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Posts: 138
Location: Utah | How many of you consistently troll in the prop wash? We've been doing it a lot with a lot more success than I thought. However we've missed a few hits as I'm think'n the drag was set to tight (lure hooks were sharp). So question; Should you use less drag when trolling the prop wash? Thanks in advance K2 |
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Posts: 256
Location: MadCity Wisconsin | In Wisconsin we can troll designated waters, usually in the Southern part of the state with 3 lines per angler. I always have one down rod in the propwash and that is the bait that gets hit more than any others. Very effective. Common wisdom here is that the prop stirs up the baitfish below the boat and the muskies key on the scattered baitfish. One thing is certain.........muskies do not fear your boat or motor prop. Over here the trolling bite doesnt start until late spring to eary summer unless you target the weed beds.
If you are not hooking up the fish are neutral, if they really want the bait they will hookup. Star Drag........back off 1/2 to 3/4 of a revolution on the reel, that will give you about 5 lbs. of pressure on the pull.
Our season here is still a month away, gotta be fun to fish this early.
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Posts: 97
Location: Pickering, ON | All the time.
It does help to back it off a little bit. You still want a deep bend in the rod to keep the tension on, but at the same time let the fish get a bit of distance from the boat - more than anything it buys you time to get the boat in neutral and the rod out of the holder. It also keeps them down - when they hit with less than 30' of line out the tendency is for them to go airborne and throw hooks. Having the drag a touch looser gives them the ability to dive.
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| There are more factors than just the drag of the reel. Rod material and line type and line length are the other factors to use as well. I use solid fiberglass rods and superbraid with the drag close to but not locked down for about 80% hookups. I used to use composite material rods in the past with looser drag and missed too many fish. I tightened up the drag but it didn't seem to help much.
The fiberglass rod for me was the key for the prop wash hookups. I also use a 4 -5 foot hard mono leader that stretches some and I go fairly fast at 4-6 mph. I get the hookset from the snapback of the fiberglass rod, a little from the leader and a bit from the drag if it's a bigger fish.
Another thing to fine tune is turning your boat to the opposite side the fish hits on to drive hooks in.
My prop wash rod has 15 ft or less from the bait to the boat. |
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Posts: 2332
Location: SE, WI. | DEFINATELY A LESSER AMOUNT OF DRAG COMPARED TO LONG LINING!!!  |
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Posts: 191
Location: WV | Do not put boat in neutral until rod in hand and then tell driver-neutral. jw |
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Posts: 344
Location: Musky Country | Got a question about this...
Can you guys see the lures in the prop wash? |
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Posts: 480
| spinnerbaits you can see in the prop wash, some smaller cranks are visable, deep driver cranks no.
But I am setting up a camera this year on a pole to record boat side action. |
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| do you also do that in clear water?
i have caught a lots of fish in the prop wash in brown water,but i have never try that in clear water |
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Posts: 480
| both clear and stained, stained or clear around weed beds and clear on sand breaks |
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Posts: 1308
Location: WI | I like propwash trolling. Generally I think trolling is pretty boring, but it's kind of cool to look over your shoulder and see the baits right there behind the boat, barely under water. I like 3oz spinnerbaits with #10 blades at 3-4mph. |
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Posts: 1530
| on st clair, prop wash trolling is a normal boat set up. we use 10fters. soft tip rods, normally fiberglass graphite composition. drag settings are loose. if you hit weeds you would here the clicker. best results are when theres a chop on the lake. my favorite is 8 ounces and 20ft of line. another aspect to try is 4 ounces and 40 ft. that puts baits just beyond the water turbelence. remember a 30lber needs a little give, thats why we set drags loose. terminal failures happen with drags locked down.trolling at 4mph your baits travelling approx 8ft per second.
hope these thoughts help you out. |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | Steve Reinstra - 4/4/2010 1:13 PM
Our season here is still a month away, gotta be fun to fish this early.
Yeahh ours is two months away still  ..I'll have to settle for chasing walleyes for a month |
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Posts: 1185
Location: Wishin I Was Fishin' | 2 years ago I was turned onto a good down rod bite on Green Bay. This was not a good pattern in 09' though. 9ft of line out with a Baby Depthraider (no extra weight). I missed the first 4 fish. Then Shep told me to loosen my drag. I did and didn't loose any more fish. I think this put 8 in the boat the fall of 08'. The drag was just tight enough to keep the bait from pulling line out. A weed would make it click. I still don't get why a looser drag keeps more fish pinned while trolling, all I know is it definetly works, even on planner board lines. I use Spiderwire Stealth 80#, Black River Rods (Live and Troll 8') and Okuma Convector and Catalina Line counter reels. They are a little overkill but work for Salmon too. It is nice to have a good fighting stick in your hand when you have a 20# Salmon and he's still goin the other way with 400 feet of line out. They are just right for cranked up muskies over 50" too.
Edited by Jomusky 4/5/2010 3:49 PM
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| Rule of thumb says lot of line out you want a tighter drag and a short amount of line out you want a looser drag. It's easy to control when you are trolling. The tricky part is having the drag set properly for casting as a bite near the end of a bomb cast would require a tight drag, but if the fish didn't hit until the figure 8, you want a somewhat looser drag. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | Prop wash trolling??? What is that??? LOL...I've been working on and using Wiley Lures for nearly all of my muskie fishing career. I learned the short-line, propwash trolling techniques long ago from the best in the business, Dale Wiley himself. It is an effective way to catch early season skis over weed flats and in shallow water. At times, we will actually run down rods out the side of the boat with no more that 3 or 4 feet of line out. Talk about excitement when a fish hits right by the boat and sky rockets out of the water right near the motors! When it comes to muskie trolling, no techniques should be overlooked and most ideas will work, so don't ever be afraid of getting creative with it. Good Luck! |
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Posts: 1530
| actually prop wash trolling was implemented on l.s.c. before planer boards. in the 1950,s till the early 1970,s it was the only way other then long line.. before cranks as we know them now. pikie minnows, big spoons and large flatfish. homer was the king of it.. a gret method wnen theres a good chop. uneven boataction in waves makes baits run erratic.i bet theres very few that know what a meat rod is. |
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Posts: 723
| definitely run a LOOSE drag!
cost me a mid 40 last year that ate with maybe 4ft of line out,
just put the rod in the holder, checked the drag, seemed ok,
sat down, zzzzzzaahhhhhh!!!! I look back as im staring pretty much face to face
with a wide open mouth, fish went aireborn immediately,
then kaploosh! got me wet n was gone!
had taken my boss out for his first time trolling,
I think he poo'ed himself
oh yeah, and make sure you turn your clickers on!!!!!
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| I would hope you shouldn't need your clickers on with two people when prop wash trolling  Definitely use a light drag |
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Posts: 723
| most of us put rods in the wash, and also planers out as well,
my buddy didnt turn his clicker on last year, cost him a large fish,
and one of my baits.
as dumb as it sounds, have seen it time and again. |
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Posts: 143
Location: Lake of The Woods | My clicker is allway's on while trollin, even if im holdin the rod which is 95% of the time. If i have to use the rod holder for 15 seconds for some reason i will not forget to turn it on. Added security. |
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Posts: 3
| Woodie I have pictures from the late 50s and early 60s on Saint Clair showing the old rod set ups and all kinds of shots from the old days. I will try to attach one here, I have not done it before. If you want I could e mail some to you. They were donated by the family of an older angler who passed on. A lot of guys think it from stirring up bait fish how ever my props are not in the weeds. Muskie sometimes do not scare from the boat and they drop down in the water column and come up to smash it because it is there. I have caught fish on the down rods and wash rods in deep water with baits set high and deep. We run wash rods with 1 pound balls and little to lots of line out depending on the day.
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Posts: 2060
Location: Appleton,WI | I have two words for you regarding prop wash trolling...Johnny Dadson!!!He has this down to a "T" and boats some monster fish doing it.I havent seen him in awhile and got talking to him all weekend at the minnesota musky expo about propwash trolling in the summer months and am really impressed with what he's doing to get fish.
Edited by MuskieE 4/11/2010 10:37 PM
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Posts: 1530
| build4u... excellent classic picture. i like the old sea skiff also. . those were the days of propwash hunting. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | It is just as easy to come up with the theory that the turbulance from the prop attracts fish as much as it does spook them. Makes sense to me....boat turbulance stirrs up baitfish, so the bigger fish come in for the kill!!
Awesome classic photo there!!
Edited by ShutUpNFish 4/13/2010 7:14 AM
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | What is the average depth the lure is running in the prop wash, and is it in the center of the wash or on the edge.
Thanks, Tom |
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Posts: 16
| My preference is lures 10 to 25 ft. back, running 3 to 4 ft deep right on the edge of your wake. Speed 4 -5 mph. |
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| I run some with just 2-4 feet of line out including the leader, I also run a pretty tight drag, it works better for me that way...BR |
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| I would mention in regards to a tight drag...In the spring out east I would troll with baits a few inches underwater a couple of feet behind the boat. I was able to watch fish come up mouth the bait, shake it a bit...which would produce those, zip, zip drag pulls let go and swim away, with a loose drag....with a tight drag those fish ended up being hooked...also time I spent with my mentors of trolling used drags about as tight as I used casting with great results...BR |
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Posts: 2332
Location: SE, WI. | Ever have this happen While prop wash trolling? Had rod tips about 6 inches under the surface while prop wash trolling. From the cadence of the lure, the rods were vibrating the surface water and had a explosion from a ski. Grabbed the rod tip and bent it back. Scared the cr@p out of me. Guess I need a extra treble on the rod tip..  . I've heard of ski's grabbing planer boards...But rod tips. Stupid things!! |
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