Trolling setup tips on your 257 Fisherman

[1st8Eer]

We’re looking forward to taking delivery of our new 257 Fisherman in several months. We plan to head offshore for tuna and mahi later this summer. What trolling setup have you found to work well? We will have outriggers on our t-top. Did you add any extra rod holders along your gunnels?

 

[hooked on Grady]

Depending how you rig your outriggers you may find that rod holders on the tower legs will come in handy for both setting the spread and clearing the deck when hooked up. If you plan on using tracker bars for tuna fishing you can place a second release clip about 2' below the main clip holding the spreader bar. Then place single skirted lure back behind bar giving you extra hooked bait for each bar. With double rigged outriggers you have 4 rods on riggers plus 1 on center rigger then you have at least 2 flat lines. That said depending on sea conditions that doesn't always work out well. I use 9 rod holders on the gunnels and transom and 13 on tower and top. I also purpose rigged mine for tuna and Mahi-Mahi. Good luck with the new rig

 

[Hookup1]

I use double rigged outriggers with Rupp locking haylard blocks. I rig the short and the long the same length. You just have to remember not to push the "short" all the way up. This gives you better geometry in that the "short" and the "long" are in the same plane. It also makes stowing and setup easier. The Rupp block has a snap on it that connects to a ring with rope that is mounted on the gunnel and a cam cleat under the gunnel. I disconnect the Rupp block and secure to the rigger when not in use.

I have 5 rod holders across the back of the hardtop. If you are really hard core you can do a center rigger. I have seen some center riggers with bent butts that can drop in the center hardtop rod holder. 3 rod holders on each side of cockpit. 1 rods holder on each hardtop leg. 2 rod holders on transome with 5 rod rocket launcher dropped in.

On small boats you are limited on rigger length vs larger boats. You can't really spread stuff out enough. I can run 2 flat lines clipped down, 4 rigger baits and 1 center off the rod tip on the center aft rod holder. I sometimes clip a teaser to the short rigger that I run off a Cuban Yo-yo.

 

[SkunkBoat]

These days everyone is using sidetrackers/wide trackers for tuna. They tend to run right where a short rigger would run so you can simplify and just use the long riggers for ballyhoo, then side trackers out of middle rodholders, then flat lines off the corners and one WTFB bird/daisy chain down the center.
So at a minimum you need 3 rodholders on each side (staggered angles) and one in the center

For tuna sometimes we want a big noisy spread and use birds/daisy chains on the flat lines. Sometimes we use cedar plugs or metal lipped diving plug (they catch tuna)
For Mahi on pots and weed lines, ditch the side trackers and use the short riggers with strip baits