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Posts: 2060
Location: Appleton,WI | Ive been having some really good days in september 2-7 fish to be exact.My question is 98% of the fish are hitting propwash or straight lines tight to the boat.
2% are hitting the boards.My question is does the boats vibration or sound of the motor attracting these fish??
Why isnt the boards getting hit as much?Ive moved them closer to the boat and further away.and also tried differant presentations with it. |
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| Sometimes the prop-wash seems to be the only thing that gets hit when trolling. The percentages should'nt be that one sided year after year. Maybe you are trolling on the breakline with your boat and the board is 50 ft off the strikezone in deeper water. Try using deeper lines on the board that is on the steeper side of the break. The one thing to remember is that it's better to have those lines on boards out just in case of that roaming giant. It will still up your odds even if it's not screaming like the other rods. I think you're doing a great job if your lines are going off and fish are being put in the boat. You can just use the side boards to experiment with different depths and baits. good luck! |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Propwash/straight rods are closest to the boat and therfore are the first lures that the fish see go by. Whats the water clarity like where your fishing?? I doubt the boat noise has anything to do with attracting musky. It may spook baitfish which the muskys take advantage of. |
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Posts: 2893
Location: Yahara River Chain | I'm sure from years of experience that muskies learn that prop wash means bait fish scatter from there and head right to them. I know many of the guys that motor troll here in Madison use short lines and no boards. 10 feet from the end of the rod tip is "long" here. Rod tips in the water and tight turns next to the weed edges take many of those fish. |
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Posts: 2060
Location: Appleton,WI | Im fishing really Green water with lots of algee.does the darker water make the fish go for the motor noise?? |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | I think the most likely explanation is that the fish see those lures first. If your trolling tight to cover I could see where the noise of the boat would scatter baitfish. Over deeper water I doubt the baitfish or the muskies pay much attention to the motor noise.
Is there allot of surface debri (floating weeds)? I usually have to run weights on my weed clips to keep the lures in the zone. If I dont than the weeds pull the line up and the lure runs shallower than it would next to the boat with the same amount of line |
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| E,
I would guess your fishing a body of water that contains the Great Lakes strain.
I think everything must be coming together just right for this pattern to be that dominant,fish,forage,temp,time of year,yada-yada!
Milk that sucker till the cows come home! |
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Posts: 34
| If you are structure trolling as opposed to open water trolling I would guess that the boat rods and down or propwash rods are closely following the same contour lines as the path of your boat. If your boat is on or over fish these lures will be right in their face and the most likely to get bit. So job well done on your behalf. The board rods are more then likely out of the strike zone even when fished tight to the boat. Its always worth keeping them out where legal. Once the bite changes and the fish move the boards will produce. Try running a shallow lure on the inside board rod and let it run up onto the structure and run a deeper lure off the outside board rod and let it cover the open water as you troll the edges to look for roamers...... |
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Posts: 2060
Location: Appleton,WI | I looked back on my gps and it seems like all the trolling paths are over open water or near the gravel mudline transition.So tecnically it shouldnt matter where the boards are right? |
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Posts: 1530
| trolling is an art. many times boat rods will out produce boards if theres a good chop. wave action can create stalling and erratic bait action. it tiggers fish. we run a little larger bait in the wash. try a 1lb ball and 10 feet or 4 ounces and 40 ft . they are deadly on st clair.. boards are a great way to spread your baits and are the most deadly approach invented. they were created and used first on the west coast salmon fishing. the great lakes guys adopted this approach in the 70,s on st clair. |
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Questions for the trollers.