Hey Guys.

Took the boat out for a fish on Saturday and caught a few whiting amongst the thousands of wrasse Got back to the pier, and spoke to a bloke who had been trawling for salmon at West Heads (heads to the right of Flinders).

I have trolled for Salmon before when I was a youngster, but haven't done it since, and was after some advice. Apparently, cutting a small 5-10cm piece of plastic tubing (simimlar to the stuff we use in float lines) and dragging it behind is effective. I have a couple of questions.

1. What sort of rig do you use? Do you use heavier line than usual, if so, what strain? Also, do I need a trace?

2. What speed should I troll at?

3. How far should I play out the line from the back of the boat?

Also, for those of you who have done this on a boat on your own, do you just have rod holders with a couple of lines in the water?


Cheers Guys.

Tom

I generally try to have 4 lines out the back, obviously this depends on the number of fish being caught, number of anglers and so forth.

The setup I run is, 1 small unweighted squid lure (white or pink) or something like a lil' jerk 3" or so (you can also get little inserts to give it more flash), 1 squid lure setup the same except with a small bean sinker in its head, 1 bibbed minnow (fairly small, no bigger than a pilchard) and 1 slug.
I run the weighted skirt quite close, what would essentially be the long corner position. Basically run it straight back from a corner until it hits the first patch of clear water (it will have white water on either side from the wake). If the wind is catching it and blowing it out of the water constantly I just get a small rubber band and tie the line down to the handle, but you want splashing out of the water regularly.
I then run the minnow on the opposite side a bit further back (mainly for snook if they are around).
The unweighted skirt I run outside and behind the minnow, far enough back that it isnt getting blown around.
The slug I run straight back, just where the prop was breaks up.

I tend to troll fairly slow, 4 knots or so. I don't use anything fancy in rigging. Generally just whatever mono leader I am using for snapper, 1m of 40lb or so and whatever rods I've got in the boat at the time (they are great fun on 4lb whiting outfits) although you will regularly lose rigs when couta have a go at the swivel.

Salmon are easy to catch, if you go through a school every rod should go off. If not, have a muck around with your setup, change to a different colour/smaller/different style, move it further back, etc. Once you find the fish, you can generally just cast to them for a while, once you lose them troll around til you find them again.

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That's where I saw the leprechaun. He tells me to burn things...

Thanks Dave. That is great information. Much appreciated. Where do you fish for Salmon like this in Port Phillip? I have only fished when I was young in the heads and got shitloads of them really quickly.

I have never really fished WP, where I troll is to the north of pt napean, the channel swings to the north and theres a fairly flat region about 15m deep (very easy to see if you can get a map with depth contours). I troll nearly East-west (possibly slightly more like wsw ene), once you hit the channel on either side just turn around and work your way back. I have caught fish in the rip itself, but it gets pretty messy on the run out tide which seems the best time to fish.

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That's where I saw the leprechaun. He tells me to burn things...

Tom,
cut the tube ends with the same angle ie /-----/ ; this provides a bubble trail , 25-30 metres behind boat is ample , line through the tube and tie the hook on - no sinker/no trace. Simple to use and quick to get fish off when there`s a lot around and you want to dehook and get back in quickly ( and you`ll catch more with a handline - no argument ! )
spez.

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I get coastline fever .

I could be a little late with this reply, but i usually troll a small metal lure (silver) tied straight to some light line, maybe braid line and a light rod, trolled about jogging pace through some hot spots, normally around the heads or where theres good water flow, GOOD FUN.