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Posts: 48
Location: Cedar Falls, IA. | Hey, guys I've only been fishing Muskies for a couple years now and have been doing some reading on trolling blades. Just looking for some insight/tips as far as speeds, methods, or anything else you would deem useful for trolling blades. I did buy a troll pack the other day from spanky baits that comes with a couple keels and weights. How long of a leader do you generally use off of the keel when your using them? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks |
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Posts: 496
| Check out Gregg Thomas's video ...Early Spriny Muskies....... Hey breaks it down pretty well . |
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Posts: 48
Location: Cedar Falls, IA. | Thanks for the help I just ordered the dvd looking forward to checking it out. I did e-mail spanky baits and he said just split ring the bait right to the Keel so I guess thats where I'll start and go from there. Anybody else with some insight?? |
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Posts: 79
| I use a 12 oz canonball sinker snapped directly to my swivel. For every 25 feet of line equals 5 feet down at 3.5 mph. I normally run at 4 mph so it takes a little more line. For instance 100 feet of line is 20 feet down at 3.5 mph, at 4 mph it takes approxamately 10 to 15 feet more line to reach the same depth. I hope this helps. |
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Posts: 602
| Hawg Chaser,
Where do you get the cannonball weights? Thanks for the info.
Does anyone find that some DBL 10s troll better than others? I have heard some won't hold up to trolling at 4 + mph.
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Posts: 43
| How much weight do you need to get the cowgirls down there? I see 12oz 2 posts above me but I was just wondering what other people think? Im looking at cabelas or other bait shops for a quick way to get weights and all i can find is up to 8oz weights at most bait shops besides a muskie shop. Would a couple oz. help get it down 5-10 feet or so?
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Posts: 48
Location: Cedar Falls, IA. | You can find cannon ball weights at thorne bros., cabelas, and quit a few other places. I appreciate the help hawg chaser. I'm looking to get down around 5-10 feet to start withm so I would think the trolling keels I ordered should achieve this. For any of you guys that have used these do you generally just attach your bait straight to the keel? |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I use the cannon balls and down riggers a lot when filming my lures. Works great and with the OR clips you can put the bucktail wherever you want on the cable on the down rigger. See the below picture and just "remove" the camera and walla! You got yourself a deep bucktail. Really owe Don Schwartz the props on this setup. Does not look complicated but there were some tricks to get a down rigger, camera DVR, and lure all setup in sink to work right and Don was great with his write ups in magazines and also through email. In the picture just assume the downrigger is attached to the back of your boat  If you remove the camera this setup is a cinch to get running in about 2 minutes or less.
Total setup for just the downrigger and ball was abotu $80. Some very cool downriggers are out there that hook into your Hummingbird and will adjust the ball to pre-determined depths OR to stay X feet above the bottom. These are abotu $300+ but have electrical winches that adjust the downrigger. Very cool systems but I am thinking that is getting a little above the task of this thread.
James
Edited by Tackle Industries 7/9/2011 8:30 AM
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Posts: 48
Location: Cedar Falls, IA. | Thats quite the setup you have going there James, that is something I'll have to look into. Me and some buddies have a salmon charter booked out of Chicago the end of the month so I'll probably be getting a crash course on downriggers. |
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Posts: 100
Location: Bemidji/Cass Lake | That's a fat looking cat |
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Posts: 112
Location: Nielsen's Fly-In Lodge, on Rowan Lake | YA! i hope he's not eye balling that bull dawg.
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Posts: 1887
Location: syracuse indiana | i actuall made my own keel system for trolling blades, i used some older thick wire and i can add alot of weight to it about 3 to 4 oz and that does get the dcg to get down there. and i will troll this at 3mph with 6o ft out and she gets down deep |
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Posts: 79
| I had some of my cannonball weights given to me, but the rest I bought at either cabelas or bass pro shops. If I ever have to get more I will order them from clint keller at heads and tails. To answer the question about getting down 5 to 10 feet: with 12 oz of weight 25 feet of line will get you down 5 feet, 50 of line will get you down 10. This is at 3.5 mph. If you want to run smaller weights you can do a simple math equation to get you close. For example, an 8 oz weight about 65 feet back will be approxamately 10 feet down. I can't comment about the durability of some of the DC10's out there for trolling since I use my own. Mine are not really what I would call better, just built heavier duty. I hope this helps. |
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | you can get balls from 8-24 oz at most shops that cater to great lakes salmon fisherman. Mike(CF), which port in Chicago is your charter harbored? I can recommend a spot to check out depending where youll be. Generally youll ask for "pump handle" weights. Salmon shops will know what they are. |
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Posts: 184
| I get mine from MuddyCreek Fishing guides in PA. From 4 oz up to 16oz. IMO anything under 6 oz is a waste of time IMO. I have yet to put a fish in the boat this year on a trolled b-tail but did a few last year. I also hang them off a short piece of line ( 2-3") and this acts as a killer weed stopper on a long (5') leader. Best luck bud! |
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Posts: 48
Location: Cedar Falls, IA. | Thanks for all the help guys. I figure the better I get at trolling these things the last I have to cast em....HAHA
We our setup with Angler Charters out of Montrose Harbor the 29th of this month. It'll be first time fishing on Michigan, it's my friends bachelor party so we have a few other things planned downtown...... We are going to hit the Strikeforce fights
that saturday night. Should be a pretty good weekend. |
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | James,
I have some battery pack cases and parts for that DVR, should I send them to you? I sold mine when I designed the Studio, and the guy didn't want the extra stuff. |
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Posts: 964
| I would recomend Running Spanky's. They are built extra tuff for trolling. I have ran most other brands and one if not both blades will fall or burn off after hours of high speed trolling. Most of all the charter Captians on St.Clair run Spankys for this reason. Spankys use heavier wire, blades, clevises and the Spankys have a special wear part between the clevis and the beads, they will take a pounding and hold up well.
Good Luck
Jeff Hanson
madisonmuskyguide.com |
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Location: 31 | I've had some issues with brass blades spinning off of bucktails trolling (not sure if DCG's are brass?). The problem is there's too much force on that thin/narrow piece of metal... it just fatigues. My resent remedy was to superglue a small split ring on the front of the blade to try to relieve the stress on the blade itself. I just started doing it this year... so far so good. A few other things... I add a bead chain of 3 monster BB swivels and bend the bucktail attachment loop at a right angle (got that neat little trick from Rick Michael) to prevent line twist. My preference for my trolling bucktails is to build (rebuild) them with extra weight rather than adding weight to the leader, mainly because I've lost some fish shaking their head at the boat once the weight clears the water. My bucktail speed is typically about 3.5 mph.
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