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Posts: 2361
| Ok, I give up, my new motto will be...
"Trolling, only 4 year old rocket scientists need apply!"
PS this is all new info for me, I thought you had to be 7 to catch them trolling, my bad....... |
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| i like muskie fishing because of the follows and the strike. While trolling you don't see follows unless you are running the lure very close or have a camera and you dont feel a stike unless you are holding the rod. So for me there is very little satisfaction in trollin
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Posts: 134
| I've been casting for Lake Trout in Lake Michigan for the past twenty years without a bite, am I doing some wrong? (just kidding)
There's a time and place for everything that works. I am not a troller, but mainly because I fish lakes where you can't. What ever floats you're boat and is legal is fair game. Those that choose this method should not be criticized. It goes back to the same arguement that compond bows should not be used, just traditional long bows used in archery. To each his own !!!!!!!!!!!
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Posts: 299
Location: Nowheresville, MN | dogboy - 11/30/2009 11:13 AM try running 9 lines and keeping from getting tangled, or keeping your baits clean and running where they should. All the while pounding 3-4 ft waves... EXACTLY! First of the two reasons I despise trolling. |
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Posts: 59
Location: Aurora IL | No,dogboy I was trying to complement your buddies fish.What a pretty,clean,fatbellied pig! Sorry if you took it wrong.I think it's great your little girl got her's too.Nothing but positive out of me,life's too short. |
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Posts: 32934
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | 'BTW, "size of a pea", that is your frequent argument, but now it is a technological challenge to beat the odds???'
Boat control, depth control (lure selection, size, speed, line weight, amount of line out, etc) , reading and understanding the water, locating and actually catching the targeted fish while keeping the selection of lures in the 'zone' at all times.. it ain't as easy as you make it out to be. No amount of dry humor will make it so. Seriously try it, and show us the images of the fish you --easily-- applying the the experience of a 7 year old--catch. Has nothing to do with the fish's intelligence or lack thereof, it has everything to do with the exact same set of variables and knowledge a caster needs, PLUS a plethora of boat control issues a caster may never learn. Most really experienced trollers I have met are also experts at holding a boat with a bow mount...and some even successfully use the kicker and the bow mount at the same time!
By the way, I don't troll. I never have, I just don't enjoy it....too stressful.
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Posts: 2361
| You guys keep thinking "might be the best musky fisherman of all time" has never trolled, but, he has. It is an easy way to get muskies. How many do I have to catch before I realize how hard it is? Maybe that is my problem?
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Probably, yup.  |
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Posts: 95
| There is an art form to everything in fishing. Trolling is a technique just like any that requires an extreme amount of knowledge and skill to be successful. As I do most of my fishing in the Eagle River area of WI, I do not troll too much but I have a great respect for the guys that are good at it and consistently putting big fish on the board (i.e. Tom Gelb and others). It is much more than driving around! Any good musky hunter knows that both casting and trolling have their time and place based on many factors. It is a science! As a guide I will do anything (legal) to put fish in the boat, and that makes me and my clients happy. If trolling gives us the best odds on a certain body of water, then that is what we will likely do.
Chas Martin
http://www.muskymastery.com |
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Posts: 2361
| That is funny, the "requires an extreme amount of knowledge and skill to be successful".
Just not true, either that or I may just be the "best musky fisherman ever". |
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Posts: 95
| It depends on what your definition of success is...? What do you call a successful season of trolling? I'm not trying to start anything but I think that is a valid question. Look at the guys in the musky industry who are clearly a cut above the rest, who are year after year after year boating the biggest, baddest muskies. That takes "extreme knowledge and skill." If you argue it takes basic knowledge and skill, you may be talking about "basic" results. And your or anyone's results are just as rewarding as the next guys but I believe the unanimous decision is that trolling, and being consistently good at it, takes some serious skills. *Especially if someone is paying you lots of money so you can put them on fish in a limited amount of time. That adds a whole other dimension of skills to the mix.
Chas Martin
http://www.muskymastery.com
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Posts: 723
| joe vancora, I wasnt knockn what you said, just FSF knock on my daughter catching fish, cause we all know that 4yr olds can cast with the best of them.
sorry im training my soon to be musky slaying goddess earlier than most.... she’ll be putting most of the guys I know to shame by the time she’s 8. sure of it.
You guys are missing a valid point of trolling. Maybe I try it another way?
Would you rather go out on a body of water and catch nothing casting or would you sheepishly catcha handful of nice muskies while trolling?
Yes, for those of you that think its so easy to catch them trolling, Id like to see all these mammoth skis you catch immediately upon inserting a bait into the water and magically driving around blindfolded....
Im guessin that those who knock it, havnt ever tried it, amongst other things in life, prolly stick with the old missionary position as well, just cause it gets the job done, sometimes.... or so you may think it does for her 
I troll because I can, most effective way to learn a body of water, and learn it fast, I lay down marks, I return to them to cast, I put X's all over my GPS to return to the areas weve bagged fish, eventually, I have shortened my learning curve as fast as I can for a certain body of water, that it becomes as easy as casting over a cabbage patch with a topwater. plop plop plop.
hehehehe yeah, i dont knock casting at all, I love it, would rather do it on a regualar basis, but my main goal is to put fish in the boat, for myself and my friends and familly. They certainly enjoy it!
I will do whatever it takes to keep putting fish in the boat, for those who are in the know, we have a one up on you suckas!
I dont agree with being able to troll Class A up north muskie waters, cause yeah, that would be way too easy, The fish we are mainly trolling are spotties, and have a huge tendency to roam open water, flats, suspended at any given location. very very seldom are they ambushing prey like their brothers the barred or natural strain. If I explained anymore, id be preaching to the choir.
This is pretty much the best way to find fish, many fish, and up our success rates, Im not a rich man, cant afford to drive to minnesota or canada on a weekly basis, let alone northern wisconsin like i used to when gas was cheap and Id sleep in my truck. Things are different now,
and with times changin, so has my presentation, my methods to catching what we are all after. I do both, cause I enjoy both, and will continue to do so,
all the while smiling that theres guys out there that hate it, have never tried it,
and wont do so. I smile cause that will keep you guys off our bodies of water that are necessary to troll.
And for anyones information, the skis I caught this year, split the #’s right down the middle, half casting, half trolling, with my biggest to date, coming on a figure 8. 
Maybe GEICO could do a caveman commercial for trolling? So easy even a Neanderthal grumpy old man can do it? Hehehehe
So is tip-up fishing a lazy mans sport too? How about deer hunting with a rifle? What about drinking beer on your couch watchin football?
Yeah, suppose row-trolling is as well? Betting Tom Gelb never had a gut like a lot of guys I know.
Oh yes, its time to fire up the arguments, winter is here!
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Posts: 568
| my mother in law doesn't know how to cast , or know a pike from from a ski, would'nt know a walleye from a bass . But she's caught a 48 and 49 by just riding along with her husband with her rod in a holder. Came within an inch of winning our week long tourney fishing against 18 guys (including some other trollers) who are seasoned musky guys.
it takes some skill to be good at it. but it also requires absolutely zero knowledge to boat fish doing it. that is 100% fact --- teenager who had never musky fished before busted a 48 last year with us trolling a buchertail over 20 plus ft of water. MD |
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Posts: 221
Location: Detroint Lakes, MN |
It's also 100% fact it takes zero knowledge to catch a muskie casting.
And my dad can beat up your Dad.
A good friend of mine had 17 muskies over 50" visit his boat last year in Nov. while trolling.
If you think that it was luck, or that this angler isn't as skilled and as "smart" as those who only cast you are blissfully ignorant.
The same guy will school most of us casting the rest of the season.
JS
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | MD,
We are talking about those who are accomplished and expert trollers, not the folks who ride along with them...unless, of course, the person riding along is as skilled. Big muskies are caught off the dock on a bobber every year, too; that doesn't make casting 'simple'.
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Posts: 95
| JS, I couldn't agree with you more!
Casting or trolling can both be done successfully while having very little knowledge of what the angler is doing/trying accomplish. I think the main point here is that we are talking about what it takes to be CONSISTENT at putting trophies in the boat. The words consistent and trophy both carry a lot of meaning. There will always be stories about grandma or grandpa jones who caught a couple big ones.....and that's not what were talking about.
Chas Martin
http://www.muskymastery.com |
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Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Trolling is so satisfying, guys can't even stop doing it up in Vilas co. it appears. Spoke with the creel study guy from the DNR on Saturday, he said 23 people got trolling cites on Palmer/Tenderfoot and the Cisco Chain this fall. I told him they could give out that many on Palmer alone on any given saturday.
Fishing is supposed to be fun. Who cares how other people fish as long as its legal? |
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Location: Lake Tomahawk, WI | BNelson - 11/30/2009 12:50 PM
I'd rather catch fish casting to the point I rarely troll....but I know it is fun to hear the clicker go off...It's all about personal preference and what YOU enjoy...how much skill does it really take to set your boat up off a weed edge on the north end of Mille lacs and casting a double ten til your arm falls off....???? c'mon.
Exactly.
JS |
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| fair chase - 11/26/2009 12:31 PM
Trolling is a lazy mans sport. clearly. A lot easier way to fish than casting.
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Posts: 2361
| MD has it right.
Here is an interesting position on this thread, guys that haven't trolled much, or not trolled, extolling the difficulty level of trolling, and then suggesting that those who think trolling is pretty easy have never done it!!!
Take a bow Sworrall and cmartin. Maybe it is actually you two that need to get with the program and do some trolling to understand that it isn't this complicated picture you have drawn for yourselves. I will bet the most successful trollers do not see it as a complicated thing to do. It breaks down into simple components, and is often made much easier by the fact that musky hit free running lures.
You can "tech" up, and you can "gear"up, but the end result is just having better tools available for what are essentially simple, and basic applications of fishing knowledge. Give me the best electronics available, line counter reels and a full stable of lures and colors and I can be a BETTER troller, but give me a boat seat I can snap down to use as a rod holder or two(I'm too lazy to hold it until my wrist aches), give me a simple selection of lures, minimal depth finding equipment, and I can catch fish trolling. Don't need a gps, don't need side scanning sonar, don't need a lot of technique, just drive the boat and muskies will appear. They have for me and in less time per fish than casting. Following contours and breaklines? Hey, it's following contours and breaklines, if you want to do that. Following a weedline is also just following a weedline. The more times you do it the better you know it, but the compnents of the process are VERY simple. Eutrophic lake, suspended forage, find the thermocline and stay above it. Muskies are trapped because they have no oxygen below that level. Zing around and spoonplug the living H%%% out of em! If weeds are a problem dip the tips and hang a big weedcatcher hook on the line above the bait. Zing around the shoreline at max stablility speed for your baits. Fish are there and they will hit. Bounce it off the timber on points. Bounce it off rock and gravel points. Dip it into creek channel potholes. These aren't difficult strategies to understand, nor to execute.
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Said I don't troll myself much, never said I haven't spent a ton of time fishing with others who do. You are oversimplifying a complicated technique because you are a well versed angler who is versatile and has been in the company of Muskie anglers who are way better than average; in short, you are very good at what you do, and expect that this should be as 'easy' for everyone. It isn't.
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Location: Contrarian Island | FirstSixFeet, what I don't understand in your posts is how casting is any more difficult? Or are you saying that casting is just as "easy" as trolling...the fact is, trolling can be as dumbed down as you want it, just as well as casting...or can be as thought out as you want it...guys that catch a lot of big fish casting are doing something more than the avg FirstSixFeet, and guys that are succesfull at trolling big fish are doing a lot more than the rest as well... any dummy can put out a few depth raiders and catch fish...yes, that is possible...just as easy as any guy can go cast a weedbed w/ a double ten and catch fish..they both take zero thought....or, maybe just maybe the guys that catch LOTS and LOTS of fish and big fish doing both methods just might be putting a little bit more thought into it than your brain can handle....
maybe I'm missing what you are trying to say...
Edited by BNelson 12/1/2009 10:24 AM
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| Well said Brad. I find myself scratching my head often after reading FSF's posts. Or should I call him "Mr. One Dimensional?" Perfect nickname for him IMO. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Careful, gents, FSF lays many virtual traps for the unprepared or unwary. And, he's one hell of a good muskie angler, although a bit of a recluse at times. Believe me, he knows how to catch Muskies using almost any technique...except corn. |
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Posts: 568
| "master of the english language" and "don't dream of winning an argument with me" are 2 other good nicknames for FSF. don't mess with anyone who catches fish on ugly unweighted, non squirley burt's. LOL |
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Posts: 95
| FSF,
I get one of your points - that to you, muskie fishing is just not complicated enough, just too easy. Then I would say you should probably start making it harder for yourself. Bring yourself back to the good ol' days when it posed a challenge. Maybe take the hooks off your lures and then go trolling. It will add a whole new dimension to such an easy task....jk
Chas Martin
http://www.muskymastery.com |
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Posts: 2068
| Is there "any" satisfaction sure - its better than being at your job ... as already stated its a personal choice. Personally I would rather catch one fish at my feet or on topwater than 5 trolling.......If i wanted to catch fish trolling it sure would NOT be muskies. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | MD, you are right on those counts...sort of. I wonder how much of this is directed at a certain fellow who spanked the Muskies pretty badly this late fall...trolling. |
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Posts: 723
| FSF, you could just admit that you suck at trolling and leave it at that? hehe
Its a heck of a lot more complicated that most of you think, far from easy.
Senseless driving around will get you those poor results.
putting your time in and doing your homework, learning what makes the fish in your body of water tick
is just being a better fisherman than most are willing to do.
I love casting, do it all the time, but wont bat an eye to troll up a fish or two because thats what it takes some days to get them. |
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Posts: 2361
| ManitouDan - 12/1/2009 11:13 AM
"master of the english language" and "don't dream of winning an argument with me" are 2 other good nicknames for FSF. LOL
I'm gonna remember this when I see my older sister. |
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