Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | Seems there is more talk this spring about trolling. We often run sliders for our propwash lures to get an extra lure in the water. If I have extra people in the boat (my son for example) It can get messy with too many rods. I can't take credit for this method but I like it. Here is how we run our sliders..
The rod that is out to the side (tip near or in the water) near the back of the boat gets the slider. I have some 15-20 ft leaders of 80 lb mono with a snap swivle on each end. The snap gets put over the line of the out rod just past the tip. It will then slide down the line to the lure that is on the out rod when there is a hit on the propwash lure. The slider leader then comes to the back of the boat where I have a release hooked to the tie down hook at the back of the boat near the motor. Attach a trolling lure to the other snap and drop it in the wash, it will go back 5-10 feet depending on your leader length. I use the shower ring type of hookup at the transom to hold the release. On this release I have a couple of rubberbands to be sure it really holds tight. I want to get a hookset out of the release, I still hit her hard again when the rod is in hand anyway just in case. If you get a fish directly on the out rod somone else in the boat can reach up and undo the snap of the slider and get it out of the way. If you get the hit in the propwash on the slider you can only reel up the rod to the lure tied on the end of it. You now have 15-20 feet of leader still out there. The 80 lb mono is big and won't cut your hands. Enjoy Hand-lineing in the fish the rest of the way to the net. When you are trolling at 5mph the slack in the slider gets eaten up pretty quick and your reel might be screaming before you know the wash lure was hit but you can usually hear the snap of the release because it was so tight. Do be sure, as always, that your hooks are Razor sharp on the slider lure to assist in hooking up.
It is pretty simple in practice, I'm not sure if my description makes much sense on this post. It can get an extra lure out there without more rods and cover more water. My most productive lure in the propwash last year was a Cranes 208. I mostly troll lures designed for trolling but the Crane was awesome with 4 or 5 fish. It can't quite keep up and will blow out occasionally and runs erratic, I think this triggers the strikes. Capt Frank might be able to add to this post for me but with a big boat he probably has room for more rods than I do. Anybody else use sliders? What do you do different? |
