trolling - sport fishing or not ?

[eye-tracker]

But the thing is that if I hadn't taken your trolling course I would've had no idea what u were trying to say.

Ooops'

Wallyboss, I made that post to try to show how much information is needed to troll, it has taken me years of practice and knowledge on the water to produce fish when trolling. I am sure this weekend when I fish Lake Erie I will learn even more techniques by locals like Hoover...and share some of my tricks...Once I figure it all out (Like Never! Every year the lakes and fish change and it is always some new or modified technique that works.) it will be time to take up another sport.



-et

[muskymuskymusky]

Trolling is easy…
Just head out on the lake and target some fish in water. Heck most anglers don’t even know how to read their sonar, the shape of the sonar is a cone so if you see fish marks at 25 feet, that is the distance they are from the transducer…so that fish could be directly bellow the boat at 25 feet or 25 feet out to the side, front or back and only at a depth of 12 feet. You have to think in 3D when reading your sonar. So now that we got that easy part out of the way lets troll… Quick look at the sonar and I confirm the fish are stuck to bottom in 25 feet of water. I decide to run 3 colours of lead core with a worm harness to see if you can get some takers. Troll at just the right speed to prevent from snagging bottom and speed up to raise the line up and over humps and structure. It is so simple that you toss out three more lines and place them all on inline planer boards because your boat is spooking the fish out to the side of the boat. Now the fish start to rise off bottom and are actively feeding between 10 -15 feet over 25 feet or water. At first you just increase your trolling speed with your lead core rigs so they rise up to about 18 feet, therefore you don’t have to take your baits out of the water and miss potential fish…you better hope that your spinner harnesses have willow blades so your can increase your speed, otherwise you are going to have to pull in all your rods and reset your lines.
As you catch fish you swap out your rigs for crank baits on three way rigs so you can run a diving crank at 14 feet and a floating crank at 10 feet. So you check your dive curve for the lure you are going to send down and calculate your trolling speed and send it out exactly 65 feet…snap on an in-line planer board and send it out to the side of the boat.
Keep this simple pattern up for the day and don’t get any line tangles.

Have to love trolling…what a great sport.

-et

Man this BOQ trip is going to be so much fun. I cant waite for some of this action Eye-tracker.

[Hoover]

You mean casting is sport fishing? lol!

sorry just had to!

I troll 7 days a week! lol

[squig69]

Heck most anglers don’t even know how to read their sonar
-et

chris

[Hoser]

CC and I troll probably 50% of our fishing time. Besides the fact that we get pike, bass and walleye in deeper water, there is something to be said for enjoying the loons, serenity, scenery and companionship while slowly cruising the water. Mind you, that all ends when I finally figure out what and where they are hitting that day. Then it becomes Team 3 vs Team 6.

[Legend]

Paya, I wish we could have gotten you out at Charleston so you could truly see just how demanding and involved trolling can be.

Here's a picture of my daughter's boyfriend with a classic Lake Erie Walleye from a week ago. This fish defied logic and was caught off the down rigger but on a free sliding cheater. (A piece of line 6-8' long with a lure at one end and a clip that attaches over the main downrigger line attached to the scotty release off the cannon ball.)



Without this cheater setup this fish would never have been caught.

Here's a picture of my setup on the Battleship. Yes 14' of boat can indeed do the job, even at Port Burwell. But remember, trolling speed and direction become important to lure action and presentation.



Here's a picture of a 10" Perch I dragged around for a few hours. It never would have pulled the line out of the release.



Trolling is both an art and skill, and very much a sport in my mind. And yes, I still have lots to learn.

Legend