questions for bluekayak.

what kind of rod/reel do you use for salmon trolling. why.

how often do you mooch vs. troll. why

how do you find the fish.

how many salmon did you catch this year and how many trips.

thanks bro.

-j

pssst, John    

stuart's article is good. I have read it 10 times and that will be my basis for my
first attempt at salmon fishing next summer. basically if I find hungry fish and
put a decent lure in front of them, I should get a hit. I have some confidence now
thanks to this summer fishing and reading that article.

but there's always more than one way to skin a cat. Like this C-level guy says don't feed
the halibut line, they could spit it out, and he's the best halibut fisherman there is, but everybody else
says feed line.

So it's good to hear all the opinions. Even from the cranky old trouble making guys. like scwafish. 
I also hope to get you in as much trouble as possible. Better you than me,  .  Guys like me
could use the odd lighting rod around if you know what I mean.

I now have the long fast boat with a big hatch (salmon spear) and mostly everything else.
a couple more safety items might be good. I guess,  . Like anti-whitey depth charges... 

Maybe a longer rod would be good because I've setup a trolling tube pointing straight back from behind my
seat. A 7 foot rod gets just past the rudder. I don't want my line getting hung up in my rudder
if I drift back or something.  I also want the rod to be cheap in case none of this works out or
I want to cut some off the butt end cause I don't want a long handle in the kayak. cabelas has 10 foot
eagle claw rods for $20. looks good to me.

that's what really provoked me to ask you these questions. The long rod appeals and I knew you used one.

please tell me more about the line test you use and how much weight you troll with and about this 10.5 foot rod.

answer when you can, thanks.

  mirror + clicker?

.

For years I fished 8 - 12 lb test for big salmon and much bigger stripers on the back of surf at HMB, you cant beat it

I'm a big fan of light line fishing! Blue, is there a specific brand of line that you use? Mono or Fluorocarbon?

Stuart got me convinced to use 20# Power Pro braided line and I just connect it (uni to uni knot) with 10 ft. of 15# Seaguar fluorocarbon line. So far, this set-up has not failed me. If I decide to fish for rockfish, I'll just cut off the 10 ft. of fluoro line and replace it with a heavier weight = usually 20# of the same type and brand.

I'm cheap, therefore I use mono for both topshot and leaders.

Bought a small spool of flouro once, but I doubt if it makes a difference for rockfish, salmon or halibut.

Stuart

I got a spool of 40lb yozuri hybrid and a spool of 25lb yozuri hybrid. more like mono than flouro,
but supposedly with some advantages of flouro. but it's about as cheap as mono.
that's what I use for leaders and topshot both. I landed
enough quality fish this first summer kayak fishing in earnest
that I will just stick with this for the future.

Can we discuss trolling rod placement a bit more?

Stuart says he just uses a flush mounted rod holder behind the seat. he says he can
feel the hit, doesn't get to see missed strikes, but in general that works.

the mechanical advantages of having the rod straight back for trolling seem big to me.

if the rod is at the back of the boat and centered, it will help keep the boat straight.

I'm using a plastic tube fixed at an angle in a small crate (old cooler) strapped into the tankwell
(yea blue, I have a one-hatch scupper pro, I know you like the two hatches).

I also have a rudder to help going straight, but I'd like that to not be a requirement.

so I'm going to do that and just look back, get a mirror, and/or turn on the clicker so I hear
if lI get hit.  I plan to use lures not bait for trolling. The pro-troll watermelon version of the
apex (they say it has better action at slower speeds) is what I have and what I'll use to start.
I also have a 1oz kroc that I can try.  I might also try an RSK with a swimbait in it instead of bait.

For mooching, I'll use bait. I have had good luck with circle hooks so I have some
confidence in them.

blue, comments on trolling rod placement and/or lures vs bait?

blue that's cool, I don't take advice direct anyway, but I like to hear as much as I can.

The contrast between what this cobra kayak fishing pro c-level says about halibut and
what others say is a good example.

It's really good when you get two guys that are both successful but do it completely
different. That can be confusing for awhile but it helps me
figure out what matters and what doesn't.

there's many ways to skin a cat, I just have to find some comfortable way that works and
go fish. If I have success I'll probably just stick with it until something drastic makes me change.

so just tell me how you do it if you will, I'll compare that to all the other stuff I hear and go
with some combination that works for me.

thanks

hey, thanks for the answers and photos!

yeah, with it behind me I'll probably lose a few fish. I won't
get to the rod quick enough.

Seems like I'm optimizing for paddling, but not catching.  But since I
expect to do more paddling than catching that might be okay.
hmm... maybe I paddle till I lose my first fish while trolling, then
mooch. 

why doesn't the clicker idea work? fish can't pull out enough
line for the clicker to alert you? the release goes and then
there's slack line? something else?

regarding the line counter,
how much line do you typically have out? do you use a system
with the line counter?

paul,

you mean linecounter/1.41421356237309504880,  .

or linecounter/cosine(angle_from_straight_down*pi/180.)

mongo know math.

I guess I'm asking what kind of depth you try to troll at.

I'm gonna have to do the "pull" thing where you pull out the line
with your hand, I won't have a linecounter next year.
(But I almost had a fishfinder...  ).

I went to get some 24oz balls so I can mock up my arrangement
on dry land this weekend. I said I wanted to troll for salmon off
a kayak. They said, do you know this dude, Paul, paddles a blue kayak...

you are famous!

paul,

you mean linecounter/1.41421356237309504880,  .

or linecounter/cosine(angle_from_straight_down*pi/180.)

mongo know math.

I guess I'm asking what kind of depth you try to troll at.

I'm gonna have to do the "pull" thing where you pull out the line
with your hand, I won't have a linecounter next year.
(But I almost had a fishfinder...  ).

I went to get some 24oz balls so I can mock up my arrangement
on dry land this weekend. I said I wanted to troll for salmon off
a kayak. They said, do you know this dude, Paul, paddles a blue kayak...

you are famous!

Actually, the line forms an arc as it goes down, with the greatest angle at the surface and smallest angle at the weight, so you'd have to account for that to get more than 1 significant figure.   

curve a catenary?

blue needs to tell us depth still.

I think he lost patience, 

I'm wondering what your system for trying different depths is?

Do you have a go-to depth that you start with?

When do you switch depths?

If I don't get a little guidance, I'm going to have zero confidence in
whatever depth I choose.

thanks!

So here's why a fish finder might come in handy for some, find the bait balls and that's most likely what depth the fish are at.  Here's a cool video I came across earlier this morning ...

Notice the salmon slashing through the baitballs?

-Allen