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Posts: 42
Location: Pewaukee Lake | Been a caster all my life but mid season last year I gave trolling a whirl and well....I got bit by the trolling bug and am officially hooked. Can't wait to get back out and try out new trolling setup. I am curious if anyone trolls regularly in the spring and if so any pointers would be appreciated!! |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | Get ahold of the April/May 2013 Musky hunter, its the issue that is out now. Mike from Muskie Train has a nice article in there (Hit Em Hard and Early) about early season trolling that should help get you pointed in the right direction. |
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| Does anyone row troll in the spring? Why is this seen as mainly a fall tactic? |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | row-trollers are out throughout the season ...
the big row-trolling tournament i believe is June 15th this year. |
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Posts: 1106
Location: Muskegon Michigan | Here in Michigan spring trolling is mostly done on the edges. Weeds are low so we go in tight to the breaks hitting inside turns and points. I run rods closest to the edge pretty short as in 12 to 15 feet back raking those early weeds for fish. Right now Muskies are staged for the spawn in most of our southern lower peninsula lakes. This puts them either at the bottom of the break or in 7/8 feet of water at the base of the weeds. The last couple years we have had early warming trends which have pushed the spawn up. This season is more like our older traditional weather. April has been cold and rainy. Lakes are higher and very cold yet. I doubt Ill see water temps hitting 50 by the 27th.
Once the spawn is over Muskies will disperse out over open water for a while and when we find this its time for planer boards and trolling the deep water. The main key for us here is small and medium baits early in the year. Its hard to beat a Slasher in Michigan with 6 and 7 inch models doing real well. We mix in some Shad bodies and older M-9 grandmas and our magnum Claws but dont fish 8 and 9 inch baits much until the water temps rise into the 70's. This is a regional thing in my opinion. Some lakes we run 10 inch lures in the spring because the forage base is bigger.
USE YOUR LOCATOR. It never hurts to make a pass out over the deepest spots in the lake. You may find on your lake that the muskies stage deeper or suspend . Today with side scan sonar its pretty easy to find them unless they are buried in any weeds that made it though the winter. Locating fish on the sonar also helps with your casting plan. Lets face it. if fish are up in the weeds trolling is NOT going work. If they are out suspended over 20 feet of water casting to weeds is not going work. I hope this helps . My opener is next Saturday. I don't have a set plan going in. Water temps are colder then they have been in near 5 years. The weather is going to be partly cloudy and cool struggling to hit 50. Im bringing live bait, trolling rods and casting gear. Cover all the bases . Mike |
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| There is a great article on spring trolling in the current Musky Hunter magazine, on news stands now! |
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