deeper trolling

[Cast4golD]

Hi larry. I´ll bother you again since i cannot find a way to troll a deep running crankbait beyond the 60 feet mark. We troll deep rocks that hold real lunker sized Dorados in the upper Paraná. The thing is that the better way for triggering strikes is to litterally scatch the rocks with the lip of your lures. I have custom made cranks with huge polycarbonate lips that are a pain to calibrate, but they can be forced to dive to 55 feet. When trolling deeper depths, the lure only touches the upper part of the rocks, and i can´t get them to dive to the base of them, when the biggest fishes are. Since jigging is virtually impossible due to the current speed, i tried several methods, including monstruos Storm swimbaits wheighted up to 500 grams, with no success.
In order to achieve more depth, i spool up my reels with 20 pound PowerPro, but miss a lot of strikes since i have to calibrate the drags very light in order not to cut my line and i cannot achieve a decent hookup pressure on those settings.
It´s impossible to use downriggers because the blade disconnects to the lure when it hits the rocks. Wheighted line such as copper or tungsten cored would force me to use a huge reel.
Do you have any ideas about this? I´m thinking in some kind of fixed wheight connected to the line a couple of metres away from the lure to avoid interfering with it´s action, but this seem very impractical when landing the fish since the wheight will force me to leave a lot of line out when landing the fish and you know how difficult can be to handle an angry 40+ pound dorado or a huge surubi cat with 6 hook points swinging in the air.
I´ll appreciate any advice.
Bruno.

[Jeremy Damgaard]

Hi Bruno,
I can't speak for Larry and I could be very wrong but this may work. Have you ever heard of Off Shore Tackle Snap Weights? It's a very simple system. It allows you to attach a weight anywhere on your line. As you reel in the fish and you come to the weight simply un-clip it and continue to reel. It sounds like you may need heavy weights and maybe even a heavier duty snap than what is available at Off Shore but I think the theory is sound . Maybe you can rig something similar. Just a suggestion. I dream of fishing for Dorados! You are in Fishing Nirvana!!!

Jeremy

[Cast4golD]

Thank you Jeremy. I have to try one of those. The thing is: How to unclip the wheight when you´ve got a fish on??? Losing tension when fishing big dorados equalles losing your fish!
A lot of clients tell me that dorados are just the very best freshwater fish out there. I agree!
If you ever come to argentina i´ll guide you for free.
Bruno.

[Jeremy Damgaard]

Wow! Thanks for the invitation Bruno! The clips come off the line VERY quickly but you may need someone in the boat with you to un-clip them while you keep tension on the fish. It's difficult to say how well this would work on Dorado because of their strength and tenacity. I've used them on Walleyes (not even close to a Dorado!), Lake Trout, Muskies and Northern Pike with success. I know you can get weights up to 8 oz. from Offshore Tackle. Be sure to check out www.offshoretackle.com. Maybe they can give you some tips??? Good fishing to you!!

Jeremy

[Anders]

You might be able to place an inline sinker (trolling sinker) about six to ten feet in front of the crank bait. We use this trolling for rock fish off the east coast of Virginia in water up to 80 ft. They are common in sizes up to 24 ounces and I'm sure you could get 28, 32, 36, or even 48 if you look hard enough. This would enable you to get down deeper and not have to unclip the weight. I don't think you will find unclipping the weight a problem though because I know the guys who fish off shore unclip planers all the time on bill fish, tuna and wahoo. It might be troublesome the first few times but you will eventually get the hang of it. You gotta try something to get the big ones. You cant get them at all now, if you only get one out of ten with these techniques you will be better off. Good Luck

Anders

[Cast4golD]

Thak you guys. I´ve been looking to this sistems, and i think they might work,I´ll be trying soon.
The other issue i forgot to comment is that the lure has to mantain it´s vertical attitude in order to hit the rocks with the lip. Otherwise, it hangs up almost for sure, and it´s very difficult to recover it. I have to make sure that attaching the wheight won´t modify that.
I´ll be testing this methods very soon. Great fishing these days. I ran out of Rapala magnums!
Bruno Saccone.
fishingargentina.net

[dahlberg]

hi cast
The best way I know to accomplish what you're trying to do is to rig with 20 or 30 lb stranded trolling wire and pull the deepest diving lures you can find.
I've scraped bottom in 85 feet using it with a Manns stretch 30.
Wire allows you to accelerate when needed without sacrificing depth because it doesn't create lift like sinkers do.
I'm assuming speed and bottom contact with the lure are important components to get bites.
If speed and contact is not totally critical, you might try trolling large, thin spoons on 3-way rigs with as much lead as needed to get down.
similar to how we fish 150 feet deep for lake trout.
The methods I'm suggesting all are designed to get you as deep as possible with the minimum length of line out so you can keep better track of where you lure is running.
When using wire, a simple reel with a fairly large dia spool is best.
Ceremic guides ok. roller tip is nice. shorter rod, stiff, but full flex to absorb shock. Always fish with the clicker on to avoid backlashing the wire!
Might be good to wear a seat belt if trolling with wire for 40 lb dorado!!
best,
L

[Brad S]

[quote="dahlberg"]hi cast

-----shorter rod, stiff, but full flex to absorb shock.
best,
L[/quote]


Larry

Sounds like a Trevala to me, would this be a good choice?

Brad

[Cast4golD]

Brad, we are currently using custom 7´ glass blanks with a lot of progression in order to read the bottom and what happens with the lure with the tip of the rod. Thde biggest dorados have the bad habit of tasting the lure before a full hit. They snap the head of the victim with a quick bite and then swallow it. If you troll with the rod in a holder and the dorado bytes, when it releases the lure continues to swim, so they dont attack it. You have to fish with a reel with thumb clutch, and when you feel that your lure has been ´kissed´by a fish you have to disengage the spool an let a few feet out. Probably, if your timing was correct, when you reengage the spool and the line recovers it´s tension, you´ll have the most massive strike ever experienced. Then, full throttle to achieve hookup pressure and several hooksets as strong as you can. You´ll never lose a fish on the run since it´s head is pointing opposite of you. When you loose tension while bringing the fish in... bye bye!
Larry, thanks for you reply. I´ll be trying wire and my custom cranks to scrath the bottom. I dont think that spoons will work, since i think they detect the lure by vibrations and sound, but i´ll try it as well.

Best wishes, Bruno.