Attended the Grand Haven Offshore Seminar today - thanks to Willis (Thunderduck), Brian (Sea Flea), Mark (Reel Action), Dave (Best Chance), and Bill (Best Chance).
Was a good seminar and nice to talk and listen to people talk about salmon fishing, especially on such a beautiful day.
Best seminar of the day goes to the Dave and Willis on the topic of directional trolling. Both Thunderduck and Best Chance are big proponents of directional trolling when at all possible especially after the spring bite when trolling deeper than say 50' down.
Spring trolling is still directional trolling but you are more focused on surface currents, and then you transition to deeper water and trolling the down currents. For deep water directional trolling both Best Chance and Thunderduck are legendary for long trolls in one direction. As Willis said "you may see us running back and think we already ahve our limit, sometimes we do but often we are running back to start our troll over."
The two captains use different techniques for determining the direction of troll, with Best Chance utilizing the Fish Hawk and Thunderduck using his intuition and experience at determining how his rod set is running. Both are looking for the same thing.
If you are using a Fish Hawk Dave suggests dropping it down - he looks for the 50-52 degree break to bracket the top of his spread, and then searches for the "too cold" dead zone of 36 - 38 degree water to bracket the bottom. Once in that zone he then determines which way puts his nose into the current, or going against the current which is the optimal direction of troll. He simply leaves the boat at one speed while watching the down speed on the probe and continues to turn the boat until he finds the fastest down speed reading, that indicates when the boat is going up current. Once on that setting he stays on that troll until he leaves the fish, if he's in the fish he may make the long 10 - 15 mile trolls that Best Chance is legendary for.
Now I wish I could describe Willis' technique but it is harder to do as an inexperienced directional troller, I will say that what you are watching is the direction of the rigger wire which indicates which way the ball may be blowing, and also the diver rods to indicate that the boat maybe not heading directly into the current, when one side of the divers is pulling hard back but the other side divers are seemingly not digging as deep that indicates that the boat is cross current to one side or the other.
Every wonder why one side of the boat catches more than another side of a boat? This can be often attributed to the boat not being aligned in the current and making one side of the boat superior to the other.
Both captains indicated that is not always possible to troll into the current, and it may be necessary to cut the current one way or the other. While there are no hard and fast rules to how much to cut the current, the rule of thumb Willis uses is to nudge the boat maybe 5 degrees at a time (with autopilot is possible) and see how things are running and let the fish tell you when you got it in the sweet spot.
Willis made a great observations in regard to listening to general conversations on the radio. Most people ask where you're catching, what color you're using, and how deep you're catching them. Willis said the only question he asks is what direction are you trolling. Both Dave and Willis give much more weight to direction then tackle selection.
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Thanks for the info. Greg , makes a lot of sense. I have always found that trolling one direction has produced more fish than others and now it makes more sense. That is one of the reasons that I don't normally turn around after catching a fish , I like to continue on the same troll direction and maintain the same speed . If I hit a double or triple then I would probably turn back and hit them again but otherwise I just mark the spot on the GPS and continue on and keep marking waypoints and try to establish a pattern of the fish I catch and then I can make a decission to pull and run back and reset a trolling spread from the beginning , using the waypoints I set. This don't mean that I troll exactly straight , I like to make slow S's as I move along and try to see if speed or slight direction changes affect my catch rate and make note of any thing and try to duplicate it again. Good info. to pass along Greg , wish I could have made it over to hear them.
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Dave Engel and Bill Bale of Best Chance will be holding a Super Slmon and Steelhead Seminar on Sunday of the Grand Rapids Fishing Show from 1 - 3. I beleive it's $20, and includes a goody bag. If their presentation at the Grand Haven Seminar indicates anything I'd say it would be a good $20 investment to hear from a team that won 6 times last year, plus numerous 2nd and 3rd places.
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Dave & Bill did a two hour presentation in Lansing today. Some of the material was the same as Grand Haven yesterday, some a little different. They didn't spend as much time talking about current as at the GH event, but did go more into seasonal approach, gear, & techniques. Engle emphasized fishing where there are fish and fishing into the current again. Entry fee was $20 and the material they covered was worth every penny to me. The goodie bag was worth at least $60 retail too.
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