SMALL BOAT FISHING

[Flatdog]

Hey guy's this is a great Thread / line of thought, slept on it last night and kept throwing ideas around, space and or narrow beams seem to be the problem to run a decent spread,and then there is the costs of some of the outriggers rupp for instance perhaps over capitalising a small'ish boat? first of all came across this http://www.advantaltd.com/products/a...siderigger.htm seems to be the answer to all compact boat fisherman nightmares, it must be made your side of the pond somewhere, if you want to run outriggers and all the clips tag ends etc, a more simpler way to do this I would think, is to have 2 horizontal rod holders and run longer rods, this is were I come a little unstuck, and would like some imput from JP rods, if you are going to run slightly longer rods down the centre, 8ft was mentioned earlier, why not run two 10 foot over the side? its only 2ft longer than your middle sticks, mounted in your horizontal rod holders, this would effectively give you a 30ft spread on adverage, plus the joy of simplicity, no worrys about did he wrap that elastic 8 times or 6 no clip fail's, drag set perfect for the pick up, and no slack line. Now you are all shouting transporting this long rod will be a problem, this is were JP'S imput can help 10ft 30lb blank that has a ferrel, IE split in half cannot be impossible. I have fished take apart rods most of my life and never had one break at the joint, getting the action right will be the biggest problem that I can see, anyway just some Ideas to keep the ball rolling

[rich]

Just my 2 cents. I run a 28 carolina classic. I adjust my spread according to my crew and weather. I have had some crews that I think we could have run 10 lines and been fine. I have fished a couple of crews I think if we had 2 lines out they would end up tangled up in each other. Generally I like to run between 7 and 9 lines depending on the conditions. 2 longs 2 shorts 2 flats planer and WWB. All 50's except planer. 99% of the time all ballyhoos.
I have 2 large in deck fish boxes. I use my livewell for ice storage. I need to have my in deck boxes reinsulated as they do not keep ice at all. I also keep a fish bag on the boat just in case.
One thing I am not very good at is keeping everything organized. That is something that keeps me messed up on my boat. I am always looking for something I need.

[WAHOONBOX]

I WOULD HOPE ALL BOAT BUILDERS READ THIS THREAD AND TAKE NOTE....BETTER YET....MAKE THE NECESSARY MODIFICATIONS TO FIT "OUR" FISHING NEEDS


THANKS FOR ALL THE ABOVE INPUT AND BRING US MORE!!!!

[FinRazr]

First all the gear rides out in the back of the boat as soon as we stop and start fishing EVERYTHING goes up front out of the way.My boat is set up with 3 rod holders on each side 4 in the transom 4 on my leaning post and 6 on the T-Top.With my regular crew we fish 2 long riggers with the rods in the two outter leaning post holders.Then we run 2 short riggers with the rods in the center holders on each side(I believe they are cast out 15 degrees).The right rear holder gets the SNIPER tm and the left rear gets run off the rod tip.Next I run a flat line rod off the transom and take the line and run it over to the corner and use a rubber band to keep it out of the wash and in clean water.
We will also run a rod down the middle aways this was a problemyou cant keep the rod down low and putting it up in the T-Top well lets just say is a major disaster waiting to happen.I did not want to hang a bunch of center riggers off my top it already has enough crap pulling on it.What I did was take an old 7' penn rod put about 12-15' of mono to the top eye than added one of those pinch type releases for downriggers on the other end.Now run your bait out as far as you want the penn rod is up in the t-top set your drag put the rod in your holder(any one out of th way)take the pinch release clip and attach it to your main line.Take the drag and slowly let out line and the line will be pulled up and out of the way.When a fish hits it breaks away and the clip drops back down to the **** pit.
Two teaser reels are under my t-top and run out the sides to glass eyes on a third line on my out riggers.The way they are set up I can move them up and down just like a big boat to get a teaser to run were I need it to one problem is the teasers can't have to much drag those single nonspreader 18' poles have to much flex for major drag teasers.
We certainly change things around but thats the basis we work around most of the time and it seems to do ok for us.
My planer is an 80 I have 2 avet 50w's with 500yds of 130lb jb and 200 yds of 100lb mono 6 avet pro 30w's with 500 yds of 80lb jb and 200 yds of 60lb mono and 2 tld 25s with 600 yds of 30 lb mono.The 50's run with 25lbs @ the strike button and we pull them at about half that the 30's @16lbs on the button again we run at about half that.
Ive also started putting the anglers in harnesses it lets them keep their hands free for safety and gets the fish in quik so we can get back in the game fast also as you know the longer the fight goes on the more stuff can get jacked (Chaffing etc).

[makomyday]

Great thread , I added autopilot to my boat this year .What a great toy for small boat fishing . Better than extra crew it keeps the boat stright .

[ice cream man]

Great info...how about some pictures of your boats rigged & those special center rigger ideas?..........Thanks............ICM

[FinRazr]

Two days and no new posts.Small boat guy's sound off like you got a pair and give up a little sum'n sum'n.

[fmoore]

I have had a 21' CC for the past two years with a few BFT trolling trips under my belt. Have not boated a bluefin when actually fishing for them , but have a good center rigger technique that has worked. My dad uses a 8' broomstick as a cod rod. He pulled up a 50 pound football last year and it did not bend.....at all Put it in the rocket launcher in the T-Top and BOOM - instant center rigger, just add release clip. Much stiffer than any outrigger will ever be, too.

Also, as has been said. Our boat is immaculate, not clean as in no dirt or blood, but everything goes in it's place and stays there. We put things we will need during the fight and for the end game in the console and everything else is waaaaaaay out of the way up in the bow. Don't want it near me when I'm fighting a fish. Yes, I am a little OCD when it comes to fishing. Not that that's bad at all.

Hope someone learned something

[MAKO19]

I guess some may think we over do it but this season it was successful on the bigger bluefin that showed up inshore off Cape May between 20 and 30 fathoms. Our spread consists of 7 rods. Since the Bluefin seemed to ONLY be biting the WWWWWB baits 7 rods was no problem because 3 of them were 150+ yards from the boat. The Bluefin spread consisted of all Penn International 50TW or SW's and Shimano TLD50IILRSA's with 6'-0" 30-80 pound outerbanks outfitter stand-up rods. One rod would go about 250 yards down the center with a large ballyhoo on B/W Ilander. This rod we would run out of the hardtop rocket launcher and it would be completely out of the way. Next, would be the riggers with the same bait as the center rod (we only have 1 release clip on our outriggers as well) and these would go 150-200 yards out. Then (short rods if you will) are run out of the next rod holder toward the transom and we run these 25 yards or so out of the wash with ballyhoo, feathers, spreader bars, etc, of course staggering them on each side. Then the 2 back transom rod holders (custom installed) are flat lines with again ballyhoo, deep diving plugs, planer set-up, etc, etc. We usually have at least 4 guys onboard and since most of the bites were on WWWB baits we have plenty of time for 2 guys to clear everything one guy to fight the fish and one to drive the rig.

This spread changes when we fish beyond 30 fathoms but the rod placement is the same. The only thing that changes is the baits are ran closer and we put a few green machines into the pattern. We also do not run any teasers.

[jbones11]

Marty
My question is for post catch..
In a “small boat” w/o ice maker, freezer plates, or ice boxes the size of a VW
what’s your set-up??
I’ve a good sized cooler (takes up a lot of cockpit space)
I keep it on one of those “non-skid” pads (so it don’t break legs)
I fill it w/ ice(150lb’s) and shovel it into “fishbags” for the ride home.
What’s everyone else doing?
T

T Bird - Any way you can move that cooler out of the 'cockpit' ? At least while you are fishing it may save you some skin on your shins and give you some room to move.

Once we start trolling the bean bags (NO ONE SHOULD LEAVE HOME WITHOUT THESE ON ANY SIZE BOAT, ESPECIALLY CC's), the coolers, extra tackle bags, riggin buckets or whatever you use, even the bait cooler can be moved up front. The front of the boat gets used as a rest stop and storage area for the day.

Before we run home everything gets put away, the back gets a quick scrub and we set up for running speed home. Basically, you have a set up for running and a layout for fishing. Just think ahead if you are filling up the cooler up front, once its loaded you may just want to leave it secured up front, tied down LOL and you use less of your trim tabs with the extra weight in the front strapped to the Console assuming its a fairly flat day and ride home.

good luck