# How to Pick an Open Water Trolling Spot?



## FishFighter92 (Jul 10, 2012)

Chapter 2 – How to pick an offshore trolling spot?​The time has finally come. It is a late Tuesday afternoon in the middle of summer, and you are already itching for the weekend so that you can get out on the water. You check the weekly forecast on your Windfinder App and see that it is going to be slick this weekend out on the Gulf of Mexico – the perfect time to try your hand at doing some offshore trolling.

SORD Fishing Products will be publishing one article a week that focuses on blue water trolling from center consoles for beginners and novices. These articles are meant to remove some of the cloud of confusion around trolling for pelagic species such as mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, and the billfish assortment. They are written to be *extremely* precise. We are focused on being clear about our product recommendations and advice in these articles since we want you to know *what has worked for us*. It is meant to be a starting point and will give you a good base to jump off of as you dip your toes into offshore trolling. 

One thing that we truly believe in here at SORD Fishing Products is that the details matter. *Whenever we have listed a key detail, we have underline and bolded it.* We are hyper-focused on making sure every single detail has been covered and we feel that when you focus on the details, it causes you to catch more fish. There is nothing worse for us than losing fish due to a human error, so wherever possible, we have included small details that have been learned over time. These small details will make a huge difference between a good day on the water and a great day on the water.

*Picking Your Spot for Open Water Trolling – *
It will never matter what lures you put in the water if you are not where the fish are. That is worth repeating, it does not matter WHAT you put behind your boat when trolling if WHERE you are fishing is wrong. If there are fish there, you will catch them using one of the four lures that we posted on the last blog post. *If we are trolling at a spot that has been unproductive for 1.5-2 hours and have not marked any bait, we will pick up and run to a new spot.* There was a time that we were trolling out near the Edge and we had no luck in the morning, so we picked up and ran 10 miles to the southwest and ended up stumbling upon a new area with a nice rip where we caught 6 wahoo.
Picking a spot to troll is about as difficult as it is for your significant other to pick a restaurant to eat at, since at any given moment there might be more than one area that is productive to catching fish. Pelagic species are highly migratory fish and will move around as they follow bait, water temperatures, and typical migratory patterns. We focus on four different variables when we are starting to plan our trip from most important to least important.

Satellite Shots (Hilton’s Realtime Navigator)
Time of the Year / What Kind of Fish We Are Targeting
Bottom Structure and Contours
Fish Attraction Devices (FADs) or Floating Debris
*Satellite Shots*
The first thing that we check before we head out on an offshore trolling trip is the recent satellite shots from Hiltons Realtime Navigator. *This is the most useful tool that you will have in your offshore fishing arsenal and it is more than worth the $200 yearly subscription fee.* Our primary focus using this tool before we do some open water trolling in the Gulf of Mexico during the months of March through November is to find out where there are going to be “rips” or “weed lines”. An offshore rip is a place where two different bodies of water collide be it an upwelling from a sea mount or a temperature break that causes this collision to happen. When this collision happens, anything floating on the surface of the two bodies of water get trapped in where the two different bodies of water meet forming a rip on the surface.

*A solid rip that has a well-formed line of that yellow/gold sargassum grass and other debris is almost guaranteed to hold a few pelagic fish.* The sargassum grass that is floating on the surface is the start of the life cycle for many species and holds everything from small crustaceans, bait fish, sea turtles, up to the pelagic species on the top of the food chain. We have had days out there where we could not keep a line in the water for more than 5 minutes without a bite on one of these rips. *Once you get a bite on the rip, mark that spot on the rip and then double back around with your spread back in the water to see if there are any more fish hanging out right there.* Typically, the pelagic species are moving up and down the line looking for something to eat.

A subscription to Hilton’s can help you find out where these areas are and there are great video tutorials on how to use the product the Hilton’s website. Understanding this product and how to use it will increase your chances of putting pelagic species in the boat tenfold.

*Targeted Fish and Best Time of the Year*

Below is a chart that outlines the majority of pelagic species that roam our waters and the time of the year that they are found in the Gulf of Mexico as well as our personal favorite month to target these species when trolling open water.








*Open water trolling only, excluding oil rigs or other fish attraction devices

*Fishing Bottom Contours and Structure*

Starting in the springtime a wide variety of bait starts getting pushed into the Emerald Coast and the pelagic predators are right behind them. It is generally around the same time that you are able to start catching good bait around the pass and the sea buoys. It is not uncommon for anglers to catch sailfish a few miles off the beach during the summer and there is an abundance of pelagic species that love to hang out around prominent bottom structure in the Gulf of Mexico. *These ledges and structures can be usually be seen using Google Maps satellite shots*, the most common ones are:

South East Edge (Southwest of Pensacola)
Nipple (South of Pensacola)
Yellow Gravel (South of Pensacola)
131 Hole (South of Pensacola)
Elbow (South Southwest of Pensacola)
Steps (Southwest of Pensacola)
Spur (Southwest of Destin)
Squiggles (South of Destin)
When we are not able to find a good area with the satellite shots, we focus on fishing around good bottom contours. We will pick one of these areas depending on the target species as well as season and work our way back and forth across the contour and around the areas near it. For example, if we had chosen to go try to catch a wahoo near the Southeast Edge, we would make a zig-zag pattern across the contour like the photo below. *When you are zig-zagging across the contour, make sure that you have your depth finder on and if you locate any areas that are holding bait up in the water column*. These bait balls will look like a red blob on the screen or will be distinct marks that are suspended in the upper areas of the water column and not specifically attuned to the bottom.








*Fish Attraction Devices or Floating Debris
*
There was a trip a few years back where we had trolled open water all day around the spur without anything to show for it. The conditions were fishy, but there was nothing floating on the surface until one of our crew spotted a floating log out of the corner of his eye. We trolled by that floating log and picked up two wahoo to turn the day around.

*The biggest key is that if you see ANYTHING floating in the water, to go ahead and check it out.* It could be a buoy with a rope that has a few tripletail on it, a floating pallet with a wahoo hanging out on it, or a piece of Styrofoam that has 10 mahi-mahi just relaxing under it. We like to keep a spinning rod rigged up with a 1 oz jig head and a small soft plastic for any times that we pull up onto some floating debris. We like to head towards the object and then pull the engines back and let our momentum ease us up to see what it is. One angler will always be on the bow ready to make a cast and another usually hops up on the gunnel to see if he can see anything hanging out on it. If there is no bait, no bigger fish, or signs of life then we just keep headed to our destination.

Full article originally published at: https://www.sordtools.com/where-the-map-turns-blue-blog/how-to-pick-an-offshore-trolling-spot


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## iJabo (Jul 6, 2013)

I've enjoyed both of your posts; they're helpful for all levels of offshore fishing. Open water trolling has frustrated me plenty of time.
One question that has always bothered me is what people consider to be "The Edge". 
I always refer to the Edge as the region between the Nipple and the Elbow where the drop off isn't as dramatic but more of a steady decline into the DeSoto Canyon. Technically speaking, it could be any section of the drop off that starts due south of Navarre and continues all the way out to the Elbow, (see picture below). So what do you consider to be "the Edge"?


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## panhandlephinsphan (Aug 25, 2008)

I consider the edge that whole thing. you can even continue the line at both ends. When i mention the edge i am usually referencing the area by the nipple as my main area but that whole thing is the edge to me.

Great posts and questions.

thanks!


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## BrntPhish (May 31, 2017)

GREAT post.... I just upgraded boats and will begin trolling this year.... seems like my logic is correct.


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