|
|
| Hey I need some help on trolling.. I really just don't do it enough. On Wednesday my Gf and her friend want to come along for a tanning boat ride on Tonka. I always launch on Cook's bay and I figured this would be a great time to break out some trolling rods, a board, and some crankbaits. Im saving my favorite spot to cast for the last 30 minutes of the day.. For the other time should I just troll the open water basins? I really have no clue where to troll.. | |
| | |
| I think I can help. See, it's really difficult to get an even tan while moving around from place to place while trolling. You don't want that sunscreen spray all over your electronics either. I'll pick up the GF and her friend at the landing and park at a sand-bar so they can tan, while you fish in my spots. You don't have to pay me, but lunch and/or a cooler of soft-drinks would be fine. | |
| | |
| Haha you wish! She has come with four times and has gotten one follow.. Now she is obsessed with getting one | |
| | |
Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | SB, nice!
Trolling..... There's just a little more to it than throwing a couple baits over the side and wondering around, if a fish was ever hooked it would only be by pure luck.
So without going into great detail lets try and up the girls chances of reeling one in, we want pics!
If I remember correctly the weedline on Tonka goes out to 18'-20'. So start by figuring out where the weedline ends, it will be the same throughout the lake give or take. Next use a bait that runs at that exact depth, a 9" Ernie on 20lbs mono with about 70'-80' of line should get you in the neighborhood, make adjustments as needed.
Next, start out trolling at 4-6 mph getting as close as possible without running into the weeds, fouling your lures. If you happen to mark bait at a certain depth then if the floating weeds aren't to bad by all means run a board on the outside at that depth. Do this in the areas of all your favorite casting spots. Good luck!
| |
| | |
Posts: 373
Location: Maine Township, MN | I can't help with finding them, still working on that for myself, but make sure to put the rod tips in the water. It helps not fouling the lure with the floating weeds all over the lake. Because of them (floating weeds), I don't troll 'Tonka anymore. Too much of a hassle.
Edited by nocturnalmotors 7/9/2012 3:37 PM
| |
| | |
| The rod tip thing makes sense.. I always wondered why people did that. Now I know! | |
| | |
Posts: 1638
Location: Minnesota | i have never fished tonka but ill take your girlfriend friend with me cover more watter that way | |
| | |
| Here is my 2 cents....try short line trolling any where from prop wash to 50 ft back at 3 to 4 mph. Adjust rod angle up and down to help controll your depth but it works best if you can keep the tip in the water. this will help pick up the weeds that might foul your bait.The short line will make it much easier to follow the weed edges. I like to use the muskie size shallow rap. It has great action and does not go to deep. I have caught several fish in the prop wash of the main motor doing this and it is a absolute blast.Good Luck. | |
| | |
Posts: 410
Location: Wakefield, MI | Ok, I've been looking into getting into some more trolling. We pick up a lot of fish suspended over some deeper water in a couple of lakes here, especially in the fall. Usually we just hang a rod off each side of the boat with a crankbait or a spinner and hold on for dear life, caught a couple this way but not many.
How exactly do you do it with rod holders? We have some equipment but it doesn't get used much (3 down east rod holders, a few dipsy divers, a cannon ball, stuff like that). What exactly is the process that you use when you get a fish on? I guess I've just always been afraid to keep a rod in the rod holder for some reason (hence why I only hold the rod), but I see people doing it, just not sure how they are set up. | |
| | |
| Jerry, just curious. You would start by running the one lure allowed, at the base of the weeds on the weedline, near the bottom? Interesting as we do a fair amount of trolling and almost always err on the high side first, then work deeper based on temps/bait/action. Interesting topic for sure! | |
| | |
Posts: 489
| Milje,
When the rod is in the rod holder its almost essential to be using mono for stretch on the strike, also having a lose drag is key. That way when the fish hits it doesn't rip your rod out, or stop your boat haha | |
| | |
Posts: 410
Location: Wakefield, MI | Chain Gang - 7/12/2012 5:46 AM
Milje,
When the rod is in the rod holder its almost essential to be using mono for stretch on the strike, also having a lose drag is key. That way when the fish hits it doesn't rip your rod out, or stop your boat haha
Exactly what I was looking for, I was kind of assuming something similar, the shock of the fish hitting was mostly what I was worried about. How long of a mono leader is recommended.
Edited by milje 7/12/2012 6:21 AM
| |
| | |
| Folbe rod holders work great, and your arms won't get tired. Also, put the BIGGEST crankbait you have right in the prop wash. | |
| | |
Posts: 489
| It all depends how technical you want to get with trolling I would go with a 2 or 3 foot leader. If you don't have any normal ones will work. I am fairly new to trolling as well but have spent some time with people that excel at it | |
| | |
Posts: 833
| You can also fashion weed guards out of various materials like bucktail wire. Just hang them off the front of your leader. This works for all baits, but really excels when you want to run one that is high in the water column, like a bucktail. On Tonka this time of the year, you are going to want some kind of guard plus the tip in the water due to all the floaters getting churned up by the pleasure crowd. It isn't impossible to deal with, just need a few tricks to make it less of a hassle.
You can get away with Braid for line choice, in fact I use it exclusively when trolling. You can provide give on the strike by loosening your drag or using a fiberglass rod. (If you want to do this a lot, I'd look into the latter, then you can have a reasonably tight drag and the rod in the rod holder.)
Not saying you are not considering this already, but it is worth stating: please consider waiting to fish until temps come down. The lake temp on Tonka is VERY high right now, such that it will put a caught fish at risk. | |
| | |
Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Girlfriends friend,
Nothing wrong with stacking lures along the weedline, and yeah you have it right, We start at the base.
I assume your "one lure allowed" comment was inferring the girls wouldn't have licenses, sorry I'd try and get em one! We don't need pictures of Nolan, ha ha.
With 3 rods now you can add a prop bait, not a high percentage #1 rod.
Went to a pike lake yesterday in southern WI, all fish caught trolling, 50+ pike also 10 walleye & a few others, about 80 fish total. The key, like every time a catch is made was controlling the exact depth and speed of the bait.
| |
| | |
| So are you wanting to bump bottom with you ernie off that weed edge? Thats interesting that that is your most effective strategy. Pretty cool. We like to do something similar in Canada, and on the rivers, but seems off the weed edges(esp in mn for some reason) the fish do like to suspend some. Will give that a try, bumping bottom along the weed edge. Thanks. | |
| | |
| Instead of trolling on Tonka we went to a different lake.. Temp was right at 80.. Me and her both casted a few hours and she had one follow. One of these times there gonna bite! | |
| | |
Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Nolan & friends,
Its a shame you didn't take some of the trolling advice offered here' I think you missed out and I know we missed out.... 
Received a text earlier from the guy I gave a trolling lesson to on Wednesday. He went with one of his buddy's to a completely different lake yesterday, another pike lake, very few muskie and they caught 48 pike. Well done my friend. What a year!
NN, while were on the subject of lures and lure selection, a few unpopular but fun thoughts, ha ha! We don't ever want to get caught up in any one lure or brand name or type of lure, for the wrong reasons. NO lure love affairs!
Every lure should be looked at as a tool to do a specific job. There are simple guidelines in lure selection, #1 and way out in front is answering the question, "What depth does she run?" We first establish an exact depth as suggested with the weedline on Tonka, about 20' so we chose a lure to do that job. The Ernie is a good choice. If we were to stack lures (run free) at say 15'-16', something else might be used like a 700 spoonplug or maybe a med size Jake, depending on species etc.
#2 Speed control. Does it have speed limitations?
#3 on the list, Size. A larger bait for fish with large mouths and active fish. Small baits for small mouths and less active fish.
Then comes durability and cost etc... You might ask, Where's color on this list? Isn't "color" and "action" the most important choice when selecting any lure? Guys get all funky about this one and I know many, aren't we all, invested literally but here's the facts.
Color is nice, it makes us feel good,,,,,,, but does a fish ever feel good or see one color better than another, I have no idea.... We'll hear about over funded studies claiming something or other. Personally I really don't care to much however, like most I too have favorites but only after the 1st 3 goals have been met. Im not sure why we like one color over another because I've never really seen one work better than another in the over all picture of catching many different species from many different lakes around the country.
What's the best color? What's the worst color? Shouldn't we know by now? But No one knows..... If we did they'd only sell one color, maybe the fish change their minds...... All we do know is we could have the best boat money could buy the best and latest electronics and the best color ever created etc. etc. and if we're fishing were there are no fish, (the wrong depth, moving it at the wrong speed and we take a large bait past a inactive or fish with a small mouth) how many we gonna catch? I stole that from Don Dickson btw, parts of it, ha ha.
Color is nice,, and it can be fun too, its fun trying to see what colors they won't hit on, or you call Buck's Baits when ordering and say, "Surprise me", that's fun stuff. Just send me lures that run straight and hold up to their depth claims and I'll be happy!
As I said the 9" Ernie is a good one piece floating plastic bait. Most will run straight for a long period of time with only occasional tuning. The larger Ernie is available and a mostly reliable effective bait in depths on mono from 18' to 24', line lengths from 70'- 120'+/-. It can also be used with the same reasonable line lengths on 30lbs single strand stainless wire out to about 35' of depth.
However like with any plastic bait some feel is lost when compared to using a metal bait such as a JB Spoonplug, Bales you owe me for this one but seriously, John Bales you might know him from fishing with Zona. John is a great guy and been an instructor for Mr. Perry for a very long time, of course he's old, ha ha. IMO and Im not alone John is probably the best active instructor Buck put on. This guy may be elderly,,,, but he's is a machine and if he ever sees this I'll probably get a knock on my door, good thing he's over in IN.
The short version is John and other spoonpluggers felt we needed a larger lure for the pike and Muskie so John with the blessing from Buck's Baits is now building the Jb Spoonplug, this is starting to sound like a commercial not meant to be, "Lures are tools designed to do a specific job" this lure is a durable good running bait with strong hooks covering depths at all trolling speeds with a 7" body. There not cheap and they sink, ha but they do fill a niche that we as trollers for pike and muskie have been lacking for a long time.
Most typical muskie fisherman except for Nolan, we don't have the girls view catching a fish pretty much the same. Not beating up on anyone but if we want to catch more and bigger fish where ever and when ever we go, even if we prefer to catch em casting, learning to troll correctly by controlling depth and speeds will teach us with time, where to cast.
Good luck!
Edited by jerryb 7/14/2012 11:52 AM
| |
| | |
| JerryB
Thank you. Very Informative wish there was more of this kind of discussion here. | |
| | |
Location: North Metro, MN | Well said Jerry B! If a spoon plugger has something to say you best be listening! You can definately learn a lot from spoon pluggers and anything from Buck Perry. It has led to a lot of great learning and catching days for me, depth and speed ... depth and speed... | |
| |
|
Trolling Help