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Posts: 267
| horsehunter - 11/17/2019 3:56 PM
Run and gun but run slowly and troll between spots many of my larger fish have come trolling.Trolling between spots allows you to recharge. Someone once said and I forget who "when you are casting shoreline weeds the big fish are behind you"
I know someone who rarely fishes water less than 50 feet deep with big lures, doesn't care if he goes many trips with out catching fish... however most of his fish are over 40 pounds.  Most over 40 pounds! Wow! Is that possible? |
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Posts: 44
Location: Ohio | I fish mostly alone. I’ll use a search bait like a Topwater prop bait or bucktail on known spots and if I don’t move fish I’ll go back to them and work them with something slower like a glider or something less aggressive like a swimbait. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Smell_Esox - 1/22/2020 12:12 PM
horsehunter - 11/17/2019 3:56 PM
Run and gun but run slowly and troll between spots many of my larger fish have come trolling.Trolling between spots allows you to recharge. Someone once said and I forget who "when you are casting shoreline weeds the big fish are behind you"
I know someone who rarely fishes water less than 50 feet deep with big lures, doesn't care if he goes many trips with out catching fish... however most of his fish are over 40 pounds. Most over 40 pounds! Wow! Is that possible?
Absolutely but you have to have faith in what you are doing and be satisfied with fewer fish. And it wont be done fishing puddles.
Edited by horsehunter 1/25/2020 9:13 PM
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Posts: 781
Location: Ames, Iowa | I'm usually solo now that the kids have gotten older. Lots of great info here. Horsehunter's post stood out because I also troll between spots unless it's a long run. No 40 pounders though. Someone mentioned confidence baits. I'm on Leech in the summer so that means lots of great spots, usually in shallow water and weeds and rocks, so topwaters, cranks, spinnerbaits. And they most likely have been fished before me. Nothing is easy and my greatest challenge continues to be proper boat control. Unlike other guys, I have found I'm more successful when I use the wind to drift into a good spot as quietly as I can. When it's windy I have the manual inflatable vest on- I think it's time to put in on all the time. |
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Posts: 461
| I've gotten to the point that I will wear the pfd all the time when fishing solo, I feel it the equivelant of wearing a harness when in tree stand deer hunting. I've got kids now, and they don't need to be attending my funeral yet. Fall out of a drifting boat by yourself, and best you can hope for is maybe getting back on board. |
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Posts: 781
Location: Ames, Iowa | Hard enough to climb into a boat when in swim trunks. I can't imagine having to swim like hell to catch up to a bouncing boat and motor, and fully clothed pull myself in over the transom. Forget going in over the side- that'll never happen. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Well, if it does, go to your outboard's cavitation plate and use that as a step. If you can reach the power trim button, that may also give you a boost. (no personal experience with this method, tho!) m
Edited by mikie 1/29/2020 3:25 PM
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Posts: 492
Location: Northern Illinois | Get a boarding ladder. I added one to my Pro V and when I sold it, I bought a boat that had one already on it. |
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Posts: 3870
| Zen is right and so is Mikie. If you fall out of the boat fishing solo its VERY unlikely you'll get back in without help. Don't believe me, well, jump into cold water fully dressed and see how you fare. Worse yet, fall out with the boat in forward. The boat will turn around right back at you. Then, if you're still swimming, reach up and grab the side of the boat. By this time there's no way in hell you have the strength to climb up and over into the boat. If you have both a transom ladder and the prop turning its crazy to try to do anything but not get hit by the motor. Safer to drift off and watch the boat run in circles while hoping for salvation. That was my experience, sorta, when I went in the drink.
I still prefer fishing solo, tho. |
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Posts: 224
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota | Answering the original question, on most lakes I’ll generally pick a handful of spots and hit them each a couple of times, if that doesn’t produce a follow I might go try something new. If I’m fishing my home body of water which is a smaller river, Depending in the time of year there’s times I will spend the entire day fishing one spot like bellow a dam if I know there’s fish there. Some people might get bored with how much I pick apart spots but if I know there’s fish there than at some point their gonna bite |
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Posts: 781
Location: Ames, Iowa | I do have a ladder I bought when I used to pull the kids tubing. Time to get it on board and over the side when I stop. I'm a driver's ed instructor and always telling students to reduce their risk on the road. Time to take my own advice. Thanks guys.
Go 49ers! |
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Posts: 403
Location: SW Ohio | I have a question about trolling solo. In OH, we can have two rods per person. With two rods, do you run them both on the same side or one on each side? |
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Posts: 1763
| I would run a short one on one side and a long line on the other. But in Minnesota we can only run one so i'm just speculating with no practical knowledge. |
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Posts: 403
Location: SW Ohio | That’s what I’ve been doing but I think I need to rethink my down rod set up and add a planner board. Our banks are very steep with occasional points sticking out. I could be in 15’ of water under the boat with 3-7 on one side and 30+ on the other. Of course, that all changes if I hit a flat. I definitely need to get better trolling than I am now. |
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