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| Which one is really better?
Trolling can be efective, but overall add up your time.
Casting gives you so many options and you get to trick them into a figure eight. | |
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| Let us stir the stew a little.
Trolling is something I do while I eat lunch!
I will most likley do it more when I reallllly get old!
The thing about trolling is if you are running the boat, you actually are fishing with every pole that is out of your boat, not the "WINDER-INNER" setting with you![:devil:] | |
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| Eating is what I do in between casts!!! :) Of course I also troll and eat too. No expert here, but it kind of tickles me when I here this talk about how trolling is not fishing but dragging a lure behind the boat. There was this fellow at work that put a lot of emphasis about what a great fisherman he is and how much money he spends on his equipment and that trolling is not "sporting" and how he likes to "trick" the fish with his special "wiggles, etc. What a bunch of BS! I told him that I trolled a lot for Muskies (actually Tigers where I live). He didn't have a whole lot to say after I started posting the pictures of Tigers on my office wall above my desk along with pictures of Bass up to 8 1/2 pounds caught while trolling, some with planer boards. Never did see any of his pictures!
Of course it's thrilling to catch a big fish on a topwater (or any other way) casting! It's also a real thrill to hear your reel alarm go off and look behind your boat as a Muskie is sailing in the air! Man, that's the best of both worlds!
I troll in between spots, cover larger areas of water and can also get my crankbaits deeper while trolling. However, it's also thrilling to have a fish hit at the side of your boat figure-eighting or as you are lifting your lure out the water after a retrieve while casting. For accurate placement of your lures, obviously casting is the way to go. However, it's also more tiring.
I also cast jigs early in the year in shallow water, and deeper as the season goes on. I also let the boat drift while dragging them on the bottom after CASTING them out. However, perhaps dragging them behind the boat is TROLLING?
My biggest fish (Tigers and Bass) all have come while trolling. Of course, I catch more fish while casting. If you check the records, most of them have come while trolling. Of course, I bet most people catch more fish casting.
Fish have a pea sized brain and never have an original thought in their lives. Whether you catch them casting or trolling - they don't care. Sporting? - I play with them in the boat.
I love to cast and bought those special light St. Croix's to ease my pain while those 57 year-old bones get a serious work-out. My neck, shoulder, back, arms and knees hurt like hell after throwing baits up to 10" long and weighing up to five ounces. When I"m pooped out, trolling helps me as I rest my back on my boat seats. Of course, it does hurt my butt to sit so long resting as I troll!
After a day's fishing (I usually fish 3 days during the week for about five hours, and one or two days on the weekends from 5-8 hours)I hurt like hell from casting too much and dragging a lure behind my boat! However, I really feel great on the way home even though I may have gotten skunked! After all, a bad day on the water beats a good day at work.
A couple of weeks ago I had an operation to repair torn cartialge in my left knee. Right now, I would die to cast or troll! My wife asks me: "how can you stand going out there all the time by yourself and seldom catch those fish?" I tell her -you've got to be kidding!!!" Tight lines! - Tom
[:bigsmile:] | |
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| Trolling without a doubt. The only time casting would be better is really cold water when slow and live bait are necessary and structures you cannot troll. In the summer and into fall, trolling has always put the fish in the boat. | |
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| Trolling, in the past week we caught 2 fish eating lunch. I admit it can be considered a lazy way to fish but I don't like arguing with success.
-Phil | |
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| Well, I'll give my 2 cents to this question as I feel it relates to suspended, open water fish. First, I will assume we are trolling with one line vs. casting with one line (not trolling with so many rods that your boat looks like a porcupine and with so many bodies on board that the water is about to come over the gunwale [;)]).
Generally, in Wisconsin, where the basins are relatively small (ie. maximum of a few hundred acres), I believe you will boat more fish per hour casting vs. trolling. My view on this would change, however, as late summer approaches (fish can and will be located below the thermocline, provided the oxygen content is adequate - and usually is). Casting simply allows you to simulate a wounded/crippled baitfish better. I was fortunate to start my open water, suspended "career" when virtually no one else was fishing this way...except Bucher, Rizzo, and the late great Bob Ellis (row troller). Bob would often stop row trolling near me and "shoot the breeze" to see how I was doing. Usually (not always), we would have more strikes/hookups per hour than he did row trolling. And he understood that, based on the lures/presentation style we were employing. A couple of times during the "backtrolling era" in WI, we had guide boats pass by with 5-6 lines out and then cast into his boat/lure "exhaust" and stick a fish.
On vast, large basins where baitfish are not present every 100 yards or so, trolling definitely can be more productive because you can cover water more quickly. If you elect to cast in this scenario, your are wise to look for the open water "feeding stations" where a concentration of baitfish is surrounded by several big arcs on your graph. You can make several drifts through these areas by casting and score big. We fished like this in the vicinity of Georgian Bay over vast open water stretches that were up to 130 ft deep and successfully had tackle destroyed. [:)] | |
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| I don't get to troll much because it is illegal here. I know that there are times trolling will outproduce casting, and other times casting wins out.[:bigsmile:] | |
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| Casted a point the other night for over an hour raising one fish. Right at sundown we decided to troll spinnerbaits over the reef, my first time trolling ever, in three passes over the point we had one good rip and boated a 36". Can't argue results, I just bought my first Down East rod holder[;)]
PK
Looks like now I'm trolling the loch for you nessy | |
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| The way I troll is far from lazy, as a matter of fact whoever maintains the lines(usually me) it can be plenty of work. 3 planer boards and a flat line on lakes with chopped up millfoil all over and a boat operator who sometimes wanders his eyes away from the finder only to put the baits shallow and snagged up on that wonderful millfoill. We never make a whole pass of any kind without bringing in lines to clear them of weeds. | |
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| These responses are interesting. How many out there call themselves trollers but troll with their casting rod, hold the rod, and don't own a float suit? Just curious. I like both methods at different times, but a bait in the water longer should catch more fish, all factors considered. | |
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| BigFishC,
LOL..I have 8 rods with counters on them specifically for trolling, I removed the rear deck insert on my 620 for trolling, I set up my GPS for trolling. Scary thing is I still consider myself a caster. [:p]
Although I don't think I'm all there at times. But putting in 15 hour days casting on trips make me a caster still.
-Phil C | |
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| When you know what you are doing at times casting can out produce trolling but most times you will catch more fish trolling. Look at that other post about speed of a burned bucktail, no way can a guy have his bucktail avg 5 MPH in the water at all times like trolling can. Covering more water = more fish. [:sun:]
This is from a troller now converted caster LOL well I do cast 70% of the time now. I do offer my clients the option and naturaly most including newbees say they would prefer casting over trolling. Look at this week we casted 70% of the time and caught 40% off our fish so trolling did out produce casting almost 2 to 1. But I guess 3 fish in a little over 1 hour helped. LOL | |
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| Good question and great responses.
In my humble opinion, trolling is just another method to consider when planning your strategy for a particular body of water under particular conditions. It's a great way to find "spots on spots", it gives you a rest while eating, it consistently keeps your bait in the strike zone when fishing suspended fish so is very efficient. It can be very challenging when you are trying to bounce your way along a defined submerged structure (see Joe Bucher's book on Crankbaits for his great info/tips).
I cast about 80% of the time, but, my biggest musky, pike and bass have ALL been caught trolling. More than half the fish came not on the rod I was holding in my hands, but from the rod in the Down East(?) holder. Last, I'm convinced that carefully trolling a big crank or spinner bait along one side of a submerged river bed (flowage) is a great (best?) way to find those pigs in mid-summer.
Trolling is a good option under certain conditions. | |
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| Trolling sucks.......But, to each his own I guess.... | |
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| Casting, casting, casting...
Enough said....
CYA | |
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| I agree that casting is my preferred way to catch lunge. I agree it is amazing to feel a fish demolish your lure. The only thing I will say is that the post is about maximizing your odds for the time you're on the water. I have 5 fish in the boat out of my last 2 times out with trolling. Why?
-Lines- Casting 1 rod vs. Trolling 3 rods (6 w/ 2 guys)
-Length(time)- cast 1-2 minutes. vs. Trolling infinite
-Water covered - casting (1/8 of trolling)
I agree that trolling is not the prefered way to catch fish, but for the time you are out on the water trolling can put the odds in your favor by 6 rods to 1. Something to think about. Also seems that trolling fish are less affected by non-textbook days for fishing.
-Phil
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Time on the water... trolling vs. casting