Fly fishing purists - turn your heads - this is meat slinging talk here.
OK - I can sling and drift an eel with anyone and I can probably work an eel along a rocky jetty alsmost as well as anyone but I am clueless when it comes to trolling with eels.
My approach which doesn't work(!!) is to try and troll as slow as possible, 2-3 knots, with 1-2 oz. of weight to get the eel down. I troll along rip faces; behind rip face by daylight, and across and down channel edges after dark.
My bst trolling catch to date has been a hab's Popper, my 2nd best has been a bluefish rig complete w/ red floating ball and double lead weights. I assume these stellar catches, combined w/ the masses of weed I have also caught, mean I'm getting down. Spots i've trolled unsuccessfully will yield fish if I drift an eel 10 minutes later.
I know its simply a matter of presentation and i can visualize in my head that I have to get the eel down, but down in such a way that its swimming with the boat rather than being dragged. I got last months tip to troll thru a rip forward rather than drift against it.
For those of you jetty and channel trollers (Hi caleb & Mark) whats the formula in terms of weight/speed/depth. I know its not an exact science, but are there any rough rules to follow?
L.