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Salt Water Fishing:
How to Find Fish Offshore

Ninety percent of the fish live in about one percent of the water. Here is how to work out where that one percent is before you ever leave the dock.

7 min read · David Rose · Location Guide

The purpose of this article is to consider a few things that will hopefully make us more successful as we pursue our goal. The focus will be fishing for pelagic species such as wahoo, dolphin, tuna, and billfish, but the principles apply in many other salt water fishing scenarios.

The takeaway should be an answer to one question: what can I do to increase the odds that my ballyhoo gets in front of the fish I am after? Never head offshore without a plan.

Why a plan

Why is an offshore fishing plan important?

The further offshore you are going, the more important the plan becomes. The open ocean is vast, with 90% of the fish occupying about 1% of the water. That sounds a little like looking for a needle in a haystack, but if you are consistently fishing in the right 1%, your odds improve dramatically. To be successful you need to find the pockets of water where fish are congregating.

Time spent planning before the trip decides how much of the day is spent in productive water.

Fish are relatively simple creatures, and they care about two major things.

Food source

Bait is the single most important factor in determining where fish will congregate. No bait, no gamefish.

Living conditions

Pelagic fish are particular about where they will travel. They prefer specific temperatures, salinity levels, and clarity, and ideal conditions vary by species.

It helps to think of the water we fish as two distinct bodies: inshore and offshore.

Inshore water

Nutrient rich · lower salinity · lower clarity · green in color · generally less current.

Offshore water

Fewer nutrients · higher salinity · higher clarity · blue in color · stronger current.

Baitfish tend to hold in the inshore water. The conditions offshore make pelagic species more comfortable. So the regions where those two bodies converge greatly improve your chances of trolling a bait in front of a trophy fish. That interface acts like a fence: it keeps baitfish from venturing further offshore, and the gamefish do not have to leave their comfort zone to eat.

As you start formulating a game plan, begin by considering how the characteristics differ between inshore and offshore water: temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, current, and color. Without question, the best way to look for these characteristics is satellite imagery.

Rigged and ready

Finding the water is step one

Once you are in the right 1%, it comes down to whether your bait is swimming right. TrollTrue lures are molded from 100% lead with an integrated keel weight, so the bait swims true instead of spinning.

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Satellite imagery

Using SST fishing charts

Sea surface temperature (SST) is just that: the water temperature at the surface. SST gets the most attention of any satellite imagery, and a sharp one to two degree temperature break can definitely concentrate fish.

Finding a good temperature break is always a big positive. The challenge is that temperature data depends on cloud-free conditions. Imagery cannot see through clouds, and optimal cloud conditions are often few and far between. To compensate, imagery services use sophisticated algorithms to work around cloud cover, but accuracy is the sacrifice.

A sharp one to two degree temperature break is one of the strongest signals available before you leave the dock.

Chlorophyll fishing charts

Chlorophyll is another characteristic easily identified with satellite imagery. Chlorophyll images help spot where water conditions, primarily nutrients, are such that algae can bloom. Unfortunately, like temperature images, chlorophyll images are hindered by cloud cover.

Cloud-free salinity charts

Inshore water is influenced by rain and freshwater input from rivers, which results in lower salinity. Salinity imagery illustrates the subtlety of those differences between inshore and offshore water. One particularly attractive feature is that salinity images do not depend on cloud-free conditions, so you can count on having salinity information regardless of the sky.

The downside, particularly when differentiating inshore from offshore water, is that the gradient is often gradual. That subtle gradient translates into wider uncertainty about exactly where the inshore/offshore interface sits.

Finding fish with offshore currents

Current is another characteristic that separates coastal inshore water from offshore water. It is easily distinguished with satellite imagery and, like salinity, it is independent of cloud conditions.

Current edges read in any sky conditions, which makes them a dependable backup when cloud cover kills the temperature data.

Pro tip

Do not read these characteristics independently. Look for areas of convergence, where multiple water characteristics intersect with the steepest gradients. The idea is to use as much information as possible to focus your effort on the most productive water and tilt the odds in your favor.

Structure

Structure = offshore fish

Another piece of information available before you leave the docks is structure. There are countless sources for identifying structure in your fishing area, and if you have been fishing long, you have likely used them already.

Structure provides cover for baitfish, and bait tends to congregate around it for the protection it offers. Structure comes in many forms: rocks, ledges, wrecks, swells, and humps in the ocean floor.

Tight bottom contours hold bait, and bait holds gamefish.

Work the structure inside the favorable water, not the numbers you always run to.

A good topographical map is very useful here. The closer the bottom contour lines on a navigational chart, the more severe the drop-off and, usually, the better the area for attracting bait and gamefish. Offshore currents can also push eddies of offshore water inshore. These eddies are often visible in satellite imagery, and those small pockets can be very productive.

Water first

Start with the water that makes your target species comfortable.

Then structure

Ask where structure sits inside that favorable water, not the other way around.

Skip the habit

Many anglers skip the homework and simply run to the structure they always fish.

For more on putting a spread over that structure once you find it, read Mastering Offshore Fishing Techniques.

On the water

Use your eyes to find fishing spots

At some point it comes time to head out and fish. Even after doing everything possible to identify the most productive water, there is still a lot of water left. You can be confident that conditions are favorable and that baitfish cannot be far off. But without bait, gamefish will probably not be abundant, and even if you find a few, they will not stay long if bait never shows. Without baitfish, you are usually better off exploring other areas with favorable conditions than waiting out the arrival of fish.

Birds are the longest-range visual tool you have for locating bait.

Seeing baitfish is obviously the best visual cue that bait is in the area. That might mean marking bait on the chart recorder, seeing schools of flying fish, spotting pods of bait on the surface, or watching gamefish break the surface chasing bait. Whatever the form, seeing bait is great news.

The limitation is how far you can actually see. On a good day you might spot bait up to a hundred yards away. The good news is that gamefish are not the only things feeding on baitfish. Marine mammals, particularly porpoise, are a good cue that you are in the right area.

Pro tip

Birds are the best visual cue available for locating baitfish in promising water. With binoculars, or even radar, you can let birds lead you to the bait from well beyond the range of anything else you can see from the helm.

Bottom line

Read the water first, then the structure inside it, then use your eyes to confirm bait. Finding fish is step one. Getting them on the line is the next.

Your offshore partner

Find the fish. Then make the bait swim true.

TrollTrue Lures are a unique line of trolling lures designed to present natural baits in the most realistic manner possible.

Water

Look for convergence: temperature, chlorophyll, salinity, and current stacking up together.

Structure

Ledges, wrecks, and humps inside the favorable water.

Eyes

Bait on the recorder, flyers, porpoise, and above all, birds.

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