Thread: Longliners question

Great question. Hope someone with some knowledge of longlining will answer for all of us.

I am by no means an expert but when i longline i run 4 out the back and 2 up front. One of the two rods up front on each side is usually a down rod with the other rod identical to the one's in back. Remember everybody has there own way of doing it. Find a system that works for you. You can longline out the back,front, back and front. There really is no wrong way of doing it. I will say this last thing though. When longlining out the front you will have to make longer slower turns than if you were longlining out the back.Hope i helped you out some.

I prefer front and back at the same time. Some days the bite is better out the back of the boat and some day it is better out the front of the boat. Just my $.02.

Check out bernard williams article on main page about longlining.

I run 1 12 foot pole of each side up front and 4 out the back when two of us are fishing Weiss. There is a pole limit on Weiss of 3 per angler. At Guntersville I fish with 6 out the back as long as the green carp are not too thick. It seems to me the poles out the back do a little better than those off the front.

When pulling jigs we typically run 4 from the front (sometimes 6) and 4 from the back. The main reason is that it spreads us out (not sitting side by side) and gives us more room and works for us. When running 4 and 4, I have an 18' and 14' out each side of the front and a 12' and 8' out each side of the back. It takes a little coordination and working together because if you are using the same size jig you can't have alot of line out on the front and short lines running out the back. This will give you troubles when you go to turn and lines cross. My dad hated this method when I first started it but now it is his favorite method!

1 person I fish 6 up front three out each side. If two people I'll have six up front and four to six out the back. Sometimes when by myself I'll fish six up front and experiment with different rids out the back and change colors and jig size on them.

If I am by my self I fish 3 out the front if someone is with me we fish 3 front and 3 off the back and I use 2 14footers and a 8 footer in front and 2- 12 and 1- 10 off of the back, I stagger the rods where we are covering about 35 foot swath on a pass.I wished I was like Scott and have some 18 footers. Most of the lakes I fish you can only fish 3 rods per person and that would be the Coosa chain of lakes.