elhewman
2011-04-12 21:54:53
How possible is it to do well with 4 sport rods solo? Seems with four lines in the water clusters would be inevitable. Do you use down riggers, or is that legal in hand troll? Seems that would cause more trouble if solo. Though I plan on having deckhand buddies here and the what is the best way to fish solo? Want to learn to catch salmon better and perhaps get a little cash to pay fuel. Don't want to wear and tear my body up reeling in 25lbs of lead. A good day of sport fishing exhausts me but does not injure me. Hand trolling with sport rods seems more pleasurable then with commercial rigging but probably not profitable even for an expert.
Salty
2011-04-13 01:34:20
Fishing with rods can be very profitable, particularly compared to hand cranking. Rod fishing will not usually compare to power trolling. But there are times, particularly in June and early July when catching big kings on rods can be very productive.
You can not use downriggers in the spring and summer fisheries. I often fished two rods at a time. Rod fishing can also be very productive for fall coho. Nothing like being anchored for a "nap" and hearing your reel sing and then the splash of a nice one on your line as you are struggling to wake up.
steffco
2011-04-13 01:51:56
You may mootch or jig with up to 4 rods. Landing the fish by yourself can be the tricky part with a rod. You may have to use a landing net which will knock some scales off and might #2 your fish. With a properly set up HT gurdy you may be able to get by with only using a 20# lead and just running a couple of rigs per side. You will need to tailor your fishing drags to the shallower areas though. I am sure you can figure out what you can make work for you, no two folks do it exactly the same. Good Luck
been there done that with the "nap"thing!
elhewman
2011-04-13 02:36:06
So it sounds like trolling is for gurdies but one must jig or mooch with rods. Looks like I need to find a rule book.
Salty
2011-04-18 15:23:31
You can troll with up to four rods. You just can not connect them to a downrigger in the Spring and Summer. Nothing quite like trying to steer and battle several fish on different rods at the same time. Rod fishing for salmon is usually a bait fishery. Learning to roll a whole herring or a cut plug is almost essential to successful rod fishing here in SE.