Trolling out of solomon's
 

Hello, I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I live in southern Maryland, and generally fish out of the Patuxent River. The past couple of weeks I have tried to do some trolling, and haven't had to much luck. I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on how is should set up my lines, and where some of the "hot spots" in the area are. I have a 23 foot boat with an 8 foot beam, and not planer boards. So far I've been trolling umbrellas and tandem parachutes, and I'm trying to keep them in about 25 to 35 feet of water. I run braid on my trolling rods, and for the tandems I've been figuring about 10' of depth for 100' of line out, and 5' of depth for 4 oz. of weight. For the umbrellas I've been told on the same line they get about 8' of depth for 100' of line out, 5' of depth for 4 oz. I really appreciate any help, because while I love a beautiful day out on the bay, it's easier to justify the time invested to my GF when I bring home some nice fillets!

I've always had better luck with my boat rods the further away I could get them from the boat. By far, my three hottest boat rods are these:

1 small 6 arm umbrella with 5 oz parachute chaser 150' back (no inline)
1 small 6 arm umbrella with 2 oz parachute chaser 200' back (no inline)
1 13/0 Crippled Alewife Spoon/4 oz parachute tandem set 325' back. My spoon is on 30' of leader connected to a 3 way swivel (put a ball bearing swivel in the 30' leader run) and the parachute is on 6' of leader.

Some of the guys that run Mojo's could help you set up the other 2 rods you have. I don't have much luck with them but I don't really try to learn how to use them either.

All my boat rods run 50lb braid. I am a huge believer in fluorocarbon leader material but you'll get various opinions on that.

Also, check your PM.

Hope this helps.

Keith