are going more than 4-5 kts.

 

[MASH]

Plus there are plenty of fish in the sea apart from mackerel.

Try a decent size pike plug in a shiny colour. 5 kts is probably fast enough or the fish seem to spot the scam...

 

[nigelmercier]

This is what we tend to use (with a trace of 6 feathers & a 400g weight)

That's what I just threw out! The line gets tangled as soon as you have used it.

Or should I say, the line gets tangled as soon as I have used it.

 

[prr]

IMO mackerel is only fit for my cab pot as bait.

But I'm very much a beginner knowing just enough to realise that there is as much skill and knowledge in fishing as there is in sailing the boat. [/QUOTE]


These things get tangled around other crafts props & others (MENTIONING NO NAMES) are very quick to blame a professional, licensed organization 'The British Fisherman'
If you want to be fisherman get the proper training and then you can get a license!..... I'm not talking about the odd bit of fishing with feathers.

 

[Searush]

That's what I just threw out! The line gets tangled as soon as you have used it.

Or should I say, the line gets tangled as soon as I have used it.

You need to have at least one person totally focussed on winding it up. Pulling it hand over hand into the cockpit is a complete disaster. We usually have a small child hauling it in & a responsible adult winding & controlling the small child's enthusiasm. Bear in mind that "small child" covers all ages from 8 to 80, depending on the individual's attitude. Great fun.

 

[lenten]

mackeral are very easy to catch if you are in an area thick with them and i don t doubt that any previous methods mentioned will work-----but if you in an area where they are a bit thin try a paravane----you can set it for various depths and experiment----for simplicity tie a small spoon 2 fathoms behind it----do not catch more than you can eat as mackeral aparently die even if you return them alive ------good luck-----ps when i was fishing for mackeral in a thin area i used 3 and 5 pound weights at about 2-3 knots trailing 4 lines behind me

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I've just chucked away a nasty hand-reel of fishing line, like you get with a kite. Has anyone seen a stubby rod with a reel for this purpose?

I sometimes use a stubby rod with a reel; they are called kayak rods; perfect for the yacht