Juls - trolling cranks

[powerdive]

Hey. I use superline, no leader. Rods in holders, approx. 1-1.6 mph, running 150-250 feet of line. And I've been known to lose double-digits of fish in a day. Some of those fish that got off were monsters.

I've tried double-ringing, double-sharpening and switching out hooks. I'm trolling primarily Deep Jrs, Deep Tsticks and Reef Runners. Looks like my choices are down to 1) tying in a mono leader (might as well get used to it, I'll be doing a LOT more of the leadcore thing this year), and 2) adding a snubber.

Some of my early posts probably carry a record of these woes. So I respectfully ask...what would you suggest? Thanks.

[walleyesrus]

Mike, a couple thoughts on your problem. Do you set the hook when you have a strike or do you just start reeling. I had a bad habbit of setting the hook and then maybe half way in i'd give her another jerk for good measure, one of the things I learned fishing the greenbay rcl was to keep steady constant pressure on the fish and not be jerky and not set the hook. Things like maybe trying to kick your boat out of gear or other things like thar could be contributing although you might be on the right track with a leader. I don't troll with fireline I use 10lb xt or lead core. Look on the bright side at least you're getting the bites. I bet I made 100 passes last summer from k-dock to the big sand flat and only caught 2 small walleyes and some bass and crappies. Apparently the big walleyes feel more confident biting on your line. I get all my fish either just above at snap or on that ridge below k-dock. Maybe next year with the ptsv i'll be able to follow the contour a little better and get into your treasure trove.

[Juls]

The most important thing you must do when trolling a superbraid is to keep the drag looser than you normally would with mono, because of the no-stretch qualities of the line. Also, a little softer rod tip will help you out a lot. A "fast" rod tip is going to work against you when fighting a fish using a superbraid. You have to make up for the lack of stretch in the line someplace, and you do that by loosening the drag, and softening the rod tip. When trolling, you generally do not have to set the hook, because the fish has already done that by itself. A steady retrieve works the best. It might take a little longer to land the beast, but you will land them.

Just try loosening the drag before you start messing around with snubbers.

Juls

[powerdivehome]

Lee, most of my fish come from the edge of the flat below Snapp, the mouths of the two cuts above K Dock Bay (prime), the eastern point of K Dock Bay (best spot in '04, especially early afternoons), the edge of the flat between the K ramp and the marina, and off your ramp down to the bend. 18 to 21 feet early (May-June), then shifting downward to about 24-26 feet by August. Best results come when ticking bottom with Deep Jrs on the shore side (plus two large splitshots as the season progresses). I always run something else (bigger/deeper) on the outside line. Reef Runners really pick up in August.

Once you get to know the contours pretty well, you can cheat the boat path to hit the cups and points. But I'm learning it's a whole lot simpler with leadcore, due to the shorter lines and nearly instant depth adjustments...

Anyway, I don't set (well, maybe a little sweep as I'm lifting the rod out of the holder), and I don't pump or move the rod around. S'pose I could lighten the drags a little more. I keep the boat in gear unless there's a tailwind, but with the tiller and the other line out there it's tough to keep it on track, so it does sometimes swing around.

Hardly ever lost a fish when holding the rod, though. Then I definitely set the hook--wham!

Had Tablerock out there trolling with me one cool day last July. Fishing wasn't great, but he did stick a couple 24 inchers. But he, Ken and Todd have all witnessed my Amazing Fish Losing Exhibition...

[powerdivehome]

Sorry, Juls, we were writing at the same time. Thanks for the advice!

I'm using a pair of 8' custom rods my brother made. They do have nice soft actions. But I will definitely loosen those drags and try enjoying the fight a little longer. When I'm by myself, though, with the other line still trailing and the boat wanting to do its own thing, I think I do tend to hurry the fish. Much obliged.

[walleyesrus]

I've never fished the side our boat ramp is on. But otherwise you pretty well described what I fish. I actually think its easier to fish when the waters down so you can keep track of the dike and see more of the flat. The only good thing is that area isn't as hard on cranks as snapp is. there is a ton of brush on snapp and it changes every year as the yokels put out their brush piles. I used to troll down on the mincy flats but they put so much brush in there last year you can't go 50 yards without snagging up. I don't mind peoplr putting in brush piles back in a cove but when they randomly stick them all over otherwise good flats they are just screwing up areas.

[walleyesrus]

another thing on losing those fish particularly in summer is that area is jammed full of gar some of them are huge. Last year I was dragging a small walleye and didn't realize it when my rod went back and I thought I had king kong. I fought it for guite a while and then it came loose and I figured I'd just lost a huge walleye when I reeled in I had a 14" walleye with tooth marks in the sides like up north with muskies. I bet alot of your missed fish are gar.

[Ozark]

I'm new to walleye fishing. About the only thing I know about it is the past couple of years in the Spring, I've done good trolling deep crankbaits.

I'm surprised to hear about missing lots of strikes that way. Trolling a crankbait with two treble hooks, I hardly ever miss a strike - if they bite, they're stuck.

Getting a walleye on when trolling always fools me, though. It always just feels like I'm hung on a mud bottom. I'll get the motor out of gear and finally get the rod out of the holder, and about then I feel movement and realize it's a fish. They put up a good fight on the way to the boat, though.

I'm not using any fancy stuff. I usually troll with 8-lb. P-line on a "medium light" 6' spinning rod, with a pretty loose drag set and a heckuva lot of line out. That gets my lure down to about 17', according to my scope. Maybe there's so much "give" in my light outfit it helps keep the fish on the hook. I dunno.

[walleyetracker]

trolling is one of my favorite ways to fish..we use 6?/?'to 7'med. rods,line counter reels and fireline 10 lb.test line..the line is very sensitive,you can feel rocks, bottom,and a strike.works very well where we fish. we also use planer boards.fireline dosen't work very good with the boards,it slides up and down on the line,we have found mono works best for boards.

[Juls]

walleyetracker said: we also use planer boards.fireline dosen't work very good with the boards,it slides up and down on the line,we have found mono works best for boards.

Yes, mono works best, but planer boards CAN be fished with superbraids quite easily.
Your success with planer boards, using Fireline, will be determined by what brand of board you are using and what clip releases you are using.
For instance, Off Shore Planer Boards come packaged with a black clip release(OR-14) that doesn't have a lot of tension. If you try to use Fireline with these original clips it will do just what you said, slide. If you upgrade to the Snapper release (Black/OR-18) on the front of the board and the red clip (OR-16 w/pin in the center) on the back end of the board, your board will not slide. Another trick you can do, if you do not want to upgrade clips, is to double wrap the Fireline around the release when you clip the board to your line. That will keep it in place too. It won't be as easy as using the Snappers, but it will work in conditions when it's not to rough. Using planer boards is easy, once you learn all the tricks that make it easy.

Juls

[powerdive]

Double wrapping takes a little practice, under tension. Especially when you're also trying to run a tiller...

[Lakebumb]

Most of my experience with crankbaits is in the area of the Green fish. Soft tipped rods, like fiberglass and stretchy mono give you the best chance of landing the fish.
I did a lot of trolling on Kentucky lake for Sauger and caught my fair share. Again soft rods and 12 # mono line, I never set the hook the boat does it for you, I put the boat in neutral and keep a steady pressure on the fish. Be ready with the net and haul em in. We used to put a curl tail jig about 3 ft in front of the crank to help get it down and caught alot of whites and a Sauger now and then and on a good day you can catch 2 fish at once, one on the crank and one on the jig. One good thing about the jig is that it usually hangs up in the brush before the crank does and with a steady pull the light jig hood will straighten out and let you go.
Good Luck

[powerdive]

Lakebumb, were you ticking/dragging bottom with the jig? How heavy did you need to go? How did you attach it to the line? Was that a floating crank behind? Sounds neat--just trying to visualize the system. Thanks!

[Lakebumb]

PD
About 3 ft above the crankbait I tied a 3 way swivel. Off of the drop the jig was tied to a 6" line. We were ticking the bottom and were using the old style Bomber crankbait. Usually in White. It was the medium sized one, can't rember the exact size. Used a small jig head 1/8 or 1/4 depending on how deep the flat was. The curl tail I used was usually chartruse. Trolled the main lake along the edges of flats next to the river channel.

[powerdivehome]

TR uses an interesting 3-way rig sometimes--maybe he'll show you tomorrow. I've done 3-ways with a dropper line to a pencil-style bottom bouncer with a floating minnowbait behind and had some luck, but there was definitely some bait-losing going on so I got away from it. The jig makes sense--might generate some extra strikes.

A friend out on the Columbia River 3-ways a 3/4 oz. football jig/tail with a Mack's Smile Blade harness/crawler behind. He's dealing with some pretty major current most of the time, so he needs that much weight to get it down. He just creeps along. But he's caught 'eyes up to 18 lbs. that way!!!!

Someday I'd like to go out there and fish with him...