Hand trolling for chums
Homeshore
2013-07-03 16:41:26
Just put in my first few weeks hand trolling for chums.
I'd like to let other hand trollers know that it's not as brutal as it sounds, and what I've learned so far.
I fish out of a 24ft aluminum skiff with davits.
The boat has three half-totes with brailer bags that are plumbed into the wash down pump.
The totes can be quickly flooded and drained by turning remotely mounted valves.
The totes hold a little over 1,000 pounds of fish, which is around 145 dogs. The boat will still get up on step with a full load of slushed fish (130 Honda outboard). I burn 5 to 8 gallons of gas per day.
I run 25lb balls, 1.5 fathom stops, and 11 flashers per side.
One fathom of 130# mono from snap to flasher, 18" of 80# mono from flasher to bug. 7/0 rusty blued hook.
My line voltage is .83v, and I haven't tried adjusting it yet.
On a good day, I can fill the boat in one incoming tide swing. Provided I have a deckhand.
When fishing alone, a lot of the fish get off before I can run all the gear, so it takes much longer to catch a full load.
Yes, you will be tired at the end of the day. It's no more difficult than cutting a load of firewood.
The hand cranking is about 25% of the work. I find the hoisting/conking/unhooking to be more tiring. Not to mention the thousand trips to the wheelhouse for course corrections when fishing alone.
Stay away from the fleet whenever possible. Small boats don't track very well in wind and current.
After delivering fish, turn your brailer bags inside out and hang them over the side. They will be spotless by the time you are home.
Make sure all your brailer bags have tag lines, and you know exactly how much ice you need.
Try for the fastest and smoothest fish delivery possible, and the tender will be happy to see you next time.
That's all I've learned so far.
I am having trouble with fish getting off, or tearing off.
I tried snubbers, but my catch rate went way down.
Any ideas?
Abundance
2013-07-06 16:00:03
Excellent, excellent information. Practically all of it applies to power trollers too. I believe you sold in front of me one day. I was awed by how many fish you had in that boat. This was my first time at Homeshore, and my biggest learning point was, check the gear often. I consistantly had 50-75% of my partners, until I decided on my last day to just hual away as fast as I could. I doubled my partner. These smaller chums and all the thousands of pinks clog the gear before you know it, without giving much of a jerk on the springs. I still had my best June in my career income wise, and to a Prince of Wales kid, being in the the area of Glacier Bay is just too awesome. Pulled the boat up to Brady Glacier one day. First time I've ever been that close to 8,000+ foot mountains. Definitely going to do this next year.
mswkickdrum
2013-07-10 04:33:33
Could you please repost or move this to the getting started area? This has to be one of the best ” what exactly you do” posts I ever seen on here. For someone with only rudimentary knowledge of how to troll, this gives the most informative picture in one's mind of what happens for someone that may be considering getting into this fishery. Both from rigging gear to how many fish a guy can catch. I don't think I have ever seen anyone post ” this is where I went, this is what I used, how I used it, and how I did” you even posted your voltage so new guys could have a reference point. I love that its a new handtroller posting a clear concise ”how to”. People have bought boats from old guys to get started and got less info then you posted. Thanks for posting the summary of your first few weeks. I hope your season goes great!
MSW
Hans2
2013-07-10 15:58:20
+1 to what MSW said. Excellent information without giving out GPS co-ords. I would very much like to see pics of your setup if you don't mind - PM if you like. Very impressed with what I imagine your layout to be.
I fully expected this to be a "worst experience of my life" thread based on the title. Thank you for the great, positive, post!
Hans
Salty
2013-08-01 17:34:21
I have written two long replies to this post and deleted them because of the insipid negativity in them.
I think it is wonderful that a guy can make money hand trolling chums. As a 6 year handtroller and former representative of hand trollers during the hand/power troll battles of the late 70's I have always been an advocate for handtrolling.
On the other hand I have become a strong advocate for ergonomic troll systems and high quality troll salmon. Hand trolling massive amounts of relatively low value pinks and chums does not make ergonomic sense to me. But then cleaning mass quantities of relatively low value small coho does not make quality, economic, or ergonomic sense to me either. I am sure the troll fleet could deliver a better quality bled, immediately chilled, daily delivered round coho, than the majority of the dressed coho we are producing this year. Think of how much better you could do either hand or power trolling if you didn't have to dress coho. Think how much better your and your crew's hands would do.
Hans2
2013-08-01 19:49:03
Never known you to have too much unjustified negativity, Eric - would still be interested in hearing what you had to say.
Abundance
2013-08-01 23:20:41
What would you have him do, Mr. Jordan? If I was handtrolling out of Hoonah, you can bet I would have been out there. I am reasonably sure you would have too. I am pretty sure that I saw this fellow unload, and he his product was better then a number of the power trollers. His system seemed really efficient too. I believe a degree of extra difficulty is inherent to handtrolling, but that isnt going to change. Well written and delineated guides like this help handtrollers be as efficient as they can be. Only a fraction of the handroll permits are being used, even less are professionals. You would probably become "sympathy crippled" if you looked at my ungainly system for ergonomic condition. Its what I've got. It may cost me a bit in fish and comfort, but I cannot just go get something different. I know you mean well, but I would have thought you would be more pleased by this.
lone eagle
2013-08-04 03:35:02
I wonder if there is any data on quality...shoreside dressing v onboard. I've never been convinced about the virtues of onboard dressing, I started in a gillnettters' fish plant and the fish ' looked' awesome. sometimes I think I'm being used as cheap labor, and they don't have to pay for gills and guts!!
Abundance
2013-08-04 17:35:20
I am sure my daily sold round fish are much better than my 3-4 day dressed fish. The problem is that many of the best fisheries take place a day or twos travel from any ports. Some places have more dedicated tender service than others, but still the only way to fish these far flung places is to put in as many days fishing as the buyer allows before traveling all of the way back home. Dressing the fish was pretty much invented for that purpose. A lot of troll tenders are getting set up with RSW and plants are getting more used to dealing with round troll fish, so it might be an option in the future, particularly for the boats that make day trips out of town. We would need a lot more tenders around though. There isn't a tender on the whole of west PoW right now that I know of, and nobody willing to buy round troll fish either. Still, kind of surprised Hoonah wasn't willing to buy round cohos. Did anybody talk to them about it?
Salty
2013-08-04 22:39:35
Another long post inadvertently deleted.
In brief:
1. I would recommend buying a power troll permit or investing in a good health insurance plan with good prescription and physical therapy coverage.
2. I am really impressed by guys who love trolling so much they are out there hand cranking chums.
3. I am really glad to have had a hand helping make these chum and pink troll fisheries available to all trollers, hand and power alike.
I think we should have another thread on "Round Coho".
Kelper
2013-08-05 04:02:46
I'm so new at the trolling game, that I'm even hesitant to speak up..
But, we have FAS trollers.. Why don't we have some big FAS tenders? Park a few of em up and down the coast, and let the fleet toss off fish daily to them. Then freeze them at sea.
Even in Craig, they told me once how long it took until the troll fish actually made it to the processing plant, on top of some of them being 4 day old fish already.. I'm not going to name numbers, as I might be not remembering correctly, but it seemed like a ridiculous amount of days until those fish were froze.
Abundance
2013-08-05 05:14:20
I think that the Angie is doing that. Buying up troll king/coho and freezing them there. Always liked the concept. I think that would be a good choice with those beautiful Icy Strait chums. That's what the Hoonah plant was doing with them. They were much too young for eggs.
Homeshore
2013-08-13 02:20:31
I do plan on upgrading to power troll.
Right now I'm using my small boat to learn by doing.
Between the information gleaned from this excellent website, a few dockside chats with the locals in Hoonah, and actually getting out there and fishing, I'm slowly figuring things out.
Targeting chums as a hand troller forces you to make your system as efficient as possible. This will help me set up my future power troll boat.
I can only fish part time this year anyway, so no need for a real boat yet.
My next hurdle is figuring out coho fishing. We are heading back out in a few days to give it a try.
When we were fishing chums in late June, we started catching a few coho. I snapped some coho spoons on and sped up, but they were more interested in the chum bugs.
For now, everyone is safe.
I won't be writing a hand trolling for coho manifesto.
Abundance
2013-08-13 03:02:09
I only fish with chum bugs for cohos anymore. The only thing they don't work on for me are kings. Of course, you have to be willing to handle hundreds and hundreds of chums and pinks to go with the bunches of coho. Its all money to me, and keeps the deckhand and skipper to from getting lazy. I actually switched to using pink, purple or white beads in various combos as a money saver. Got them from Amazon for ten dollars a thousand. They work just as well as fifteen dollars a dozen hootchies or five dollar apiece spoons. I hope you nail them! I've been hearing some excellent reports from up and out there. Might want to keep in mind that the gillnetters sometimes slay chums in Lynn Canal in September. Cohos are the real money, but those fat doggies don't hurt the days pay.
Homeshore
2013-08-13 15:01:44
Thanks abundance. We will try beads.
I have some 10mm white ones in my stash. Is that too big?
Last winter I got bored and made my own "bugs" by tying a snell knot at the hook and slipping a few hootchie tentacles under the knot.
They fished well, but the blued hooks rusted out quickly.
I'll try another batch with some black stainless steel hooks.
Abundance
2013-08-14 05:15:43
Sounds like a good size. I have only one pure white set of beads down there (colors are just too irresistable to try!), but there is usually a coho on it. I also have packets of blue, green, yellow, orange and glow. My best combo is a couple of purples and a glow bead. I hate those rusty blue steel hooks, and would definitely go for those fine Grizzley Tackle stainless blues. I actually think cohos prefer the shiny stainless hooks though, over blued. I really like your style of writing and would love to read your thoughts on handtrolling cohos!
Salty
2013-08-24 04:45:35
10/4 abundance and homeshore. Thanks for the stories and comments.
Struggling now to get the chums here to load lines like I want. Production going down daily. No coho here in chum patch.
My best ergonomic trick the last couple of weeks is two 20 year old deckhands running gear.
I agree with this. Though yesterday I caught a coho on a bare blued hook.
Salty
2013-08-28 05:47:53
Have caught over 100 coho in a day at least a couple of times on bare blued hooks. But, I agree, coho seem to prefer shiny stainless hooks, bare or in the lure. Where as Chinook, pink, and particularly chum, seem to prefer blued hooks to me. Actually Chinook and pink don't seem to have a preference like coho and chum.
Struggling trying to get out coho fishing after nearly three months of pink and chum fishing.
lone eagle
2013-09-01 02:42:28
Are these the blue hooks that rust so quickly?
Once and Future
2013-09-01 23:52:21
Homeshore, when you tried snubbers, was it the transparent kind, or just the black ones?
Homeshore
2013-09-05 02:43:37
I used the black ones.
Tried them out again recently while fishing for coho without any problems.
The coho didn't seem to mind them. The few chums we caught were never on a spread with a snubber.
Abundance
2013-09-05 18:17:33
I always make my own snubbers out of rubber tubing you can get from Murray Pacific. I usually just use them for those massive spawner spring kings or when the winter king are being picky about line over fifty pound test. @ lone eagle, we have largely shifted from using those horrible, rusty blued hooks to using the newer blued stainless hooks that are being made. There are some trash hooks called QI hooks that are stainless blue, but are brittle and loose their color quickly. Grizzly Tackle in Hoonah makes the best variety, and are becoming quite popular.
Homeshore
2013-09-06 01:47:59
I had a lot of trouble with fish getting off early in the chum run. Their mouths seemed very soft. In fact, when I picked the fish up I could sometimes feel my fingers tearing through the gills. It felt like their head was going to rip off. These late bright chum have much harder mouths.
I ended up running a bigger hook after we figured out the snubbers were scaring off the chums. I still had trouble losing fish. Both springs would be pumpin' away then go quiet. Run the gear: nothing.
Not having that trouble now. We are just running a few snubbers as an experiment.
Salty
2013-09-07 04:29:28
Great comments. Yes,my 100 coho days on blued hooks were on those iron ones which rusted. With the exception of my lead spoon or bottom spread I don't run snubbers. The reason I do on my lead is that it helps keep the leader from wrapping around the lead in my set up.
I agree, Bob Clark, at Grizzly Tackle in hoonah has the best blued hooks and some other good chum gear.
I have confirmed my lowliner status coho fishing again this year. Still have yet to crack 100 coho in a day. 20 today.
Dogwhisper
2013-10-17 05:20:50
I have hand trolled chums 6 consequetive years i catch a thousand to two thousand a day an sell every day i run 50lb leads an 3X the gear on one wir an 6X total theirs only one way to catch 100 chums an that's to run 100 hooks! i seem to brake hand gurdies so i fabricated a stainless hand gurdie that is bullet proof got the design from a pacific king an a solid bronze kolstrand. Here are a few tips on hand trolling chums:
Number one throw away the blued hooks they SUCK
also throw away the mono look into Oregon Troll Twine its a MUST
Try a slow full 360° circle with your gear down i call it the circle of DEATH!
Last but not least buy some bengay your gonna need it doing this all day