Captain Judy Helmey
Miss Judy Charters
"Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956!"
124 Palmetto Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31410
912 897 4921 or 912 897 3460 fax
www.missjudycharters.com
August 25, 2008
Happy Fish Day!
Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and "Little Miss Judy's story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Send your fishing questions directly to Captain Judy fishjudy2@aol.com
Captain Judy's New Trolling Plan
When it comes to fishing there are always changes to be made in order to get more chances at catching a fish. In my world of fishing I have pretty much have used my father's methods and my own "rule of thumb!" This basically means "the old ways" are mostly used!' When you are such a driven fisherman as me "you know when "the old ways" are no longer the only working factor for catching fish!"
Just to offer up an example: Lets talk a little about trolling with planers for Spanish mackerel. I have always used #1, #2, and #3 planers. Behind these "no matter what size planers" I have always had about 15 to 20 feet of 20-pound test leader to which I tied the spoon directly on to the line. Basically all standard stuff when it came to catching Spanish mackerel. You lose a few spoons "here and there" as well as few larger fish. This size leader isn't real tough and after a few fish landed it definitely develops weak spots. When I used this light leader I was always torn between getting the bite and then landing the fish. I thought that if I used heavier leader that the "fish bite chance" would narrow and just pass me by. Well, the other day I lost 6 spoons in less than and hour while trolling in about 50 feet of water. At first I thought it was barracuda cutting us off, but after a few minutes of observation I realized that it was exactly other large fish types!
What I did next was totally against my fish catching reasoning!
I changed all leaders to 50-pound test monofilament. I kept the same leader length as before. I loaded each size planer with 15 to 20 feet of 50-pound test line. As I tied my small 2 or 21/2 Clark and Drone spoons directly on I just couldn't think too much about it. It flew all over me the fact that I was using such large leader and small spoons. The bottom line to this change was a big one! We then went from loosing spoons to hooking up fish, being able to fight them without the too much fear of breaking them off, and landing them. It clearly was the thing to do!
The moral of this story is, "It's hard to teach an old fisherman new tricks! That is unless they figure it out on their own!"