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I wore them ouy in 6-10' yesterday using med clark tied to 60lb floro 4' long with a bimini twist . Dont use a swivel they'll hit it and cut you off quite often The key seemed to be 6 knts and look for birds

Spanish are a ton of fun but I'd rather buy fish sticks than troll.
I catch most of my Spanish on Chug Bugs -with upgraded hooks.
The big ones will usually hit the topwater.

I'd rather buy fish sticks than troll

Agreed, even when trolling for hard fighting fish like salmon when I lived up north. The boat does all the fighting, most fish even drown b/c slowing down would have put the whole spread in chaos. True with grouper too, I would much rather catch 1 bottom bumping that 2 trolling.

I'll still take trolling over working though.

SHOWBOAT wrote:The boat does all the fighting, most fish even drown b/c slowing down would have put the whole spread in chaos.

i am going to need an explanation of this...

TBC-not sure if your referring to the 1st or second half of that sentence, but I'll try to clarify. Remember, most of my experience has been for salmon in the Great Lakes, not grouper or mackerel. The way it is done is as follows:

Most boats put out as many lines as possible; almost all are attached to large spoons of various colors. A couple set on downriggers, a couple on long lines, a couple on short lines, etc. Cover the entire water colum; covering from 10'-70' or so is not uncommon. Salmon trolling is best at 3-5 knots, slightly slower than grouper in my experience. By slowing down even a little, all the spoons fall, get tangled, or hook bottom; so most people just keep moving when a fish hits and reel the fish in while moving. The exception is large fish which just can't be gained on unless the boat stops. A large portion of fish are dead by the time they reach the boat (not all, but many). I don't think it is due to pressure change (less than 100'), or fight (usually under 5-10 minutes), but b/c of the quantity of water rushed through their gills. Luckily it seems the shorts, which reach the boats the quickest, have the best chance of being revived and released.

Great eating and sometimes exciting (usually in schools so not uncommon to have double and triple headers), but not my favorite method of fishing. Let me hold a rod and fight a fish from its structure; I'm from bass fishing roots.

I don't have as much experience grouper or mackerel trolling, but I have done it and still prefer the tug of war of bottom fishing or casting to fish over trolling. I guess its the hit and initial run/strength that I really enjoy. The spread isn't as much of an issue while grouper fishing as salmon fishing, fewer lines and floating lures help, but the fight still isn't as good (IMHO). Maybe that's b/c I haven't caught a monster yet while trolling.

I guess you need to try using 4-6 lb test with drag set right for some real exiting battles,much harder to reel in than fish sticks. It's all about getting lures in the Schools of bait fish which one; is hard to do casting and two;produces much better catches. Agreed I don't like surfing fish to the boat ,but every fish I caught Wed. pulled drag.

catch22-I read your report and it was good one. No offense to any trollers. I do it occassionally too, it just isn't my favorite method of fishing. Probably the same reason I prefer not to use circle hooks except in a few special situations; not that they don't work, just my love of setting the hook...

Showboat , don't get me wrong either,I have fished the run from St. George east end for many years and love it. But I do use circle hooks to cut down on the gut hooks,unless I'm jigging

Certainly no offense intended here either. I just love Spanish on method.