I'm just getting into trolling and was wondering what you guys do when all of a sudden the fish decide to quit biting. It's almost like someone hit a switch and they are done. I know the fish are still down there around the baitfish because I can see them on the sonar. I have changed colors of spoons, changed from spoons to flasher/flys, to plugs. I change speed and direction and nothing seems to help. After about 45 min. of this I normally go to my bobbing hole and throw out the anchor. Other boats in the area have the same problem and we all end up leaving in disgust. Is there a secret lure we need to buy or a prayer we need to learn? Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.
Yooper
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the common school of thought is "out and down" meaning to get into deeper water and send the baits down deeper as well. This will work sometimes. other things you mentioned, trying different colors and such, especially if the conditions have changed, like more direct sunlight. Another thing that has worked for me is to just hang on the fish if you see them on the sonar. Eventually, they will turn back on. They don't feed continuously, they need some time to digest I guess, so at some point, if you are on them, they should turn back on. Who knows how long that could be, 1 hour or 5 hours or whatever. One other small thing would be to slow down if you are on fish that just won't bite. If you know they are there, hang your baits in their faces longer to go for the aggression strike. If you lost the fish and they are gone, try speeding up to look for them. Once you find them, either biting or find them on the sonar, then adjust to see if you can get them to bite. All that being said, there are just some days its better to head back to the dock and wash the boat and be social with the dockmates.
www.salmonheadcharters.com
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the one thing I will stress in fishing after the initial bite has slowed or stopped is - don't fall into the trap of switching averything up and then not have your goto productive stuff in the water when the bite turns back on.
I'm not saying not to switch up stuff - I am saying keep your spread in mind to make sure you have productive baits in the water for the conditions. Then be patient and hunt for fish and use your electronics - keep working until you find active fish again. Paul makes some good suggestions - in my case I might changed the target species and switch to a steelhead program when the king bite slows and move out into deep waters for that species. Probably catch some kings in the mix anyway and I might troll my way out to the deeper water seeing if the kings have slid out also.
Some days the bite never turns back on - keep that in mind - and be as productive as you can be when the fish are on the bite.
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It is very important to distinguish if the fish have turned off or just quit you or your area. The way I figure that out is networking. I will talk to local boats as well as up and down the lake, if they are off the bite you are better off changing your shorts than your set up!! It does not matter who you are or what you do when they shut down you must be patient. As my buddy Chip Klein says don't worry it will happen. If something else is going on you need to change. Always check around with people you can trust just don't listen to a hot report on the radio. Capt. Willis
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Thanks for the good ideas guys, I'll give them a try this season. The scenario I talked about happens all the time to me at more or less the same time of day (11 a.m. to noon).
A couple follow-up questions:
I normally troll at 2.1 mph for trout and around 2.5 mph for salmon. When you guys slow down for an aggression strike, is it a dramatic difference in speed or a small one?
Based on what I've been reading on this site I have come up with a couple standard spreads for sunny and darker days. Do you guys have a standard time frame for trolling your standard setup before you change some things around (assuming that you can see fish on the sonar and they are not biting)?
Thanks again. Yooper
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I will get down to low to mid 1's at times while trying to hang the bait in a fish's face. I dont always stay there, but when the graph indicates I am ON fish, I will kick to neutral and wait for the rods to straighten up and almost stop forward progress, and then kick it back into gear. other times, I will be trolling at mid 2's and hook up and toss some trolling bags in the water to slow down to get the fish in, and hook up multiple fish at the slower speed. In the fall, during harbor patrol in the muddy water, I will troll in the upper 1's quite a bit trying to hang the baits in the fish's faces
www.salmonheadcharters.com
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Hey Yooper, Alot of times after say 10 am meat rigs will work when other stuff seems to have slowed down. Now I make and sell meat rigs so this looks bad but on a nice sunny day and your just cruising around they will keep going sometimes. We have had boats circle us because we keep hitting fish and they want to know why. Just to be fair PM me your address and I will send you a couple that are deadly on a mid day cruise. Good luck
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