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Print versionTrolling for Bass
Talk trolling techniques from small boats and most anglers assume you're discussing foreign gamefish. Few bother to try, but trolling lures is just as devastating this side of the pond as it is in warmer climes. Bass in particular, prove highly vulnerable to worked lures.
It's not localized sport either. Pick any part of the country where bass are caught and providing you locate suitable ground features, you're in with a chance.
SEASON
During April and May, and again from late August to October, bass are close inshore and pretty well preoccupied with bottom feeding. But in June, July and August during long periods of calm, settled weather, the bass move higher in the water and sometimes a little way offshore to feed on sandeels that shoal up over rough ground. These three months are the trollers season.
FISH HOLDING FEATURE
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Begin considering ground very close inshore first. Look to the mouths of estuaries, immaterial of size, as potential holding ground. Ignore large areas of clean sand and even deeper clean ground gullies. You're looking for areas of mussel beds, patches of boulders scoured out by the fast estuary currents, weed beds, or sandbanks that cut deep in to the main tidal flow creating a tide rip with a calm, deep bay on the inner estuary side. Sandeels, and then bass, congregate over the rough ground patches, but are not present on the clean sand.
The exception to the clean sand rule is the shallow sandbank that deflects the tide. Sandeels get swept in to these and are picked off by bass that sit on the edge of the fast passing current just inside the quieter water on the downside of the sandbank.
Moving away from the estuaries, look to the rough ground beaches as your next test area. The place to try trolling is roundabout the low water line of a normal spring tide mark. Ideal ground would be boulders, weed beds, small rocky peaks a few feet high that suffer some tidal run, or a definite dropoff area from very shallow to slightly deeper water.
The best marks of all are reefs, preferably shallow reefs, that are connected to the shore. If these run for any distance in an offshore direction, then at some time they will hold bass. What happens is that bass herd sandeels on to the top of the reef and hold them there by staying below and downtide of them. The bass, now shoaled up and numbering anything from a dozen fish to hundreds, make frequent raids in to the panicking sandeels a few fish at a time. This activity can be clearly seen by frequent splashes on the surface as the bass seize a victim and turn, and by the hoards of screaming and diving terns taking advantage of the chaos.
In all these situations depth is not important from the bass's point of view. They will work around the mouths of estuaries and over inshore rough ground in only a few feet of water. The only criteria here is of boat and crew safety.
Over deep water reefs where you may have 30ft plus of water under the hull you are looking for the peaks of uplifting rock pinnacles. Again, the sandeels are worked towards the peak of these pinnacles with the bass below them.
TIDES
To herd and trap the sandeel, bass need a wall to push them against. This wall is the flowing tide. Small neaps rarely give bass the opportunity. You need to concentrate on the middle to larger spring tides. The peak periods are just before, and just after the highest tides of that cycle.
Both high and low water periods, again because of little tidal flow, are poor. It's the middle hours of the flood and ebb that prove best, in particular the ebb which often produces the bulk of the fish.
Don't expect prolonged feeding bouts. These will only last an hour, maybe a little longer, then the bass move off.
Time of day also plays it's part. Dawn and dusk periods are prime when working ground close to shore. It's less critical offshore, but mid day is less reliable than when the suns rays are at a shallower angle on the seas surface during mid morning and mid afternoon periods. Hazy days when the sun is subdued are excellent, but cloudy days are hit and miss depending on the clarity of the water. You do need a high degree of visibility for real success.
TACKLE
Tackle for bass fishing Tackle is simple. Ideally, a 2-8oz uptider or lighter spinning blank about 10ft long, but with a stiffish action. Get a soft actioned blank and you struggle to set the hook properly in the bass's jaw. Short boat rods of 7ft are just about acceptable but need to be fished from the stern only to keep the line away from other anglers, and on dinghies, the outboard motor. Longer rods keep the lines apart when several people are trolling on the same boat.
Reels need to be multipliers holding 250-300yds of 12 to 15lb line. Fixed spools are not suitable for this type of fishing as reel clutches need to be set precisely to give line the moment a fish hits the lure and turns.
 Troll fishing equipment |
Artificial sandeels such as Redgills and Eddystone's will cover 90% of the fishing. Occasionally, the bass will be choosy and take nothing but 4ins eels, on the next tide they want the bigger 7in eels, rarely will they take eels larger than this.
Colour is also important. The primary taking colours are all white and all black, or a mix of red and black. However, sometimes the bass work in an eccentric manner and demand fluorescent orange, bright yellow, or luminous green. These occasions are rare, but emphasize the need to carry a range of colours. Other good colours to try are all red, and
combination eels with pale bellies and darker backs.
To retain the action of the lure you require minimal weight to be added. For all shallow water fishing you nothing more than a single large swivel. Tie the main line to one eye of the swivel, and a length of 12 to 15lb line about 8ft long to the other, then the eel. In deep water you may need a spiral lead or bullet weight. The spiral are best having the best streamlined shape and are less conspicuous.
Other lures worth considering are the artificial fish with wagging tails like the Shad in the larger 6in sizes and Mr Twister lures between 4 and 6ins long. Again, vary the colours.
Spinners in chrome colouring like ABU Toby's, Dexter Wedges, Ryobi Odin's and the new ABU Trolling Devil can work at times, usually during bright sunlight. Diving plugs can also be excellent, but colour comes in to play with silver and black the best. Jointed plugs outfish single bodied ones. Look to Rapala's, Yo Zuri's, Big S etc.
TECHNIQUE
Know you understand the ground composition you are looking for, the technique is easy. You start well uptide of the ground you wish to cover and to one side. Set the boat up to run at about 1 to 2 knots, no faster. Pick a line that sees the boat pass over the selected ground across, but at a slight downtide angle. This is essential to success. If the lure is trolled swimming slightly in to the tide the bass will ignore the lure. The eel must swim slightly with the tide and across it. One knot of speed is usually the optimum for taking bass, go faster and strikes fall away.
Marks that have little tidal run, areas of rock or mussel beds out in more open water, or ground just out from a rough ground beach can be fished just by trolling in a line along them.
The lures need to be worked between 50 and 100yds behind the boat's stern. Stagger these distances so that each lure is at a different setting. After releasing the lure, hold the rod at right angles to the boat and keep the rod tip low to the water. As a fish takes, the tip simply gets heavier. Just lift the rod and the tightening line sets the hook.
As a fish is hooked it is policy to shout "Fish on", the helmsman should then shut off power and leave the boat to drift naturally with no forward movement while the fish is landed. Those anglers not in to fish at this time should slowly retrieve their eels back towards the
boat.
Any turns by the boat with lures still trolling can produce horrific tangles. It's up to the helmsman to take turns and course alterations very wide and slow. Use the tide to keep the lines to the lures tight, then push beyond and uptide of the ground dropping back to troll under power as before.
SAFETY
Trolling requires permanent vigilance. The helmsman stays solely on the wheel at all times. There are rocks out from rough ground beaches close to the surface, likewise on shallow reefs which should always be borne in mind.
TIPS
When a fish has been hooked and is being played by another angler don't wind your eel in too quickly. A steady retrieve will keep the sandeel well away from the snags but still interest any passing bass. Fish often get hooked in this way.
Sometimes you feel a bass pluck and pull at the tail of the sandeel. This is a sign, that either the bass has seen the lure for the fraud it is, that the size of the eel does not match the size of natural sandeel that the fish are feeding on, or that the colour is wrong. Ring the changes for success.
When working shallow reefs look for the defined line of calm and rougher water that signals the tidal run over the top of the reef. This is where the bass will be and where your lures should be trolled.
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