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| OK, It's late fall and the water is getting colder upper 30's to lower 40's.
How do you decide whether to drag suckers or troll?
A lot of big fish are taken at this time of year while trolling. |
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| Thinkin both....what you doing this Sunday Mr. Fever?
Slamr |
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| Dragging or slow trolling the largest sucker minnow you can find if muskies are at the 18 - 35 foot depth. Anything shallower, try trolling Jakes, then dragging a big sucker on a Thill Slip Bobber.
[:0] |
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| We only have one option here and we do rather well trolling. Even if I had the know how and the suckers themselfs I would be trolling. But remember we can only soak one sucker per angler legaly here. Then again one can troll multiple rods as well as soaking suckers while casting in some states.
I can cover some 25+ miles per day trolling vs who knows how little with suckers. I also think if I was limited to one rod well sucker fishing would be as boring as walleye (bait) fishing. [:sun:] |
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| Ralph, the trolling bite has slowed down for us. Suckers have not been the ticket either, lots of lookers but no takers. Casting and trolling have been about equal. |
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| Ralph,
I'll be guiding a full day on the Chain tomorrow and will be deadsticking suckers while casting glides and jerks. The Chain has been good for us the last few weeks on the meat. Last outing we boated a short 30"er and lost one at/near 40". We also lost the biggest fish of the year right before dark (45" easy) in 19 feet of water on the meat. The fish t-boned the sucker and let go at the boat. Very thick heavy fish! I had 2 guys from Holland in my boat who had never fished for muskies, only pike in Holland! They are sold on muskies!
The meat may be slow and tedious, but right now it's what's going on the Chain.
[:bigsmile:] |
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| Ralph, we trolled most of the day today and nothing, not even a rip. We casted and dragged suckers for about 90 minutes, one fish and one missed hookset on the suckers. |
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| Todd,
Just goes to show you, you never know[:(]
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| Hi Richard...
I guess it depends on how you view trolling and trolling suckers.
When I float big suckers on Wisconsin rivers, I can cover miles in a day too. I use a Thill Slip bobber and let it go with the current. I can hold it in an area if need be.
Also, in some waters, at this time of year, run and gun isn't a good option because the prime late fall feeding spots are limited and the need to troll 25 miles a day isn't a very good option.
Keeping a large, lively sucker in the right spot over a 3 hour period of time has produced some very big muskies for me, as trolling 25 miles per day has done for you.
So, trolling artificials and suckers has it's time and place depending upon where you fish.
I don't find having a big musky on the end of my line boring irregardless of whether it's a sucker that tricked it or an artifical.
Good fishing to you..
[:)] |
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| DD well I am happy I do not have that option here. [;)] I would not be fishing for skis if sitting and watching a bobber was the way to catch them. You know how hard it is to find partners to go out in freezing weather and I have a fully covered boat, man I still see the baitfishermen jigging out there every day.
Fishing a very large body of water makes it more productive to troll and cover more water looking for those active eaters.
Last I heard minnows over 3 inches were a luxury around here. Man I don't think they ever have suckers over 12 inches ever. I know we have them in the rivers but no one would ever buy them so I guess the minnow netters just put them back in the water when they come across them. I actualy know we have 10-12 inch chubs in the creek across the street from me.
7 more days left on local waters. [:p] |
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| Hi Richard...
After seeing the pictures of your fish out of that river, I wouldn't fool around with suckers either. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The smaller rivers I fish have a lot of bottom obstructions and snags and trolling lures is limited to certain stretches. I change between a trolled crankbait and a bobber/sucker.
On certain rivers/waters, I do just like the walleye fisherman with their Lindy Rigs, but just up the scale of the terminal tackle.
I use 4 - 6 oz worth of lead, to a 30 inch wire leader, to a Poppie Rigged 16 - 18 inch sucker.
I drop two lines and backtroll the 18 - 35 foot depths where hard bottom meets soft. My backtroll speed is 1 - 3 miles per hour. The rods are either hand held or places in holders.
So, the trolling setups should be the same, it's just that live meat is about a foot off the bottom and my line is as vertical to the holder as I can get it at these speeds. The Poppie Rig is geared for hooking and landing big muskies and is a very weedless/woodless/snagless presentation.
You keep having pictures like that on the front page of this website, I am going to have to be one of those in your boat during the final 7 days of your season.
WOW!!!!!
[:0] |
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| Richard,
How do you approach trolling during the near ice-up? Are you in deeper water, slow or faster current? |
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| Steve our waters are down right now so current is not a factor and usualy is not that important this late into the year. I think rocks walls and hard bottom transitions are more important. I try and locate the confort zone, by that I mean where the majority of the fish are in the water colum and keep my baits there. Then I try and fish baitfish schools as much as I can as well as channels leading in and out of well known wintering areas. This allows me to cover a lot of water looking for those active hawgs. One can still never forget the channels that fish will use to travel from one section to another this time of year.
I tend to fish deeper as well as with larger lures but that is only because I am targeting the biggest of fish in the system. Someone may catch more and even the odd big one trolling shallower waters with regular sized baits but thats not my game.
Not all fish I catch are hawgs, yesterday we got a 40 incher then 20 minutes later a low 30s on the same lure and 1 hour later I lost a hawg when the line broke some 20 feet from the leader taking that hot lure ( same one who caught those hawgs last week ). [:(] We proceeded to catch a 48 incher in mid afternoon and believe it or not a 10 inch sauger on the same 12 inch lure late afternoon. All action but the sauger were away from any kind of baitfish action. I actualy think the sauger was the baitfish LOL. |
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| Hi Richard...
Jim Linder talks river muskys in this month's MHM and I was wondering if your experiences parallels his.
Jimmy's theorys would target muskys being in and relating to river pools right now (40 degree water or less) and he presents the river current seam concept and I was wondering about your feelings with regards to this.
Thanks..
[:)] |
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| Hello DD
I will let you know once I do receive my new MHM in a week or two. I will read that article first and post my findings. I am also planning on making my seminar this winter about fish location in large rivers and may write an article about the same subject.
4 days to go [:p] |
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Trolling vs. Dragging Suckers