Re: Trolling - How slow can I go?
Depends a bit on which species, what water, and what lure or bait.<br /><br />Coho (Silvers) go for shallower, faster, and flashier, than do Chinook (Kings.)<br /><br />In Oregon and SW Washington:<br />In the Pacific and in tidewater, we troll for Coho mostly between surface and 15 feet, at 2-4 mph using whole herring behind a flasher (faster, rips the herring off the hooks), and maybe a little faster with hoochies behind a dodger. For Chinook, in the same water, we often troll at 15 or so feet off the bottom (could be 100+ feet deep) at 0.5 to 2.5 mph with whole or plug-cut herring or big (#6 or #7) in-line spinners.<br /><br />In a flowing river (or ebbing tide) we often troll the channel edges at an over-the-water speed (up-current,) slow enough that we are backing down the river bottom at slow walk (back-trolling) with large wobbling plugs (K15, K16, K17 KwikFish) or spoons.<br /><br />If the current is too slow to back-troll, we anchor up and back-bounce the same lures down river behind the boat.<br /><br />I have 10hp kicker on my 21 boat, which will get down below 0.5 mph at idle.<br /><br />People without kickers sometimes tow drogues (drag-socks) or 5 gal pails (with holes cut in the sides at the bottom) to slow down (The problem is to keep from fouling tackle.) Some use trolling plates, but more often on outboards than I/Os<br /><br />If youre new to salmon fishing, I recommend a trip to
www.luhrjensen.com to browse their excellent Tech Reports, -Bulletins, and Sheets (downloadable as PDFs). I benefited greatly from my subscriptions to Fishing & Hunting News, and Salmon, Trout and Steelheader. Also, paying for an occasional day on the water with a local guide, to learn the water, tackle, rigging, techniques,
has helped me tremendously a great investment, and a good time. <br /><br />Have Fun! Good Luck! and, Leave some for the rest of us.
