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Posts: 1664
| Does your trolling speed depend on the time of year and water temp or on how the bait runs in the water?
Was thinking of taking a sharpie and writing the boat speed on the bait that it ran best at.
Thanks. |
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Posts: 1197
Location: Walker, MN | Most of my trolling is 3.5-4.5, and most of my best baits run well and will get eaten in that speed range. An occasional burst of speed might even make some lures blow-out a bit, this seems to be a decent trigger though. |
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Posts: 1664
| Thank you, does water temp play into how fast you troll? |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | The time of year does dictate speed and speed dictates the lures used. I have slowed doen to 2-2.5mph in cold water and up to 4.5-5 when it is warm. Most of the time 3.5-4 between the 55 degree spring/fall water temps.
Edited by ToddM 4/5/2018 6:36 PM
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Posts: 1197
Location: Walker, MN | Brian Hoffies - 4/5/2018 6:29 PM
Thank you, does water temp play into how fast you troll?
Not too much for me, we typically cast once the water is 70+. If I were to troll in 70+ I would probably go 4-5.5 mph. |
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Posts: 2222
Location: SE, WI. |
Brian Hoffies - 4/5/2018 6:29 PM Thank you, does water temp play into how fast you troll? Yes, and No. For the most part, higher water temperature, higher speeds, BUT, WAY too many variables to give a solid answer. I think water clarity is huge , when to, or NOT to, turn up the speed. I remember a situation one fall where we fished a Neck Down area, about a 300 yard stretch. 3 times through with NO hits, and marking about 10 hooks each time through. We were doing about 3.5-4 mph, with a 41 degree water temp. What would you do???? I can hear the gears grinding NOW;). Slow down right???? Wrong...........Kicked it up to 5.2.... Bingo!!! Started catching fish. Case an Point....experiment, learn from your adventures...Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained! JD |
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Posts: 330
Location: Pittsburgh, pa | I always troll from 4.8 to 5.3 is my average. I run my plows at 4.0-4.5 !!!
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| 3.5 mph max in the late fall,not a lot slower because many lures like the believer barely move if it's too slow.musky metabolism slow down a lot more than pike when the temp are very cold that's why slower speed is a lot more effective than the 5-6 mph used during summer time.i would even troll slower but like a said most lures don't work or even float when it's 2 slow,but i know one lure that can be trolled at 2 mph and when we are in the 50 zone it outproduced all my cranks and move like nothing else |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Brian Hoffies - 4/5/2018 4:27 PM
Does your trolling speed depend on the time of year and water temp or on how the bait runs in the water?
Was thinking of taking a sharpie and writing the boat speed on the bait that it ran best at.
Thanks.
Trolling speed is dictated by the fishes activity level, generally in cold water a slower speed is checked 1st. In the warmer times a faster speed., Cold-blooded animal.
As the others have already said you should check out all speeds and let me add, all depths at the same time. A good trolling lure needs to run at all speeds and we need enough different lures to cover all the depths as well. If we have a lure that runs at the "perfect speed" a speed that entices a strike at the time but it only runs at 15" and the fish are in 20', 25' or deeper we have little or no chance. Trolling water deeper than 8-10' means it must be basically put it right on their nose to get em to strike, most of the time. 4-6mph is a good starting point for muskie. I've probably caught 60-70% of all the pike and muskie at that speed. Imo when active, muskies and pike will take a lure at a wide range of speeds, it's that 30% of the time where fine tuning may be required.
I use Buck Perry's Spoonplug most of the time because they run at exact depths and can be trolled at about as slow as you can go and up to as fast as needed without blowing out. I've seen muskies caught at 10+ mph, very few muskie lures can be run at that rate of speed and run at a precise depth. Happy trolling! |
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| a lure 5 feet away from the mouth of the fish, is not supposed to work well ? |
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Location: Vilas | Sorry, but I couldnt disagree more with jerryb.... ive marked fish at 30'+ only to have my baits running at 10' hit within seconds of marking them.... 20' is the swipe of a tail if they want your bait |
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Posts: 2222
Location: SE, WI. | sukrchukr - 4/23/2018 11:39 AM Sorry, but I couldnt disagree more with jerryb.... ive marked fish at 30'+ only to have my baits running at 10' hit within seconds of marking them.... 20' is the swipe of a tail if they want your bait My Question is; How do you know it was the same fish you marked at 30' ??? JerryB; is one of the premier trollers in the Midwest, and Canada. You may NOT want to disagree too strongly;) JD
Edited by jdsplasher 4/23/2018 11:59 AM
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Location: Vilas | It very well could be a diff fish....but not everytime... it has happened too many times to say coming up 20' wont happen....I believe jerryb said if youre 5' above the fish you have little or no chance at the fish... I personally dont believe that...and dont care who tells me different, Ive done my share of trolling as well and I know better
Edited by sukrchukr 4/23/2018 6:18 PM
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Location: Eastern Ontario | sukrchukr - 4/23/2018 7:16 PM
It very well could be a diff fish....but not everytime... it has happened too many times to say coming up 20' wont happen....I believe jerryb said if youre 5' above the fish you have little or no chance at the fish... I personally dont believe that...and dont care who tells me different, Ive done my share of trolling as well and I know better
I completely agree. I fish water where I can count pebbles on bottom in 35 feet of water on a calm day 20 feet is nothing. Years ago I was casting a bucktail in calm clear water and saw a muskie travel about 8 feet to intercept the lure just as it hit the water whether it thought it was intercepting a bird I don't know but she definitely saw and wanted it. I often fish lake trout before muskie season and watch on the graph as a trout will launch like a titan missile off the bottom and hit a spoon trailing a cannonball 25 feet above them.
Edited by horsehunter 4/23/2018 6:50 PM
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | That begs tbe question, how far up in the water column can a musky travel based on their ability to regulate the air bladder? I have to think that has to play part in a willingness to go up 20ft plus to eat in an instant. I remenber once catching a nice pike over 15ft of water that could expell the air and died. Trout and salmon have an ability to regulate it quickly over very long distances. Not all fish do. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | I think muskies can expel air in their swim bladder directly through a duct and I will double check. I don't think coming up less than 30 feet is an issue with proper handling. I know we are told UNDER NO CIRCCUMSTANCES TO FIZZ them. I have seen St Lawrence muskies visually expand in the net yet release after allowing a bit of time to regain upright stability. I have often wondered about the release weighted gismos the saltwater guys use. Gota love 6 foot livewells although technically not legal in Ontario for anything under the min size limit. ( 55 inches on the Larry)
Edited by horsehunter 4/23/2018 7:44 PM
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| i'm like many guys,im sure a lure always have to be over their heads but when i look at vids like this 44 pounder pike i start to be a lil bit less sure about that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BedMNtw-g34 |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | supertrollr - 4/24/2018 3:04 PM
i'm like many guys,im sure a lure always have to be over their heads but when i look at vids like this 44 pounder pike i start to be a lil bit less sure about that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BedMNtw-g34
Do muskies feed on suckers, catfish, walleye? Where do they spend most of their
time?
Years ago we would fish a spot in late Nov and Dec where the shore dropped off very quickly into 35 feet of water. we would pull the boat up on shore build a fire . We would then cast a spinnerbait out as far as we could let it sink to the bottom and slowly drag it along the bottom with the blade just ticking over. Many musky were caught but we would never fish that spot if any other boats were around but most had quit by that time. Normally we were breaking ice to get out.
Edited by horsehunter 4/24/2018 5:45 PM
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| we have encounter a story almost similar to that .years ago my and my gf were trolling for for a reason that i can't remember we stop the boat,so the spinnerbaits drop to the bottom for sure and seconds after that the rod start to bent,so we start to fight the fish ,we will never know what it was because it unhook near the boat |
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