Trolling with a 2 stroke

zippy83 · Jan 24, 2013

Sometimes durring the winter time in southern IL guys do a bunch of trolling for Muskies and Walleye. Since I have a 2 Stroke 78 Mercury 50HP some guys say that I can troll for like 1 hour and then runn the motor at high speed, and some say I can do it all day long at 3-4mp/h

With it being a 2 stroke I read something about that those engines are not designed for long ideling...

Should I even think about douing some trolling?

Thanks

ENSIGN · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

Give it a try.The most your going to do is foul the plugs which can be cleaned anyways.

Georgesalmon · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

I have way more trolling hours on my outboards than I ever had running. The plugs might want to foul a bit but it doesn't hurt anything. I would throw it into neutral and rev the idle speed once in a while and trolled for as long as 6 hours or more. When I say rev it a little bit I mean a "little" bit don't rev it in neutral to 10000 rpm just a couple of thousand for 15-20 seconds. The biggest problem was getting slow enough, a trolling bag or dragging a 5 gal pail with holes in the bottom helps a lot.

zippy83 · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

When you guys mention "plugs" Im sure you are refaring to spark plugs?

foodfisher · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

Yes.

JB · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

I used to troll with my '79 Johnny 70HP for many hours at a time (see avatar). Replaced surface gap plugs annually.

WIMUSKY · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

zippy83 said:
Sometimes durring the winter time in southern IL guys do a bunch of trolling for Muskies and Walleye. Since I have a 2 Stroke 78 Mercury 50HP some guys say that I can troll for like 1 hour and then runn the motor at high speed, and some say I can do it all day long at 3-4mp/h

With it being a 2 stroke I read something about that those engines are not designed for long ideling...

Should I even think about douing some trolling?

Thanks

At 3/4mph you wont have to worry about loading up the motor. You'll be giving it throttle. That's trolling pretty fast. Pretty much top end for muskies. I usually troll 2.5 - 3mph with a 60hp and I'm giving it throttle.. Sometimes faster depending on what "they" want. You'll be trolling a lot slower for walleyes. Will need to back troll if you have a tiller and it still may not be slow enough. Like whats been said, you wont hurt anything..... How about an electric trolling motor for the walleyes?

zippy83 · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

For the walleyes I can use my 70LB trolling motor it has enough power to do the trolling for smaller baits. since I dont have GPS on my fish finder I really dont know how fast I will be going with the big motor, but the estimate is 3-4 mph

WIMUSKY · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

You're set, electric for walleyes and the 50hp for muskies...... That's exactly what I do........ Muskies actually like the commotion of an outboard. Some guys drag a lure back a little ways in the prop wash.........

zippy83 · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

yup that is correct. The guy that I used to fish with all the time (untill I got my own boat last month) used to run two rods on the boatside, so that the lures are really close to the prop. I cant recall how many fish we got that way.

Thanks for the help

JimS123 · Jan 24, 2013

Re: Trolling with a 2 stroke

I use a double jointed pikie minnow and lead core line for muskys. If I tried to run 3 mph it would pull the pole out of my hand. If I put it in a pole holder I couldn't get it out.

I set my kicker at 1.9 mph using a paddle wheel speedometer. It agrees right on with the GPS. I troll with the 9.9 for about 5 hours at a time, with a 20 min lunch break. When it was new I would foul the plugs and have to goose it up to WOT for a few minutes every half hour, until it stopped blowing smoke. After I switched to Splitfire plugs I haven't seen a bit of smoke and i can run for hours on end without fouling.

I realize most people say bunk to Splitfires, but they worked so well for me I wanted to buy stock in the company!

Trolling with a 2 stroke

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