trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

[ljcatman]

i have a 14ft boat with no downriggers can i still troll and how. what size of line, pole length do i need. fishing for walleyes and cats. any help on this or a good websites

 

[evinice66]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

thats a pretty vague question but ill try to help...
first answer me a few questions... how deep are you fishing and what baits are you going to pull..... what time of year... and how ruff is the water when you go...

 

[ljcatman]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

0-50ft
wally divers, and crankbaits, harness with worms & leaches.
spring to summer
not to rough water

 

[evinice66]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

well thats about what i figured. haha. well dont take this the wrong way, but ill assume your new? so what i do is buy every bait i can lol, and go from there. i start by organizing and writing down what baits go how deep, and that helps. if your going to bump the bottom going slow wiith a berkley frenzy blue tiger or a #7 shad rap look for blue and silver or black and silver dirty water yellow and white. night time purble back stick baits work good. so from there i pull out a couple medium action poles and make sure i have a floro leader on then set my furthest walleye board out first. i usually pull one board on each side and just have 2 poles on each side without planer boards. you can run this same setup with crawler harnesses but only go about 1 to 1.5 miles and hour, use a bottom bouncer for the harnesses and adjust the length of the line on the bouncer to where the fish are being marked.

crank baits can be wieghted with snap weights to achieve the proper depth- the box for $35 comes with instructions to tell you about how deep you get. with a 14 footer id buy a small maybe 30# thrust trolling motor and a geed blue top optima battery. youll get 5 hours of trolling like this and not have a clunky loud kicker gas motor! this is important!!!! keep good care of your battery.

use medium action poles for trolling, this works out well. they should bend quit a bit. rod lenght deosnt matter if you have planerboards. i like walleye boards the best.
as far as line goes get power pro, itll never break! its made out of kevlar and even with 30# test you can cast farther than with 12 pound mono, just use back to back uniknots to tie on a 5 foot section of 8 pound florocarbon line at the end, then the fish cant see the line.

if your river fishing cats and are anchored still put out planerboards and let them slide out as far as you want- just make sure your bait has enough wieght to hit the bottom, and you can run alot more lines at once. you can even put out a planerboard from shore and fish the other side of the river!!!!


anything else? just ask... take a look at lake-link.com and thers lots of good stuff there too... edit : linecounter reels have majior advantages. most baits have a diving depth on the box, this is rated at usually around 100-120 feet behind the boat, and even if you dont pull a board you can aviod time consuming tangles by having your baits at different lenghts behind the boat...

 

[ljcatman]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

thanks for the info yes this is my first time owning a boat so never trolled before. i need to learn a lot. also i don't have planer boards but i heard you can just troll with poles and the line with weight of course.

 

[Bass Man Bruce]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

If you don't have one get a decent sonar. This will help you keep your lure at the right depth related to bottom/structure.
Trolling with or without downriggers or planerboards is an excellent method for walleyes, bass or pike. I know a lot of guys who do this almost exclusively.
Troll for walleyes off weedbeds in 5' to 10' of water just after dark.
Sunrise for pike or bass.
On small to medium lakes we just go around the lake over and over.
Good luck and have fun!

 

[evinice66]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

id still get some planerboards, there only like 20$ and they sell miniboards that are only $14 i got the mini first becuase it was cheaper, and i like it better in calm water for sure. i just got the bigger ones becuase i get into some moderately ruff water fishing for trout and salmon. if your in shallow water the electric trolling motor is a must, youll notice a big big difference in numbers! and then you can pull a big deep diving bait right behind the boat and catch them right under you. even as much as 20 feet of water theyll hear the motor and turn off relatively. i havent had much time fishing on my boat since i got it last year in october, but ive met alot of really good fishermen over the years, and more so lately.

this might sound stupid but if you get on a web site that has your lake/ area in fishing reports invite some people along! everytime i meet a new fishing buddy i always learn alot from them. some guys have been fishing for 20+ years trolling- its amazing how much you can learn in a 5 hour fishing trip from someone who is a diehard! ive met up with 3 people from lake-link.com and each one has taught me something and slightly changed the way i fish.

 

[Wee Hooker]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

I like to troll in a lazy S pattern till I have them patterned . This varies the speed , direction, action and depth of the baits as well as getting them out of the propwash/boat path regularly.

 

[rightcoastrob]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

I used to roll in a lil 14 back in the day 9.9 with a 30# minn k.In the spring youl be able to troll with your regular stuff no problem.What ya gunna do when there in 50(fow).Thats when trolling becomes expensive.I,ve always had excellent results drifting with a 3 way swivle and a floating jig head.And your bait of choice.If your looking to troll into 40 and 50 (fow).Youll need either leadcore line markvtfisherman has an excellent post on here about leadcore and dipsey divers.Line counter reels and a rod with some backbone to it.Then you have to think about rod holders and do i want my 100+ dollar pole set up on a 15 dollar rod holder. are the only way to go if your precision trolling to a specific depth for suspended walleyes.Where i fish its a prairie so i troll id love to drift it but its just not that productive on my end of the lake.But if your lake has lots of structure and drop off,point,and humps.Youll have excellent results letting your bait fall off a drop off.Do plenty of research before you buy find the correct gear for your needs.

 

[rolmops]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

You may wish to consider dipsy divers or leadline.

 

[ebry710]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

You may wish to consider dipsy divers or leadline.

The guys around here swear by lead core. I have set up two reels with lead core and two with downriggers. I am also purchasing a humminbird 565 with speed sensor and a temperature probe. Like many, I am in the process of amassing an arsenal of destruction for this March. Every lure, finder and technique iboats forums have suggested, now fill my garage...........but those guys who use the lead core only use one tackle box, a finder, a net and pole, but have the best success around this area.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

i have a 14ft boat with no downriggers can i still troll and how. what size of line, pole length do i need. fishing for walleyes and cats. any help on this or a good websites

What size motor do you have and what kind of boat? And do you have a sonar (fish finder)? Trolling without a sonar is fishing blind.

I can't tell you much about fishing for cats, although I did catch a 21' horned pout (bull pout) on a silver flatfish by accident last summer.

You can still troll with flatlines, diving baits, bottom bouncers, and Dispeys.

I use mostly medium action poles, and I prefer 6-1/2 foot and 7 foot poles. I sometimes lay out an ultralight which is short to create stagger when flatlining with several people in the boat (we are allowed 2 lines per angler). A rod on each side off the transom or downrigger, the 4' rod off the side, and a 8 or 9' pole in a forward rod holder. Helps avoid tangles

I run 6# line in either flourocarbon or hybrid, but I have a heavy rod and a couple medium rods with 20# braided for dipsey divers and bottom bouncers. They have 6# or 8# leaders, but the braided has good feel and a lot of yank so when you get hung up you can get your tackle up without donating it to the lake bottom. I have a few rods and spare spools with 8# test, and I would recommend 8# unless your fishing spot has little chance of getting snagged. Sometimes my snags are other people's 8 or 10# line floating around in the depths, and 8# will save you. I use light line compared to many people because I think I get more bites with lighter line.

Downriggers bought used are often cheap to pick up if you are patient. I bought another manual downrigger over the weekend for a $20 bill complete with the stainless line, clips, rod holder, and terminators. I use Chamberlain Releases and can't imagine using anything else. I would recommend at least one downrigger as a used one will run you less than $50-$60 including a fish-shaped 10# weight and you can use the rods you already own. A cheaper but adequate leadcore setup with line and backer will run $100 and might be a good choice in the future, but the downrigger is more desirable to start. A downrigger will do stuff like lead core can do, but lead core can't do some of what a downrigger can do.

Except for maybe a leadcore rod or a "downrigger" rod, I would only use really good graphite rods- and I don't mean expensive good either, unless you can afford it. I have a couple of 6-1/2-foot Quantum IM7 spinning rods that I bought marked down at the end of the season at WalMart for about $20 each which have decent feel. They usually retail around $40, which is about the price of entry for a rod with adequate feel. $120 choices are amazing, but pricey for me, and the $200+ stuff the tourney guys use are probably great rods, but that is a lot of cash and part of the GPS I want so I just use the best I can afford. I seem to have more successful fishing days than most people I know do so my 'junk' must be OK

Tell me about your boat and motor and maybe I will have other suggestions.

 

[jennis9]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

Great tips here... on Lake Erie we're crazy for trolling for walleye and steelhead. There are sure to be some fishing forums and boat clubs you can join in your area. I'm not into cats... so I will comment on walleye/trolling.

We are in a great group of guys in our club and our forum is also a place to meet other fishermen and ask fro open seats -- or offer one. You might want to take a look at ohiogamefishing dot com -- there are plenty of guys dying to talk trolling this time of year. Make sure you join and post all you want -- the community there is VERY cordial about trolling knowledge. You'll find lure makers, fishing reports and great tips. Not sure where you are located - but there's an out of town forum there too and the guys would LOVE fishing reports from out of state. Also take a look at fishcrazycharters dot com -- Virgil has a section on night trolling tips that you might enjoy reading. i do know there are catfishermen there too -- and guys who are crazy about worm harness fishing in skinny waters. doa search and you'll find a ton of info.

My chime in would be to buy the book Precision Trolling -- it gives you a depth chart for all of your setups, including divers, cranks and leadcore. Also, I would make sure to check out what the migration of the walleye would be in your water... walleye do migrate, like to hide in drops and nooks -- so read your charts and they also like to have their presentation above them -- they will come UP to strike most times.

Make sure you have a good net.

And as far as rods are concerned - I would get a matching set so when you are trolling -- your rod bend is the same on each side and you can tell easily when you have a strike. Set your drag loose and you'll hear it.

Good luck...OH and check out youtube for videos on inline planer board usage and cleaning.

tight lines.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

Anyway, I got to thinking about your question regarding trolling without downriggers while I was shoveling snow off a roof this morning.

I didn't mean to suggest you had to have a downrigger or two. Last summer was my first season with downriggers, and while I found it indespensable in some circumstances, more than 95% of our fish were caught with flatlines, dipsey diver setups, deep-diving stickbaits, side plner boards, and spinner rigs.

Green chartruese and yellow chartruese spinner rigs with night crawlers have been good to us. We presented them on bouncer setups sometimes off of planer boards too.

Original Rapalas have produced as well as Shad Raps- Shad Raps have the nice feature of running pretty far down depending on the lure and boat speed.

Dipsey Divers tailed with a spinner rig can run off to the side quite a ways while still going fairly deep.

Jigs aren't really a "trolling" tool, but are good for drifting slowly on breaks and other structure, or casting to a feature. I love movement in a boat so I have never learned how to jig. However, jigging is wicked productive for some.

Hope this helps.

 

[ebry710]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

Green chartruese and yellow chartruese spinner rigs with night crawlers have been good to us.
Original Rapalas have produced as well as Shad Raps- Shad Raps have the nice feature of running pretty far down depending on the lure and boat speed.
Jigs aren't really a "trolling" tool, but are good for drifting slowly on breaks and other structure, or casting to a feature. I love movement in a boat so I have never learned how to jig. However, jigging is wicked productive for some.
Hope this helps.

For me it helps. I have now acquired all these items in the last two months. I think this season is going to be fun. At least I won't be bored switching out lures and baits.

 

[WELLSLEY]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

I would go with a 7' rod with a line counter reel. I have a buddy who uses leadcore he will put 3 colors out with a 15' fluro carbon leader attached to a nightcrawler rig. He hammers the walleye. The 7' rod is easier to handle on a small boat. MY smaller boat is a 12' rowboat with a 6hp motor and I tried using my 8'6" rod and it was a nightmare. Don't think you can't use a downrigger on your boat. I've got a mannual cannon on my 12footer and it works great. I can't help you with trolling for cats I've never done it and don't know anyone that has.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

Part of the idea of using a longer rod is that you can set it in the holder and get it away from both your boat and your other line(s). You can cover more water and whatever fish may have moved out of the path of your boat are usually more likely intercepted by the long rod with the line off the side of the boat rather than out the back.

A 7' rod is acceptable, but if your transom is 4' you only are trolling 16-18' wide. An 8 or 9' rod makes you 20' wide. Just a thought. My two favorite spinning rods are 7' Quantums.

Although I do catch fish on flatlines off the transom and with dipseys almost under the boat sometimes the further lines produce better.

When using a longer rod, it is helpful to start to get into the practice of using the rod lifted high when fish get close especially in a small boat. The rod is much more manageable at any length if you never reel up shorter than the length of the rod when you have a fish on. By lifting the rod tip high, you can effectively steer the fish to the boat side where you can net it. With the lighter line I often use, the longer rods also provide some "cushion" which helps when fighting larger walleyes. The long cheap troller rods are good shock absorbers- I like and enjoy my Okuma Classic Pro 8'6" rod and line-counter reel combo. Is there better stuff? Sure, but for some of us fishing is a luxury and the budget would prohibit the $300 combos, but that is another thread

Leadcore can be very effective, but 3 colors is 90' of line to run about 15' down. The long reel-up is handy when available fish are spooking from the boat, but I like to test the closer-to-the-boat options first. Dipseys, weights, and sometimes down riggers can be immediately "adjusted" for depth to respond to the sometimes subtle bottom and structure changes which hold walleye. We have marked fish on the sonar, dropped or reeled up a line (especially with bouncers) and hit the very fish we just passed over. I am no Al Lindner, so with a 100'+ of line back there, by the time my lure passes it somtimes might as well be a week later. Watching the sonar and catching marked fish seems to happen close to the boat, but not as often with long lines out. Long line bites come as a surprise, close lines we are expecting a bite! Doesn't always work out though...

When we mark fish and are running long lines, we have been productive to pass over the area, of course, but the close adjustment of the lines to depth or a 6' left or right course correction to pass over a particular structure isn't quite as accurate 100 or 200 feet back.

I would suggest the best dollars spent for non-rigger trolling would be to get a spinner-and-crawler program going with weights to get down to a variety of depths, select a variety of cranks and sticks to cover various depths 3' to 25', and find a couple of patterns which work for the 3" Dipsey Divers (which practically go as deep as you want to a point).

 

[ljcatman]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

Thanks To All Yous Fisherman I Got Alot Of Information From Here So Thanks Again

 

[WATERHAM]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

Hey LjCatman,

Lot's of info for you to digest, let's make this easier. Everyone gave alot of good but confusing advise so

1. Get a copy of the Precision Trolling Guide- it lists all your crankbaits and tells you how far= how deep (one of the most valueable things in my boat)
2. Get line counter reels. After all, you want to be able to be able to tell how far out your line is. Okuma Magda 30's are around $30.00
3. Forget the leadcore, look at plain bottom bouncers 3/4-3oz sizes, snap weight , or inline weights (snapweights can be put ahead of your cranks to get a 15' max crank to lets say 21' depending on style and amount of weight and speed
4. Make sure your rods and reels match up (wether you go w/ 7 or 8 or 10' for that matter it will make life easier in the long run. just play with the angle the rod holder sets (so your rods don't run into each other)
5. Don't be afraid to experiment (after you've caught a couple of fish) you'll lose a couple of lures yes but crankin' bottom or rippin through structure you're going to hook up on some nice fish and learn a couple things.
6. Ask some local fisherman and see how they are doing it, they can be friendly, knowledgable, but they aren't going to tell you squat if you start peaking around. Play it cool. I had a guy open my cooler once on my boat while I was gettng my truck. Wanted to know where the action was and got the silent treatment. In-Fisherman has done alot of great articles on catfishing

 

[maiverson]

Re: trolling tips ( with no downriggers)

We only use bottom bouncer in my area (NE South Dakota). The only thing I used to hate about bottom bouncers is that they were hard to store. Always got tangled together, got thrown wherever in the boat then snagged on the carpet and in the net... so on and so forth. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about.

One night sitting on my patio, cooking burgers, it hit me. PVC pipe and screw on caps! I took an 18 inch piece of inch and a half PCV, glued a cap on one end and a treaded cap on the other. Took a sharpie marker and labeled the side of the tube as to what weight I had put inside. I then found an old soft sided cooler that used to carry worm boxes and put the tubes in it. I had created a bottom bouncer tackle box. It works great and best of all no more messes and tangles!

Probably a good idea to send in to those fishing magazine deals where if they post your idea you get $100 or something - just to lazy! One of you guys can have at! Let me know if it gets you anything!