SPORTFISHINGMAG.COM 77My preference is for heavy 50- to
65-pound PowerPro that can stand up
fairly well to oyster-encrusted docks
and bridge pilings. Three to 4 feet of
60-pound or 80-pound fluorocarbon
will provide adequate leader length
for most conditions. Even longer
leader lengths can be an advantage
when leadering a fish, and provide
some additional abrasion resistance.
The trade-off, however, is more of that
thick-diameter leader makes for more
drag in the water, which can corrupt
a plug ’s swimming action. Depending
on the lure used and the depths fished,
along with the speed and direction of
current, I place a plug between 30 and
200 feet behind the boat.
Troll shallow-lipped plugs farther
from the boat, say 120 to 200 feet back.
Keep deep divers closer, roughly 30 to
120 feet behind the boat when depths
range from 6 to 20 feet.
While I’ve had equal success using
spinning and conventional tackle, I’m
more comfortable trolling with spin-
ning tackle on my flats boat. For me,
spinning rods make it easier to deploy
plugs in the dark without running the
risk of backlashes. In some cases, such
as where rivers narrow near bridges,
we’ll need to spin the boat around
quickly to circle back to the bridge.
Casting the plugs a good distance back
behind the boat well in advance is
crucial, so the plug is at the correct
depth and speed by the time it enters
the strike zone.
In the confines of a flats boat I troll
only two rods — heavy 30- to 50-pound
spinning rods with Shimano Stella
10000 reels. Unless I’m alone and have
to use a rod holder for the second rod,
I always hold the rod when trolling
for several reasons. First off, you get
to feel the strike. Secondly, the plugs
vibrate, and if a piece of debris is picked
up you usually can feel it and clear the
lure with a few strong ripping motions,
and if not, reel it in. Finally, it can be
a bit tricky removing a rod from the
holder when the boat is underway and
the rod is bent over with the force of a
running fish. If a snook strikes and runs
for cover, your response time when
holding the rod is far less.
However you troll, be conscious of
your surroundings. It can be a chal-
lenge watching trolling rods in the
dark of night while staying alert for
boat traffic and checking the depth
sounder. However, there have been
countless times when the bottom
came up rapidly on the sonar and
I had to quickly pull the lure closer to
the boat to hook fish (versus bottom)
along those drop-offs and ledges.
Tom Greene, owner of Tom
Greene Custom Rod and Gun in Fort
Lauderdale, is a veteran southeastTWEAKING DIVING PLUGS
If you are using a lure that isn’t running correctly, maybe wandering to the left or right or popping
out from the surface, then tune it to swim in a straight line. To do this, carefully bend the lure’s metal
eye ring in a direction that counters the direction in which the lure is swimming. For example, if a
lure is swimming to the left and pops out from the water, then bend the eye of the lure to the right.
And conversely, if the lure is swimming to the right, bend the eye slightly to the left.
Hold the lure firmly in your hand and, without twisting the eye, bend the eye ring over to the left
or right with a pair of pliers. A little bend in the eye can make a big difference in the way the lure
tracks. For the same reason, I prefer not to use snaps or snap swivels when trolling lures because
the weight of the snap sometimes upsets the delicate action of a lipped lure.Florida snook guru. He swears that
holding and “working ” the rod while
trolling will almost always outcatch
straight dead-pulling a plug from a rod
holder. He tabulated on one outing that
he had three times as many strikes while
holding and working a plug compared
to another angler who left his rod in
the rod holder. They were running the
exact same plugs on the same rod, reel
and line combinations.TIDE AND CURRENT
Trolling against the current tends to
raise diving plugs higher in the water
column; paying out more line helps
the lure run deeper. In some instances,
a deep-diving plug can require up to
200 feet of line to keep the lure running
near the bottom in 10- to 12-foot depths
when the water is moving at 3 to 4 knots.
During those times, I turn to Smith’s
strategy of slowing down the revolutions
per minute so the boat almost seems to
be holding in place in the current.
Trolling with the current requires
less scope to keep the lures down. Find
the “sweet-spot” speed/rpm where theNice bycatch! Gag grouper aren’t unusual in
the Intracoastal Waterway in South Florida,
as the International Game Fish Association’s
Jack Vitek proved on this fall evening.