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Location: Illinois-Indiana | OK,
-Where do you start your Spring hunts (trolling)
-What speeds are you going
-Favorite baits?
-Do you start with the breaks
-Do you start with the warmest water
-Do you start with new weed growth
-Do you troll the flats
-Are you trolling rock
I know there will be a vast difference in answers because of the different times of year that your season opens, give the water temp at the time you will be trolling.
We have no closed season here in Illinois/Indiana, the lakes that I'm fishing have water temps from 49-55 at this time.
We trolled Thursday for about 5 hours, it rained all day, beat the weed edge to death (5'-8'), had some nice weeds topping out at about 4'. Tried zig zagging the breaks and weed edge, deep water, rocks, everything, NO GO:(
I started out from 2.5mph to 3.5mph with the speed and after a couple hours started to play with the speed, going all the way to 5mph.
Oh well, It beats sitting at home or going to work!!!!!!!!!!!:) |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | Ralph,
hit me with an e-mail
[email protected]
Thanks,
Mike Hulbert |
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| Dude, you might try deep points, and along channel edges, especially if there is structure involved. When all else fails, try to find some shad balled in up in open water...if all those fail, go to the mall and spend large amounts of cash on the girlfriend; it will hurt at first, but your pay day will come later in the form of being able to do what you want, as you have previously banked stock in the mall episode. If it works, let the rest of us know!  |
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Location: Illinois-Indiana | Sponge,
Sure thanks a lot, make me the "Guinea Pig" for your experiment.
NO THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | Seriously..the Mall thing (or dinner with her girlfriends, shopping on her own..etc) WORKS! I call it banking equity. A couple of those and you bought an entire day on the lake chasing esox. Breakfast in bed is a great time to announce you are hitting the lake too. Listen to Sponge..there is lots of knowledge in that sponge head. |
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| Lol Lobi...glad you said knowledge, and not wisdom! It does work, at least at first. I don't have to worry about breakfast in bed; no way in blaze Spongette would get up in time to eat... |
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Location: Illinois-Indiana | OK,
Anyone care to get back on the subject of trolling here:) |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | The 6 inch believers hooked on the deep setting will troll at a pretty fast clip. You can troll a bulldog, spinnerbait or even a bucktail. If I'm trolling somthing that will not stay down or if I want it deeper I use the OR clips and 4 to 10 oz of lead 8 feet or so above the lure. They clip off quickly when you have to remove them. Check out Kurts site at:
http://www.muskie-lures.com/rocketman/index1.htm
Lots of good trolling tips there.
sorry for the goofin' but ya have to have fun too.
-lobi |
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Posts: 1310
Location: Washington, PA | Did someone say sledge? |
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| Trolling shallow in the early season is key. Look for the warmest water and baitfish and you'll find muskies. I have found that the 3.5-4mph range is a good early season speed. Try trolling smaller baits such as monster shads and lil ernies along with smaller wiley crankbaits. Id like to help more but im not sure what type of lakes youll be fishing. And sledges are extremely good trolling baits especially at high speeds! |
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| MF, the chain is a goofy trolling bite this time of year. However bottom contact on the breaks from 6-10 feet seems to be productive. Get the baits down 6-8 feet and run them up into the mud that starts before the weeds, then turn back out to deep water. Keep doin that and fish will come...BR |
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SPRING TROLLING PATTERNS