Get Back to Trolling

Here's why running-and-gunning might be hurting more than your wallet.

The action certainly wasn't fast, but Andy Newman, Michael Ferrari and I had trolled up two schoolie mahi, plenty of meat for dinner. The scattered weeds, flying-fish showers, solid current and strong plankton front near Islamorada's 409 Hump convinced me to stay despite the urge to start running-and-gunning.

Watching boats troll for a bit and leave, and others never slowing at all on their race toward the horizon, I still believed this area looked promising. As foresight would have it, we capped off our half-day of fishing with a mahi doubleheader, one of which was a trophy-class bull dolphin. Trolling paid off.

The No-Patience Generation

High-horsepower twin-, triple- and quad-powered center-consoles have created a lot of impatient anglers. If an area doesn't produce in quick order, many crews will throttle down to look for the next one. But there's no guarantee the next spot will be any better. Setting a full trolling spread and thoroughly working what might be a productive section of ocean is almost a lost art. Offshore fishing has become a game of instant gratification for some.

Impatient fishing is arguably most prominent off southern Florida, the Florida Keys, and even the Bahamas, where deep water exists relatively close to shore. It's a bit different for offshore anglers in the Gulf of Mexico and canyon runners in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, where long hauls are the norm-trolling here is still a mainstay practice. However, the mentality is spreading to these waters as well because fast boats can quickly traverse between canyons, bottom structures, surface-temperature breaks and eddies.

Running-and-gunning and even spot trolling (deploying a pair of flat lines for a limited time) are highly effective around working birds, debris and large weed patches. But if the fast-paced effort comes up empty at day's end, your wallet and ego will both be crushed.