Marking fish.

[salmonquest]

First a story:

I got out late thursday night to fish. My wife was driving while I set lines. I knew a buddy of mine would also be out. After getting everything set I called him on my cell phone. He was complaining about the lack of action when I looked on my graph. I saw a very solid fish show up about 15 ft off the bottom. I don't usually do this but I told him hey I just marked a big fish it should be on in about a minute or so. He started talking smack and told me yeah right and then hung up. Not a minute later there goes the drag screaming After pulling the rod and handing it to my wife I had to call him back....ring ring. "FISH ON BABY!" click. I try to be humble but that was just too perfect.

Anyway here is my question. I have found one spot wher I consistently been marking fish. Good size arcs just off the bottom and some stacked up. I have not had much luck in these spots. I have fished in another area that is known for good fishing not marked much and have hooked up several times...Problem is I feel like I should be spending some time on the marked fish trying to figure out the puzzle. When you mark a nice pod of fish or even one or two do you spend time trolling back over them and changing the presentation or do you continue your troll in a direction and area you think are productive?? Thanks.

[CAC]

Great question. I look forward to reading the pros answers.

[Adam Bomb]

Im no pro, but heres my take on it.

I normally dont turn around for just one little spot on the graph. Ill make a troll through a section of water looking for an area with marks consistantly throughout it. For the sake of this post ill make a south troll at a certain depth looking for fish. If i dont mark anything ill go either in or out and repeat. I continue to stagger either deeper/shallower until i find them. If im marking fish in a certain band of water, there will likely be pockets of them in that band laterally along the shore. So, ill make a long pass through it trying to contact fish. If things arent firing i start with a change of speed or adjustment to my lengths if theyre not in the right zone. After say a mile or so troll and im satisfied with what i saw ill turn around and make another pass through the fish. Sometimes their funny about direction and one way is better than another. Normally its directly related to speed at a given direction. So, after ive changed direction, speed and am satisfied i have my baits in the right location, i start to look at my bait selection changing size, color or style of baits until i get them to go.

[1mainiac]

Personally if I like my troll and gear I will just keep going every time I try and go back after marks it is seldom worth the effort. If I just went thru them and they are not hitting I prefer to keep going and look for active fish. Usually a return trip thru a pod results in more tangles and gear problems than fish. The exception is when you rig every thing short because you plan on pounding a area like the sand docks or doing harbor patrol.

[Fishwhisperer]

I don't put a whole lot of stock in what I'm marking. If I consistently mark fish at certain depths, I will make the depth changes with the riggers first. If that was to work, I would then adjust the rest of the spread. I'm more likely to" put all of my eggs in one basket" with lure color selection rather than the depth selection. I've caught many more fish that I had never mark verses fish that I had marked. Like 1 mainiac said, it's better to target active fish rather than pursuing the the inactive ones. Starting out with covering a large range of the water column and making adjustment from there will put more fish in the box.JMO

[Adam Bomb]

I have a question for you guys that just leave the fish for "active" ones. Whats to say something in your spread is not right and that the fish are indeed active, you just arent giving them what they want? So, i guess what im getting at is how can you think theyre not active if you give em the one and done type approach? Im not saying you have to pound an X on the water when you mark fish, and thats not what i do, but i certainly just dont troll aimlessly away from an area if im marking fish. Once i locate fish on my sonar ill make a long pass, because it seems that a certain band of water will hold more fish than areas in or out from it(say 175-200' is holding the fish). And often times if they dont go the first time an adjustment to the spread or simply changing direction gets the rods poppin. Then if that dont work, then ill keep on truckin'.

[dcralston]

I don't have as much experience as many of the guys on this site but i have never found any sort of correlation to marking fish and catching fish. I have had plenty of hot days where i never marked a fish and quite a few skunks where i was marking fish all over the place. If I mark fish and it doesn't like what i am presenting then i keep going. My belief is that a active fish will hit most lures you put in front of them ( I am not a big believer in color having en effect on strikes with the exception of dark and light patterns, just my opinion) and instead of turning to go back after a mark i would rather go on a try to find what I consider "truly" active fish.

just my opinion

Dave

[2UNREEL]

I will only circle on fish if they are only hitting in that zone. If I am marking fish and nothing is happening I will change my speed and directions. When in doubt gas it:) I have picked off many fish over the years bumping the speed up if nothing was taking.

[Nailer]

There's a big difference fishing here in Lake Michigan than fishing where you are near the bridge. We don't have much structure. When we mark fish in 100 fow, we can go in and out 1/2 mile and not change our depth much. Up where you are that depth could change as much as a 100'.

What we try to look for more often is big pods of bait fish, and stay around them.

BTW Jason, we plan to fish St Ignace on the 3rd or 4th (or both) of September. Will you be around?

[1mainiac]

I have a question for you guys that just leave the fish for "active" ones. Whats to say something in your spread is not right and that the fish are indeed active, you just arent giving them what they want? So, i guess what im getting at is how can you think theyre not active if you give em the one and done type approach? Im not saying you have to pound an X on the water when you mark fish, and thats not what i do, but i certainly just dont troll aimlessly away from an area if im marking fish. Once i locate fish on my sonar ill make a long pass, because it seems that a certain band of water will hold more fish than areas in or out from it(say 175-200' is holding the fish). And often times if they dont go the first time an adjustment to the spread or simply changing direction gets the rods poppin. Then if that dont work, then ill keep on truckin'.

Well for me I catch way too many fish I never marked then ones I mark. My personal experience is that unless you have depth charges inactive fish will just stay suspended now perhaps you can get them to hit because they will get mad and hit for no reason. But the odds are active fish are looking for a meal and will swim into your spread to get one often without ever going under your boat. You have to trust that you have a good spread down and just run your pattern now if I have marked a bunch of suspended fish and I go a hour without much luck I may turn and run back thru them to see if any of them have changed moods. But honestly I have done very well for many years by just putting out a decent spread and running my pattern and have caught hundreds of fish within sight of the pack who are all trying to figure out how to make those marks bite. The biggest key is to find their food source if they are suspended a few hundred yds from the bait fish odds are they are full if you are sure there is no baitfish nearby then your odds of geting one to wake up hungary as you pass by increase.

[salmonquest]

This is great I really have enjoyed this discussion. Let me ask this what about when you hook up. If you troll for awhile after that with nothing will you head back to that spot with the thought that salmon school together???

JIM - depth charges you don't know how many times I've thought along those lines.

Ken - I don't think I will be around then. I will keep you up todate on current reports if I get out before that.

[Nailer]

If we hit fish, say a double +1 or 2 , we'll drop mark and try to make our way back to it.

[S. Yonker]

I'll waypoint bait balls & go back to run through them a few times.

I also waypoint the fish that I hook/fight.

If I have had a few hits I'll zoom out the GPS & see what if a pattern is developing.

Once I noticed a pretty decent straight line of action in a particular depth of water when I was reviewing my waypoints at home. I also noticed by my "trail" that I left this straight line & slid out deeper which resulted in no more fish. Now I always zoom out while on the water to look for a possible pattern.