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Posts: 112
| I was curious if anyone has had much luck, or any tips, for swimbait trolling. I'm talking larger soft plastic paddletail swimbaits, such as shadzillas, posseidon, or swimmin' dawg. Been experimenting with them a bit (1 strike no hookups yet). Right now running a couple tungsten punching weights in front of my trolling leader to get the baits down, with a rubber bump guard for the knot. Seems like the baits are hitting around 10ft deep, running 60ish feet back at 3mph.
One thing that's kind of a hassle is that the depth is so dependent on speed, and that if I stop the boat to clear a snag, they drop like a rock and will often snag up too. Is trolling swimbaits more work than it's worth? Or has anyone has much success?
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | I had one trip where it's all they wanted was trolled rubber. I also trolled slower 2.2-2.7 . I also wasn't running as much line out. Tried it again last year same conditions not a sniff. |
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Posts: 2325
Location: Chisholm, MN | My experience is rubber doesn't hook up well trolling, unless you are holding the rod to feel the fish hit and set the hook. Waterwolf cameras show lots of action but you would never know it if you weren't holding the rod. |
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Posts: 343
| Cicciospin? is a serious Italian pike fisherman who trolls lots of big swimbaits for pike and his setup hooks fish well. Perhaps he will see your post and answer your questions. I fished with him in May and we did well trolling swimbaits. I can't remember his exact setup but it involves a weight rigged to a leader with a single Owner treble hook, and a custom swimbait made by one of his fishing friends. |
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Posts: 1100
| Here In Europe "all" the trollers go to are soft baits of all sorts, and my general experience is that they have just as good hook up as hard baits, troll anything from Dawgs, to realistic looking swimbaits, and boot/paddletail style swimbaits, all works. |
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Posts: 112
| Interesting, I was wondering about the ideal rod and hookup rates too. The rod I'm running is fairly soft, so perhaps that's another factor |
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Posts: 112
| Yeah, I wonder about the versatility of crankbait vs swimbait trolling too. My guess is that it might not be as all-around productive as crank trolling, but that it'd crush during certain conditions. I could be totally wrong though |
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Posts: 203
Location: Germantown, WI | Shadzillas work when trolled. You don't have to get them deep if the forage is up in the water column. You don't have to slow them down in Summer. We were introduced to a pattern this Summer by a guide we fished with in Canada. Speed 4-4.5 mph. Both the 9" and the 12" work. All we had were the 9" models. Our guide pretty much only trolls the 12". Now I have a selection of both sizes. |
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Posts: 203
Location: Germantown, WI | Typically I don't set the hook when trolling crankbaits or spinnerbaits. Our guide said to set the drag tighter with a Shadzilla than you normally would with a crankbait and to set the hook when you get the bait out of the rod holder.
I should note that we were trolling over deep water so we were not worried about snags or fouling lures in weeds. |
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