Trolling
Trolling
Trolling, or trailing as it’s sometimes called, is fishing by pulling an artificial lure or mounted fish bait behind a moving boat. As the intention is to give predatory fish the impression that the trolled bait is alive, moving at the right speed, with a suitable lure fished at the correct depth, is the combination which leads to success.
The simplest form of trolling is to trail the lure behind a rowed boat. Where the bottom shelves clown deep, you grow slowly so the bait can work deeper, and where it shallows you row quickly to bring the bait up, so that it doesn’t become stuck in snags or weeds.
If you’re trolling alone, use just one or two rods, angled outwards from either side of the boat in rod holders close to the stern. Then when you get a bite, you ship oars, possibly drop the anchor, and grab the rod to play the fish.
Some anglers like to trail with a sliding float on the line, set well overdepth beneath a stopknot. The float gives early indication of a predator’s attack on deadbaits, and is especially useful with trailed livebaits, a deadly effective method for catching species like pike, muskies or walleye in still water or slow-moving rivers.
Other baits which can be trailed behind a rowboat, with or without a motor, are teams of flies or single large streamer-type flies, fished deep clown with a lead- cored line on large lakes or reservoirs.
To troll from a motorboat for trout or pike, use a large-lipped, deep-diving plug with the boat moving at one to three knots. Even heavy spoons can be trolled at depths of several feet which keeps the lure trolling at exactly the depth you want regardless of trolling speed, an impossible feat with all other methods.
Although computerized downriggers with auto winch facilities are widely used, a simple manual downrigger will cover most fishing situations in both still and running waters.
A crank handle centerpin winch, which holds the downrigger cable, clamps to the stern or the side of the boat close to the stern. On top of the winch housing is the tubular rod holder, and protruding from the center is a 24 inch boom with a pulley at the end through which the cable feeds down to the water.
At the end of the cable is the downrigger weight itself’, a lead ball weighing 3 pounds or more (depending on trolling depth and speed). The weight is finned, and a quick release clip which holds the rod line is fixed to it by 4 inches of cable.
The line is clipped in to fish the lure at anywhere from two to a hundred or more feet behind the boat, and the downrigger lowered by the winch to the required depth. Literally any depth can be fished (if the cable and line are long enough), with the lure following horizontally behind the downrigger weight.
The reel is left out of gear, with the ratchet on, for lowering the weight down to trolling depth and for raising or lowering it. at any time during the troll. When the lure is set at the trolling depth, the reel is thrown into gear and the preset clutch helps to set the hook and avoid a break when a heavy fish grabs the lure.
The reel line is wound up tight so the rod tip takes on a tight bend. It then quickly straightens and springs up if a fish pulls the line from the quick release clip. With the reel line free of the downrigger, the fish is played in as normal.
Using a downrigger in conjunction with sonar, lures can be trolled up and over obstacles such as submerged treetops, through steep-sided gullies and over shallow bars and weedbeds. Some sonars have color display screens which show what lies beneath the boat – the depth, the bottom contour, obstacles and even the fish.
It’s all a far cry from simply walking along the bank, tossing out a lure and cranking it back in. But for trolling on large waters, where the fish could beliterally miles away, fitting your boat with equipment. that can locate the fish electronically can save you much time and trouble.
Tags: downrigger, lure, motorboat, trailing, trolling
June 4th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
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