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Posts: 120
| I want to begin trolling, but I'm kind of unsure how. I have spent the past year or two using jerkbaits at deep points around structure and glidebaits near shallow weed beds and have not caught any musky in my home lake, only in the spillway. I was thinking trolling might be a good way to try and locate fish, but I wasn't sure how I should try trolling. Should I just throw some lures at different depths behind me in the boat and just drive around the entire lake? Or is there more to it than just driving the boat around? I'd like to try open water trolling specifically as I haven't had a lot of luck around structure/points.
Edited by PennsylvaniaMuskie 3/14/2025 1:31 PM
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Trolling isn't easy, as much as everyone would like to think. Definitely an art to consistently catching fish trolling.
Start by figuring out where in the water fish "should" be. For example, in spring, muskies are typically near or in spawning bays or rivers/river mouths. That time of the year, I like to cover water and baits are typically not too deep or far back. Keep them over the weeds and cover water. If you find patches of weeds that are better or possibly baitfish, work those areas good. Lay waypoints. Lots of them, to learn the area by trolling and it will also help your casting. Also, don't be afraid to troll glide baits along with blades and minnow baits. We do really good on slammer drop bellies every spring, off of planer boards. They go side to side on their own and the boards jumping waves give them more action.
As summer creeps in, the fish will usually slide out to more main lake structures. You can troll the weed edges, over the flats, and off the edges (open water included). That time of the year, I look for bait and go through those areas multiple times. Run baits close to where you see the bait hanging out. But don't overlook running spinnerbaits over the weeds early and late in the day and on windy days.
We do really good in early summer over open water in cisco or shad based lakes. Depending on the time of day, baits might be down 4' or 15' depending on where we are marking fish or bait. If you're not getting bit, don't be afraid to change baits or depths you're running at. Especially if you're catching fish and suddenly they seem to shut off.
I could go on, but this should help give you a good start.
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Oh, and download as many bait dive curves that you can. That will get you close to where your baits are running, which is important when fish are neutral to negative and won't move 10- 15' to hit a bait. |
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Posts: 958
| Hiring a guide to learn will be money well spent. It will save you countless hours of trial and error. Will Save you money so you know exactly what to buy and not buy also
Good Luck |
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Posts: 61
| May depend a bit on the lake type you are fishing. |
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| Jeff's suggestion is a good one. One of my nephews got serious about trolling on Green Bay a number of years ago and spent a couple days with Greg Thomas learning how to troll multiple rod set ups. While they caught fish, the focus was on how to troll, how to set up the rods, etc. It has paid off with a lot of fish from Green Bay and LSC.
My nephew passed on some of those lessons to me. The first time I caught a nice muskie 10 feet behind the boat in the prop wash, I thought "son of gun, this actually works!". |
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Posts: 1293
Location: WI | Lesson number one is don’t troll under the fish. If they don’t eat in the prop wash close to the boat, then short line the baits behind a board. 3-4mph is a good starting point. Don’t put the motor in neutral until you’re holding the rod when a fish is on. Drag setting; while going at trolling speed give the rod a jerk and the drag should slip but not peel out (the drag setting can vary a little bit).
Turns are good, have caught fish both speeding up and slowing down. Sharp hooks. If you don’t have line counter reels use the length of the boat or get power pro depth hunter line that’s a different color every 25’ with a white spot every 5’.
Keep it simple, Grandmas and Believers, Wileys, depth raiders, spinnerbaits, shallow invaders have caught thousands of fish and will continue to do so, no need to spend hundreds on fancy custom baits.
I like to start with different wobbles (wide vs tight) and straight vs jointed when I can run multiple lines.
A guide as mentioned above, or joining a local Muskies Inc Chapter and finding people to fish with will help speed up the learning curve. |
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Posts: 591
| Make sure your lures are tuned and running true. And don't run your drags too tight, especially on smaller lures.
Edited by muddymusky 3/18/2025 10:24 AM
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