Terry Lacoss
A big difference between successful fishermen and fishermen that seldom bend a fishing rod is their ability to fish without being heard.
Both fresh and saltwater are excellent transmitters of sound On a calm day, you may be able to hear fishermen talking from a football field away unaware of nearby fishermen listening to every word they say. Certainly if fishermen can listen in to conversations a football field away, game fish lurking in the water column below have a better advantage of detecting unusual sounds.
Shallow water fishermen more than likely were the first fishermen to discover how important it is to fish with stealth when approaching game fish, particularly when holding in shallow water.
“When I first came out with the Power Pole in the year 2000, many fishermen were hard to sell my new product to,” John Oliverio owner and founder of the Power Pole”said, “Fishermen believed that anchoring with a regular anchor, or using their push pole to stake out shallow water game fish was a better option at the time.”
However, a few fishermen like Gregg Watts recognized right away the advantages of Oliverio’s new Power Pole and purchased Oliverio’s Power Pole for shallow water game fishing.
Today the Power Pole has become one of the greatest fishing inventions during the past decade. The unit deploys a long composite shaft into the bottom with its hydraulic pump, allowing shallow water fishermen to anchor in depths of up to eight feet of water. More importantly, the Power Pole does not damage sensitive bottom habitats while anchoring your skiff quietly enough that nearby game fish are not alerted to your presence.
Anchoring in a heavy current or wind often causes the anchor to drag along the bottom resulting in damaging the bottom and, more importantly, disturbing nearby game fish.
Today John Oliverio’s Power Pole was outfitted on eighty-five of the bass boats competing in the Bass Master’s elite series. Thirty-five of the eighty-five Bass Master boats were rigged with twin Power Poles.
Obviously, when bass masters are targeting tournament-winning bass in shallow water, their bass boat can be anchored quietly and within casting distance of capturing a big money tournament prize.
Actually from day one when John Oliverio invented his Power Pole, Oliverio competed on the redfish Tour with team partner Howie Green. Winning the FLW redfish stop in Inglewood, Florida really capitalized Oliverio’s goals on telling fishermen how quiet and important his Power Pole product really was.
While continuing to compete on the redfish tour, John Oliverio is able to not only sharpen his fishing skills, but also make new developments to his quiet shallow water anchoring system.
“Today when Howie Green and I are fishing on a redfish flat, it really gives me a lot of satisfaction when we see nearby shallow water skiffs raising and lowering their power poles,” John Oliverio said.
To make a point why fishing with complete silence is so critical in shallow water, engage your electric trolling motor on high or toss your anchor into the water and watch nearby fish blow out of your casting range!
Deep water game fish can also be spooked by unfamiliar sounds, particularly made by anchors, the slamming of storage lids and the vibrations made by wide diameter fishing lines when trolled through the water column.
I once had a grouper fisherman ask me why he wasn’t catching excellent eating grouper during the fall fishing season when most bottom fishermen were enjoying success.
Come to find out the deep sea bottom fisherman was using an anchor rope, anchor, and chain that could anchor the largest battleship in the Navy’s fleet. Here, the bottom fisherman would navigate right over the deep water ledge with his boat and toss over his heavy anchor and chain only a few yards up current of his targeted grouper ledge.
Several fish-spooking problems surface by the grouper fisherman’s anchoring techniques. First of all, by running directly over the grouper ledge with his boat and motor more than likely spooked his targeted grouper down below. Secondly, by dropping his heavy anchor too close to the fishy ledge more than likely resulted in spooking targeted grouper if the noises of his boat made didn’t.
My recommendations were to swap out the heavy galvanized metal anchor for a lighter aluminum anchor and smaller chain. Also employ a 3/4 inch anchor rope instead of his 1-1/4 inch anchor rope. More importantly, by navigating farther up current of the ledge and lowering the anchor with stealth, he could more than likely keep the grouper down below in an active feeding mode. Once anchored, water currents passing over the smaller diameter anchor rope is less likely to spook deep water game fish as well.
After talking with the grouper fisherman on his fishing rod and reel tactics, I soon found that he was grouper fishing with one size weight—a sixteen ounce bank sinker. Once the bait was barbed, it was dropped rapidly to the bottom structure down below. My recommendation was to use just enough weight to hold his grouper bait on the bottom and most importantly, descend his bait slower to the bottom so that grouper holding just above the structure would have a chance to discover his offering.
Unfamiliar sounds may go unheard by game fish when trolling during rough water conditions. However, when calm seas are present, unfamiliar sounds often spook wary game fish from taking trolled baits or lures.
Trolling when seas are calm often requires deep sea fishermen to employ lures or baits with a longer drop back distance from the boat. For example, instead of using a 75-foot drop back distance on a long flat line, or outrigger bait, using a 100- to125-foot drop back distance will produce more strikes. Increasing the drop back distances on downrigger and surface baits will also increase your chances in hooking up to quality striking game fish during calm sea conditions.
The noises emitted by your trolling boat approaching a school of game fish spooks game fish when calm seas are present. By making wide turns and using a longer drop back distance with your baits you will increase your odds of hooking up to a variety of fast swimming pelagic species. Avoid trolling in a straight line when seas are calm and when at all possible, troll towards your targeted striking fish by making a wide turn so that your baits, and not your boat, comes in contact with striking game fish.
Unfamiliar noises that fish simply are not accustomed to include the slamming of boat lids, dropping a bait bucket on the boat deck, the slapping of waves against the side of your fishing boat, and many more unnatural sounds tend to spook wary game fish.
Have you often wondered why the fish stopped biting as soon as nearby boats discovered the hot bite? You had discovered a huge school of tournament winning fish and were the only boat targeting that unmolested school of game fish. However, as soon as nearby boats discovered the hot bite, your fish became spooked and migrated to far away waters.
More than likely it was the increased number of boats fishing your once virgin waters that shooed your game fish away. Waves slapping on the sides of numerous boats and numerous unfamiliar sounds were more than likely the culprit.
I have listened time and time again to successful tournament fishermen explain their number one priority is to find tournament waters during pre-fishing that are not heavily fished. Wise tournament fishermen will frequently troll far away from the fleet of tournament boats and land that winning fish that is also seeking to flee from crowded waters.
A classic example came when Joe Bruce captained Team Intertrim to a 52-lb kingfish while trolling several football fields north of the tournament fleet. Most of the SKA team boats were trolling in the deep waters of the St. Mary’s shipping channel and more than likely spooked Bruce’s big kingish right out to his unmolested waters! It was the 1992 Golden Isles Kingfish Tournament where Joe Bruce teamed up with Buddy Hutchinson for that big kingfish catch.
Obviously there are times when game fish are attracted to the prop wash where a flashing propeller blade simulates striking baitfish, or similar sounds that resemble baitfish under attack on the surface.
John Oliverio’s invention of the Power Pole was a huge step in becoming a quieter shallow water angler. Deep water fishermen need to be quiet too!
Angler magazine, November 2010
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