Stopping vs Not Stopping When You Hook Up With A Fish

[Fourteen]

I have mixed feelings about whether to continue to troll or stop the forward motion of my boat when I hook up with a fish . On the pro side : I think a person would have a better chance of keeping a Kokanee on if you were not pulling it against the movement of the boat , especially with their soft mouths . I also am beginning to think it's more fun playing the fish on light tackle when the boat is stopped . On the Con side : By stopping you are not fishing anymore and you may have missed another chance to catch a second fish if you 're going through a school or even more fish in the time it takes to land the Kokanee and get the boat going again . Most of the people I see on the water or in videos do not stop . How has your hook up ratio been trying it both ways or is it a personal preference ?

[SuperD]

When I was first introduced to Koke fishing a dozen years ago, the conventional wisdom was that one was supposed to troll at 1.0 - 1.1 mph. Now, 1.8 can be a great trolling speed. My preference is to slow down but not stop. Sometimes kicking the throttle back a little is just enough to get those followers to strike for a double or triple. Each fish can dictate what speed one needs to drop to if at all. When chasing ocean salmon, I positively will not stop the boat. Everytime I've fished on someone's boat that stops with a fish, the fish gets the upper hand and kicks our a$$. I want the fish to be in constant tension and not be able to create its own leverage. With kokes, the same thing applies but it has to be tempered with the tear out issue.

[trollmonkey]

I'm with SuperD on not stopping, if you keep going your other gear is still fishing. Stopping would in most cases mean having to reel in your other gear, not an easy task if fishing by yourself.

[jekern1015]

We always stop the forward motion of the boat by taking it out of gear whenever we catch a fish. We have tried to keep on going, but have always lost most of the fish. As far as reeling in the other gear we just let it sink to the bottom, and on occasion as soon as we start back up we get another fish.

[clawman]

I am using the iTroll and just hit the idle button. On my boat that puts me @ .9 MPH without any wind. I think stopping the boat is asking for a mess due to the fishing being out of control. You really need to keep some speed to maintain some boat control.

[Bduck]

I'm not one to stop, I maintain my normal trolling speed unless I have hooked into something that's a little more than a 3-5lb fish. With other lines in the water by stopping can create a mess.

[SuperD]

Good way to find out who we could fish with.

[mtncat1]

I don't stop either, if necessary I slow down but stopping is a bad idea . my landing rate when hooked up is very high so I don't think sopping catches or looses more fish.

[SuperD]

While I'm not a stopper, I must tell this story about an incident that happened at Flaming Gorge. We were trolling with 4 rods out and we came up on a mound that hung one of the rods. We had to put the boat in neutral to try and free the snagged rod. Several minutes later, we finally got it loose. At this point, the other rods were dead stick in the rod holders. We decided to pull everything in to start over and we picked up a triple on the rods that had been just hanging there.

[lowe1648mt]

I tend to keep going.

if you use the 100' rule, and have out any more rods, they have a tendency to hit the bottom. Often as not, they will grab onto something other than fish. If you are in less than ioo' of water, most likely to be the bottom. With most dodgers ,etc costing $10.00 or more, 3hookups on the bottom can get expensive. And yes, there are times when I pick up fish this way, but if I keep moving, I pickup fish also.

[Propnut69]

I very seldom stop when hooked up.I have seen to many fish lost from stopping ,and getting just a lil bit of slack in the line. I also need some forward momentum so that I can steer.

[mtncat1]

that's awesome you can never tell what will happen when you pull everthing in

[smokepoles]

Rather than stopping, I prefer to turn the boat into the fish making a circle. That effectively slows things relative to the hooked fish, but does not stop everything. Of course this is not always possible in the midst of the armada fishing at the Gorge

[troller]

I kill my kicker and just leave my I-pilot running on course, and reel in the other pole long lined, if both rigs are on downrigger I leave the unbit one down, no tangles for me that way

[mtncat1]

I like to turn into the fish to if it's not windy. by the way your handle (smokepoles )is one of the all time best on the web kudos

[TheLastViking]

My grandpa use to stop, now he keeps going. The biggest problems we've had with landing fish is they get scared by the landing net, do an extra hard thrash, and they're off the hook. Now we just swing them out of the water into the boat. They still come off the hook, but they do it onboard. Even if they get off while they're still in the air, the momentum carries them onboard. My grandma gets over-excited and yanks them out so hard that they often end up on top of the Bimini cover or on the bow (boat is a 22' cuddy).

[STLHDR]

I had a Yamaha F8 years ago and upgraded to a T8 so it pushes it a little faster than the older model. What I do is deploy the 24" drift socks to slow it down so I like to keep it in gear so as not to fowl everything up and let the Chinese fire drills begin!!!!

[mtncat1]

I had a Yamaha F8 years ago and upgraded to a T8 so it pushes it a little faster than the older model. What I do is deploy the 24" drift socks to slow it down so I like to keep it in gear so as not to fowl everything up and let the Chinese fire drills begin!!!!

I had a Yamaha 9.9 high thrust that was a little fast . but I took the prop to a local prop shop and the repitched it for a very reasonable price. Some thing for to think about.

[STLHDR]

That is certainly an option I had not thought of but do need to get the prop checked, gravel does naughty things to spinning aluminum things...

[mtncat1]

That is certainly an option I had not thought of but do need to get the prop checked, gravel does naughty things to spinning aluminum things...

that's why I did mine cause it was a little rough looking then asked them if they could so me done a little and they said no problem.

[STLHDR]

Better than spending $120 for a new prop!!!!

[terek]

where I fish, it tends to be fairly windy all the time. stopping is not even thought of, as the wind will spin you around in a heart beat. So, I have never been able, or even considered stopping. That said, we rarely loose fish that are hooked up. I usually loose them when I pull on the release.
That leads me to another question. I am fairly new to kok fishing. I have noticed that the fish never pull the line out of the downrigger clip, like large trout will. Is this normal? I have tried keeping the line barley clipped in, but usually pulls free when dropping. So far, I have never had a kok pull the line out of the clip. My wife hates it, she can never get the line to release when a fish is on. I have to release it then hand her the poll. This frustrates her, because she feels like she hasn't "caught" the fish.

[mtncat1]

what kind of release are you using ? kokanee usually pull the release right out for me.

[SuperD]

terek, I think that is pretty indicative of most pincher releases and smaller sized kokes. I'm going to guess that your typical fish are 14" or under? There are a couple of lakes here where I fish that I have to keep a very close eye on the rod tip to identify when fish hit and jump on the rod. Have you tried teaching your wife to reel down and put her thumb firmly on the spool when she pulls the line out of the release?

[downriggeral]

I have been using Chaimberlain releases with good success. You can set the rod tension separate of the release tension. I just hit the idle button on the iTroll if the wind is not blowing when I get a fish on. Sometimes you have to run more throttle if the wind is blowing to maintain boat control. Lots of times I have had the other rods go off while we are idling along landing a fish.
For salmon I always leave the troll speed going until the other gear is cleared then I may or may not hit idle while we play the fish. I will also slowly turn towards the the fish to help keep the fish to the side of the boat and away from the outboards. I also like to fish the outside in a crowd so I can leave when the salmon hooks up.