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Posts: 91
| Hey guys!
I have a question for you. Because of recent back issues, I've been forced to do more trolling and a lot less casting. I would automatically focus on casting shallow flats, as opposed to trolling drop-offs with weed lines in the spring. Now, I'm considering doing more trolling this spring and wondered, how many spring trollers there are out there and what are your favorite tactics and baits? Thanks!
Edited by asingua 2/21/2020 5:17 PM
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Location: Northern Illinois | I'm a 70% Troller to 30% Caster. Short line trolling can be very effective in the spring, especially in the northern most coves and bays where new emergent weeds growing, find the warmer water find the bait and the muskies. Timing is everything in the spring, You want to troll these fish before the spawn, and after. during the spawn a couple reasons, they are almost impossible to catch while they are doing there thing. Before spawn they are moving into the shallows to get ready. After they have a slight recovery time and then it's put the feed bag on. |
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Location: Northern Illinois | It also really depends on where you are fishing, I fish the Fox Chain of Lakes in Illinois the season is open 365. as soon as ice is out i'm usually fishing for them. So catching pre-spawn fish is relatively easy on my waters. Short lining is one of my favorite techniques |
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Posts: 91
| Thanks MH07
Thanks for the info. When you say short line trolling, how many feet are you talking about...5 - 10" ? I live in eastern Pa. and musky fishing is open year round here also, provided we have open water. I've always considered spawn temps in the 50's generally, so(pre 50 and post 59 degrees) would be the time to hit it? What are some of your go to baits? |
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Posts: 1516
| Good question about what is cionsidered “short Line”. ? |
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Posts: 32892
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | We catch fish trolling shallow with 16' of line out and the rod holder in the center of an 18' Lund. All kinds of fish, even crappies. |
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Posts: 492
Location: Northern Illinois | There is a nice read from Gregg Thomas in Musky Hunter Magazine on the subject:
https://www.muskyhunter.com/archives/4802
I have fished with Gregg using this method successfully in the spring and have since used this in Illinois waters with good results. |
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Posts: 1755
| sworrall - 2/21/2020 9:07 PM
We catch fish trolling shallow with 16' of line out and the rod holder in the center of an 18' Lund. All kinds of fish, even crappies.
So is it a old wives tale that fish flair away from a moving boat? Are you trolling with your electric motor or the gas motor? |
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Location: Vilas | Ive caught fish on the Mad chain with 8` of line out, trolling with my 140... had one actually hit the rod tip once |
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Posts: 91
| I've trolled both with an electric (71 lb) as well as my gas motor( 25hp). I can't quite get to the speed I want with a gas but my trolling motor will get me close to 3 mph...a little slower than I like, but with the colder water, I figure they might be a little sluggish anyway. Thanks for all your suggestions and I'll have to check out that video with Gregg. Thanks again!
Edited by asingua 2/22/2020 8:26 AM
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Posts: 32892
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Brian Hoffies - 2/22/2020 7:35 AM
sworrall - 2/21/2020 9:07 PM
We catch fish trolling shallow with 16' of line out and the rod holder in the center of an 18' Lund. All kinds of fish, even crappies.
So is it a old wives tale that fish flair away from a moving boat? Are you trolling with your electric motor or the gas motor?
Both depending on the wind. Each day we let the fish tell us how far from the boat we need the lures. Six to eight feet behind the boat with about sixteen feet of line out got the lures running like we want. |
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Posts: 91
| Great article! Highly recommend to all interested to read. Thanks for the info! |
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| In northern WI, season does not open until Memorial Day weekend, so not really Spring. But since they opened our water to trolling a few years back, I have caught a number of fish trolling with no more than 10' of line out. One area where it has been productive is on the stretch of river between the lake I live on and the next lake in the chain. Little over a mile long and probably an average depth of 5' or so. Because of the shallow, weedy nature of the river I put a lure directly behind the boat in the prop wash, holding the rod while running the kicker. First one I caught after the rule change was on less than 8' of line in about 3' of water, right in the prop wash. After releasing the fish I had to laugh at the idea the fish was unbothered by the outboard and all that noise. When I was a kid, in the days before trolling motors (yes children, no trolling motors!), I spent a lot of time rowing my aunt and uncle around the lake where they had a cabin. My uncle bought me my first rod and reel, took me fishing a lot but he was adamant about being quiet in the boat, no splashing of oars, no dropping lures, etc. against the aluminum skin. Scares the fish away! And here was an upper 30s musky whacking a lure a few feet back of an operating 15 hp outboard. My uncle has been gone many years but I think he would have gotten a chuckle out of it. So much for conventional wisdom. |
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Posts: 946
| Don't be afraid to Troll open water also. Look for bait and you will find muskies.
I have done ok short line trolling early but usually catch smaller males. I run 60" Stealth Tackle trolling leaders and have caught many fish with the leader cranked right into the rod tip in 8' of water.
But bigger fish for me have come from deep water trolling. I really like using MX6 from Muskie Train have caught several 48"-50.5" in May on them from deep water but have done good short lining them also.
https://teamrhinooutdoors.com/products/muskie-train-mx6?_pos=4&_sid=...
I have caught some muskies short lining MX4 also but Bass, Walleye and way too many pike hit them too.
https://teamrhinooutdoors.com/products/muskie-train-mx6-1?_pos=5&_si...
Good luck
Jeff Hanson
madisonmuskyguide.com
Edited by Jeff Hanson 2/22/2020 9:42 AM
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Posts: 1249
Location: Walker, MN | I agree with much of what's been said. Find the bait, and troll through and around the bait. Sometimes ignoring structure can be the best approach, the bait is the structure. I use a mast and big boards to get the lures away from the boat, and up in the water column. Sometimes they will hit near the boat, other times no. The warm water in the basin will be the top 10' of the water column, a muskies metabolism will require them to be here. Keep lures just under the surface. Muskies will come up a long way to hit a lure, but won't often go down. If you catch one, there could be a bunch more in the same area. |
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Location: Northern Illinois | As Jeff Hanson stated, short line trolling could be literally just a 60" leader on a down or out rod. I would say when I short line troll its either just the leader or up to 8-10 feet of line out. |
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Location: Northern Illinois | Boss shads, 4" slammers, musky train diesels, bakers, bagleys |
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Posts: 32892
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | The amount of line out will have a lot to do with where the rod holder is on the boat and the overall length of the boat. In MN, where we are allowed only one line per angler, we have the rods at the console. If in WI and we have several rods out, the short lines will be rear and the others will be stacked Off Shore Tackle boards. On the short lines, we do best in the break of the prop wash. |
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Posts: 238
| X2 on the Diesels. They been my best shortline bait. Tuff shads are good too. |
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