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Posts: 1671
| If you were setting up a boat 20' or less for trolling what would you have? Would you go with a 17' boat, 60 hp and troll with the main? 20' with a big main and troll with a kicker? Length of rods? I'm looking for ideas for 1 or maybe 2 man trolling, bigger water like Rainy, Vermilion, Mille Lacs but not water like Green Bay or other monster size lakes.
Opinions, idea's, things you would want in the boat. Curious to what experienced trollers would get.
Thank you. |
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Posts: 189
| I wanted to expand my options for all species to include trolling but did not want the expense of having a kicker motor. After waiting 6 months for a 90 HP Yamaha I took delivery of an 185 AlumaCraft Competitor tiller in late August 2020. Boat has since seen GB on a regular basis plus Vermillion and numerous lakes in Northern Wisconsin. The 90 yami will troll down to just under 2 mph and the boat is big enough for larger bodies of water. That being said I won't do Green Bay with a NE wind but I can still get it into those gravel Launches in northern Wis. I prefer to cast but when the situation is right I troll and we had a nice 3 fish day pulling 22 Longs in Northern Wiscon last fall when we observed fish suspended off structure on the side imaging. IMO the boat has a better layout than the comparable crestliner and a lower price point than Lund. As my friends pointed out it a great boat for an old man.
Good Luck |
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Posts: 426
| I fish a Lund 1775 Impact. I opted for the kicker. I wanted the security of a back up motor when fishing big water and I wanted to keep the hours down on the main motor. A new kicker is about $3200.00 a lot less expensive to replace when the hours add up then $10,000.00 plus for the main motor. Plus I troll 4 or 5 hs on a gallon or so of gas.
Edited by 7ovr50 3/14/2022 6:34 AM
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| After I retired, bought a used 18' Pro V tiller that had a kicker. It was nice to have but when single line trolling was allowed the next year in Northern WI, I used it and was glad I had it. Only issue was because of the location of the kicker and the captain seat both on the starboard side, little awkward. Bought a jointed tiller handle extension that allows me to be more comfortable. |
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | The kicker will take those trolling hours off your big motor. |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | Depends on how you want to troll. If primarily open water with a bunch of lines and boards I'd get set up with a windshield and a super comfortable captains chair. If more precision trolling you can't beat a tiller. For solo trolling my 618T is the perfect rig for me. Handles big water well enough(green bay) and can get it into some pretty sketchy landings up north. Tracks are more versatile than rails if you have the option. I like the FAT AZ holders excited to try the projectX I picked up this winter:) I have a 90hp on mine and put hundreds of hours on each year. It's a 2004 Johnzuki and hasn't skipped a beat. I will repower when the time comes. Either way, Get the biggest GPS with mapping software like autochart that you can afford. Side imaging is nice but still not sure that it puts more fish in my boat than 2D...autochart absolutely does. I use between 7ft and 8.6 ft trolling rods. Hope that helps...trolling is FUN! |
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Posts: 1671
| MD75 - 3/14/2022 6:24 PM
Depends on how you want to troll. If primarily open water with a bunch of lines and boards I'd get set up with a windshield and a super comfortable captains chair. If more precision trolling you can't beat a tiller. For solo trolling my 618T is the perfect rig for me. Handles big water well enough(green bay) and can get it into some pretty sketchy landings up north. Tracks are more versatile than rails if you have the option. I like the FAT AZ holders excited to try the projectX I picked up this winter:) I have a 90hp on mine and put hundreds of hours on each year. It's a 2004 Johnzuki and hasn't skipped a beat. I will repower when the time comes. Either way, Get the biggest GPS with mapping software like autochart that you can afford. Side imaging is nice but still not sure that it puts more fish in my boat than 2D...autochart absolutely does. I use between 7ft and 8.6 ft trolling rods. Hope that helps...trolling is FUN!
Thank you, as soon as the wheel boat sells i'll be looking for another tiller. I've always used Down East Salties on rails but would consider tracks I suppose.
Thank you for the input. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Check out these rod holders for both rail and track. m
http://fatazmusky.com/store/ |
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Posts: 1671
| Thanks, I'm happy with Down East. |
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | I run Scotty's and I troll on LSC and for salmon. If I had to use salty's I wouldn't troll. |
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Posts: 536
Location: deephaven mn | when using boards i recommend adding rod trees. It keeps rods higher and cuts down on line drag in water and waves.
also easier to grad rod. |
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| Living in northern WI, when I troll by myself, I can only run one line. Most of the fish I have caught trolling have been short line, in the prop wash. However, last year just out of curiosity, I bought a planer board and ran it a little to make sure I knew how it worked, etc. My question is whether it is worth it when limited to one line to run it occasionally to the side behind a planer board. Seems that it would be but don't really know.
I still can't over catching musky that hit a bait being trolled 8-10 feet behind a working outboard. Almost 60 years ago when I first got to fish in northern WI, I often rowed the boat while my uncle cast and got chewed out if I made noise which was hard not to in a bare aluminum boat. Apparently musky didn't get the memo about noise. |
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Posts: 1188
| I too, mostly fish alone, so only have one rod out. The only time I use a planer board is on Green Bay, as the area I fish, has gin clear water. None of the other places I fish, have water that clear. |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | North of 8- Yes it can be worth it to run a planer board even with just one line out. I find it most useful to keep a bait up higher that would usually go to deep or to position my bait over weeds and keep the boat out off the breakline. I would rather not run boards solo, but have found them to be a necessary evil at times....good luck! |
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| MD75 - 3/21/2022 5:53 PM
North of 8- Yes it can be worth it to run a planer board even with just one line out. I find it most useful to keep a bait up higher that would usually go to deep or to position my bait over weeds and keep the boat out off the breakline. I would rather not run boards solo, but have found them to be a necessary evil at times....good luck!
Thanks. That was pretty much what I was doing the couple times I used them, putting the bait on a fairly short line to limit its depth and running the board out so that it was not in weeds but close the weedline. Just did it a couple times to get an idea of how they ran, how much line I needed to let out to get it the desired distance from the boat, etc.. Worked pretty well given my limited time with it. Being retired, I have time to play with stuff and that was one I plan to do more of this season. Have a neighbor who recently retired and wants go fishing more but has shoulder issues which limit how long he can cast, so may also do some two line trolling this summer. |
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Posts: 1204
Location: Walker, MN | I love the versatility of tracks. I have Folbes and tube rod holders, cup holders, and a livescope pole that can go anywhere there's a track. A short track on the bow accepts my mast, a bow graph, and/or the livescope pole. |
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