Plumbing the depths

No doubt about it, fishing soft-plastics in deeper water is more complicated than in shallower areas, but once the challenges are understood and sorted, it’s fun and often very rewarding.

The main problem when out deeper, particularly fishing in the channels, is that your boat’s drift direction and speed are affected by wind and current, while your lure is influenced by the current’s grip.

These forces can result in your lure and line behaving very differently during the casting and retrieval processes. Despite an almost infinite number of line-lure permutations, soft-plastic success often simply comes down to finding casting angles that let you stay in relatively good contact with the lure during its descent and retrieval.

A longer rod, say 2.28–2.44m/7’6”–8’long, armed with a decent butt length to enable double-handed casting, will offer greater casting distances and improved line control, as well as an increased ability to set hooks into fish at a distance. Once you’ve used a longer rod, you won’t go back to shorter ones!

Unfortunately, long rod or short, it’s impossible to see how the lure is behaving deep down under the water, so finding effective casting angles involves experimental casting right around the boat to find what’s working best. Yes, all around the boat, something I’d misunderstood till relatively recently, figuring it was always better to cast up ahead(ish) of the drifting boat in deep water. Now I know differently. In situations when the wind conflicts with a strong tidal flow, the lure can get swept along much faster than the boat moves on the surface because it’s slowed by the wind. This means that the soft-plastic lure, if tethered by a tight line – as it should be when approaching the bottom – can act like a long, thin sail, catching the current and preventing the lure from touching down.

Admittedly a heavier lead-head can sometimes overcome this problem, but the resulting faster descent (reducing the potential for mid-water strikes) and poor presentation near the bottom (due to the heavy lure’s ponderous action) create two new ones. I therefore prefer to stick with more lightly weighted lead-heads if possible, especially as the fish that bite when the lure’s in mid-fall tend to be those bigger fish we love to encounter. To a certain extent, the longer the descent the better – provided you do get down.

In some situations it pays to try casting out somewhere well behind the boat (again, it pays to experiment with the various angles here), then allowing the current to sweep the sinking lure back towards and even past the boat. At some stage, if you’ve cast far enough at a suitable angle, released sufficient line, and have a well-weighted lure head, the soft-plastic will reach the bottom, trundle along for a while, then slowly lift off as the progressively tightening line is caught in the current. Bites are a real possibility during all three phases.

So forwards, backwards, to the side, whatever – look for casting angles that allow the most lightly weighted soft-plastic possible to sink down to the bottom, without slack line continually being created in the process, both while descending and during the retrieve.

Having disclosed one of my secrets to success, unless you come across the wind-against-tide situation mentioned earlier, I suggest starting off by casting as far as possible in the vague direction your boat appears to be drifting, but also to the side somewhat, as this will usually result in a longer, more effective retrieve.

Now you need to decide on your descent method. One involves whipping off a couple of rod lengths of line immediately after the lure touches down, then clicking the bail-arm over and ensuring the line is sitting on the bail-arm roller – just in case you need to respond to a surprise strike.

Next, watch the excess line lying on the surface as it disappears into the water, staying alert for any sudden slackening, jerks or acceleration. If any of these things happen, wind quickly to remove the remaining slack line, and either lift or jiggle the rod upwards to check for added weight. If there is, strike firmly to set the hook.

Otherwise, the line will eventually tighten up, signalling it’s now direct to the soft-plastic lure arcing/‘swimming’ downwards. Stay especially alert for any unusual behaviour of your line at this point, as mid-water bites are often made by the bigger, more aggressive snapper – the ones we really want to hook.

The other descent method commonly used is similar to the first, except that the angler quickly and steadily feeds line off the reel’s spool before any tension from the falling lure is felt. Again, it’s important to stay vigilant throughout, with any unusual line activity prompting a rapid bail-arm close, handle wind (to remove any slack line and place the braid correctly on the bail roller) and then a strike/jiggling lift of the rod.

If nothing happens on the descent and the lure reaches the bottom unmolested, commence a series of stuttering rod lifts and reel winds at a rate that allows the lure to stay in reasonably direct contact, both with you and the sea floor. One recommendation though: it pays to keep your rod tip down and pointing down the line as it enters the water. Also, try not to lift the rod higher than 45 degrees while manipulating the lure, because setting the hook into biting fish becomes difficult or impossible when the rod’s too elevated.

Sometimes the line doesn’t slacken at all no matter how long you wait, suggesting the lure never reached the bottom. Possibly you didn’t cast ahead far enough and/or release sufficient extra line to provide the free-fall length required for the lure to continue arcing downwards to the sea floor prior to engaging the reel.

Or, as already mentioned, maybe you simply cast at the wrong angle.

Always try casting at different angles first and then, if you still fail to get down, or it takes forever and the lure is whisked up off the bottom again too quickly, it’s probably time to change to a heavier lead-head.

On the other hand, if the line sags down quickly between lure hops during the retrieve, the boat and lure are heading towards one another, making manipulating the lure and detecting bites difficult. So again, try changing the casting angle by perhaps 45-90 degrees to see if this helps.

And don’t worry too much if this all sounds too complicated – I caught thousands of snapper (and other fish) before coming to grips with the finer points of deep water soft-baiting as described!

Read part I: http://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-advice/how-to/softbait-fishing-on-the-drift/

Read part II: http://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-advice/how-to/softbait-fishing-techniques-2016-pt-ii/

	This article is reproduced with permission of    New Zealand Fishing News March 2016 - By Mark Kitteridge Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited