TROLLING WITH WIRE LINE (SOME IDEAS)

If you are using wire line it is because you need to go deep and can’t get there with the lures or monofilament tackle you are using. In this case wire is the way to go.

Trolling wire line is no big deal, but you must pay attention to details and keep alert. If you’ve never used wire and are going out there to fish and learn by trial and error, I would not recommend it. Read any articles that you can find and compare ideas.

A pair of Rod Riggers is “Must Have” and as you would guess, the E-Z Out-Rodders would be the way to go. They have been tested and compared to the others on the market, you will find these the best and easiest to use. You need to have a good spread on your tackle because you will be sending tackle out a good distance. Probably 150 feet or more and you want to cover as wide an area as possible. If your spread is too narrow you stand a good chance of having a lot of crossovers on turns. Outriggers won’t do because the tackle is usually too heavy for the rigger clip to hold. Putting your rods in the flush mount holders makes your spread too close and since the rods are almost straight up in the air, it adds about 50 feet to your drop back. It is now possible for you Tuna Trollers to use rod riggers too. Our E-Z Out-Rodders have been tested in the Northeast Canyons for Tuna and White Marlin, as well as off the Florida Coast for both Wahoo and Sailfish. In both tests the E-Z Out-Rodders were successful.

Get your boat up to speed. About 4 MPH is a good starting point. Send in your rigs. Umbrella rigs, plugs, spoons, squids or whatever. To do this, drop your lures into the drink and let out the wire. Do it slowly if you are in shallow water or rocky areas because a slack wire line will sink quickly. You’ll need to keep tension on your line while sending it out. One way to do this is to cut back on your reel’s drag and ride it. I don’t like to “ride” the drag. I’d rather have a fish ride it. I press the side of my spool with the fingers of my free hand to keep some tension on the line. Don’t let go if a fish strikes. You may have to thumb the spool with the hand that is holding your pole at this point. If you let go of the side of the spool before thumbing it to keep tension on, you will get a backlash. Backlashes in wire are devastating.

To determine the depth the rule of thumb is, send out 10 feet of wire for every foot of depth. That’s what the colored marks in the wire are for. Remember, the marks are at 150, 200, and 250 feet. This will get you down 25 feet real easy. If you need to get down deeper, which is seldom, you’ll have to let out some of your backing which I avoid as much as possible, slow down (not good because you’ll loose some of the action on your lures) or clip on a drail or other trolling weight. Once your at the depth you want to be at place the rod in the E-Z Out-Rodder.

Then set your drag at about 2 or 3 pounds after your rigs are working properly. The best pro’s are using a light drag, even for tuna. If you consider the speed of the boat, the drag of the line and rigs and that a fish usually rushes the lure and turns away, the 2 or 3 pounds is up in the two digit area. Tight drags tear off too many fish, break rigs, lines and rods. With a light drag, the fish can make his first panic run and tire out a bit. After that first run, I tweak the drag up a bit and start reeling him in. If I’m not making any progress, I’ll keep tweaking it up until I do as long as the fish isn’t still making those long panic runs. You can back off on the drag when the fish is in the danger zone near the boat. I set the drag so when I pull the line off the reel by hand, there is just enough drag to hold the rigs. If you need to speed the boat up to avoid crashing lures into upcoming structure or a boat in the process of cutting you off, and your line starts to run off, your drag is perfect. Just temporarily tighten the drag until the situation clears.

While trolling, you should make turns as wide as possible to avoid crossovers. The crossover dilemma is greatly reduced with our riggers because your line enters the water quickly and your drop back is reduced by as much as 50 feet. Since your line is in the water so much closer to your boat, there’s not as much free line in the air which crosses over very easily. The water tends to keep the lines separated much better than air! Sometimes, tight turns can’t be avoided due to wind speed, current speed, in a tightly packed fishing fleet.