trolling for trout... Help please

[hotshotarcher19]

Im fairly new to having a boat and being able to troll for trout. Ive been having decent success at Hagg trolling near the dam with kastmasters, buoyants , and other lures that i would typically throw from the bank. tonight i went by and purchased some sling blade dogers and weddig ring spinners. I was just wondering how you experts usually rig up with these. how long of leader do you use between the doger and spinner, and do you use weight with them or just flatline behind the boat? thanks in advance for the info.

[paulinalakekid]

I use a 1/2 oz/ or one full ounce of bannana weight in front and then ford fenders usually all chrome model T or A then a small snubber, then about 30" or so of leader then a wedding ring. I like the new wing ones. The kokanee killers they have 2 hooks. anyway I put a worm on it usually a half of one is ok....and set my drag on enough that I can pull out manually about 35 pulls to 45 pulls from the reel to the first eyelet when trolling on slow speed.

good luck..

[Metal Head]

depends alot on location but hagg for example we do very well with a wedding ring on a 24" leader then a swivel with one egg weight above it 1/4 oz i think maybe 1/2. then bait it up with chunk of worm tipped with a red pautzke and fish on!!!! Get it out behind the boat 20-50 ft troll slow 1-1.4 mph works best in the am when they are near the surface we tore them up ar hagg on sunday doing that. Good luck hope it helps

[hotshotarcher19]

Originally Posted by Metal Head

depends alot on location but hagg for example we do very well with a wedding ring on a 24" leader then a swivel with one egg weight above it 1/4 oz i think maybe 1/2. then bait it up with chunk of worm tipped with a red pautzke and fish on!!!! Get it out behind the boat 20-50 ft troll slow 1-1.4 mph works best in the am when they are near the surface we tore them up ar hagg on sunday doing that. Good luck hope it helps

i was also at hagg on sunday.. we were in my new(to me that is) 15' starcraft. I had the white dog that thought she needed to ride on the bow of the boat... lol we had good success fishing power bait in one of the coves but when we were trolling spoons could not get the hook stuck well in a fish.. we had probly 10 strikes but the fish would come offf in just a few seconds. Cant figure out what i was doing wrong so now im looking for a new approach..

[fisher guy]

I like to use a 1/2 oz weight with a sling blade or a mack flash lite or hot wings. On the weddding rings I usually retie them with owner hooks and use a double hook set up. We tip the first hook with either a worm or a power bait nugget and the orange nugget seems to be the color of choice lately.

[kokaneekid]

Originally Posted by hotshotarcher19

Im fairly new to having a boat and being able to troll for trout. Ive been having decent success at Hagg trolling near the dam with kastmasters, buoyants , and other lures that i would typically throw from the bank. tonight i went by and purchased some sling blade dogers and weddig ring spinners. I was just wondering how you experts usually rig up with these. how long of leader do you use between the doger and spinner, and do you use weight with them or just flatline behind the boat? thanks in advance for the info.

It depends on what kind of fish you are looking for. Early in the year long lining for kokanee can be very productive. I put my lures 8 to 12 inches back from the sling blade with a double hook set and one piece of white shoepeg corn on each hook. I prefer to catch fish on a downrigger with no flash or sling blade, you get a better fight, but sometimes you don’t have any choice but to use a flash if you want fish in the boat. When I was at Green Peter last weekend we used a 3 oz weight long lining for kokanee. If you are looking for rainbow use 1 ½ or 2 oz weight this time of year and try Rainbow power bait or a good old fashion worm. Remember your trolling speed is very important start out at 1.5mph and put some 45 degree turns into your driving skills. A turn is sometimes all it takes to get the fish on. Good luck with the boat and let me know how it goes.
Kokaneekid:

[Doc_Rhen]

I pretty much stick with spoons for trout. When I do run Slingblades I am looking for kokanee. I will run them off a DR or with anything from 1/4-1 oz weight. On my wedding rings and apexes I run 24-30" leaders, hoochies get 6-12" leaders.

[newbergfishjunkie]

1/4 oz weight about 2-3 ft a head of a worm. It's all I ever used and catch fish all day this time of year. The trick is trolling speed. A varied speed 2-3 mph or sometimes slower.

[tsorrels]

i keep it simple just use size 50 hot shots any color works light line helps dive deeper swap out hooks sharp hooks

[Hooked up]

I have had great success using a slingblade with a 12" leader and a Berkley Power Grub.

[trollin4trout]

Originally Posted by hotshotarcher19

but when we were trolling spoons could not get the hook stuck well in a fish.. we had probly 10 strikes but the fish would come off in just a few seconds. Cant figure out what i was doing wrong so now im looking for a new approach..

Do you take the boat out of gear when a fish hits to reel it in? If you have a tight drag and keep dragging the fish-even 5-10 seconds- you can just rip the hook out every time. Make sure a fish can take a little line when it hits(loosen the drag)- and take it out of gear to reel it in-or reel in slowly and carefully. If you just try to winch it in against the force of the boat moving, you'll lose a lot of them.

Of course- I'm partial to spoons like you were using myself- but I would say if you got 10 fish to hit- you have a winning method already. I don't think you need a new approach. Maybe just a little more finesse to the program and you'll have it made.

Jim

[hotshotarcher19]

Originally Posted by trollin4trout

Do you take the boat out of gear when a fish hits to reel it in? If you have a tight drag and keep dragging the fish-even 5-10 seconds- you can just rip the hook out every time. Make sure a fish can take a little line when it hits(loosen the drag)- and take it out of gear to reel it in-or reel in slowly and carefully. If you just try to winch it in against the force of the boat moving, you'll lose a lot of them.

Of course- I'm partial to spoons like you were using myself- but I would say if you got 10 fish to hit- you have a winning method already. I don't think you need a new approach. Maybe just a little more finesse to the program and you'll have it made.

Jim

yes i take the boat out of gear when the fish hit. ive heard people on here talk about using a rubber snubber. would you suggest maybe trying to use one of them so there is not as much tention between the rod and fish?

[skeetshtr]

I spend a lot of time flatlining spoons for trout and sometimes you will lose a lot of them. Really sharp hooks help and sometimes speeding up your trolling speed can lead to a harder stike and a better hookup. Your getting a lot of strikes so you must be doing things right. I like a single siwash hook better than a treble on most of my spoons. Good luck.

[trollin4trout]

Originally Posted by hotshotarcher19

yes i take the boat out of gear when the fish hit. ive heard people on here talk about using a rubber snubber. would you suggest maybe trying to use one of them so there is not as much tention between the rod and fish?

snubbers not needed for trout. that's a kokanee thing.

You didn't say if you are using light rods and line? If you are, and the drag is loose enough for a stocker trout to pull off a little line when it pulls hard- then that's the best you can do- sometimes they just get away anyway.

If you're using heavier gear- the pole may not be limber enough to keep tension on the fish at all times. If the line is heavier/with a bigger type reel- the drag might not be able to be set light enough to let them pull away without ripping the hook out.

As the other guy above said- you're getting a lot of hits- that's more than half the battle. Stick with it!

[Doc_Rhen]

Just a couple thoughts, first I have been changing my hooks to Owner trebles and I really like the way they hook and stick. Second I have had one day that I was having lots of bites and few hook-ups and when I got one to the boat I found that the little fat stocker on the end of the line barely had a big enough mouth to bite the hook so I guessed that most of the misses were because of the mouth being too small to get the hook into a solid part of the mouth.

[cully]

Originally Posted by kokaneekid

It depends on what kind of fish you are looking for. Early in the year long lining for kokanee can be very productive. I put my lures 8 to 12 inches back from the sling blade with a double hook set and one piece of white shoepeg corn on each hook. I prefer to catch fish on a downrigger with no flash or sling blade, you get a better fight, but sometimes you don’t have any choice but to use a flash if you want fish in the boat. When I was at Green Peter last weekend we used a 3 oz weight long lining for kokanee. If you are looking for rainbow use 1 ½ or 2 oz weight this time of year and try Rainbow

power bait or a good old fashion worm. Remember you

r trolling speed is very important start out at 1.5mph and put some 45 degree turns into your driving skills. A turn is sometimes all it takes to get the fish on. Good luck with the boat and let me know how it goes.
Kokaneekid:

TURNS...no kidding Kokaneekid. Fished GP yesterday. 4 hours nothing. Started to get antsy and cranked up the speed and threw a bunch of hairy turns into the mix. Caught 7 kokes in a half hour. The turns were not your normal soft s turns. They were hard and fast.

[The Lucky Duck]

Good advise guys, dont forget depth. Find out what depth the fish are at (sounder) or better yet what depth they are biting at and get your stuff in their face. In the deeper lakes sometime you will be marking tons of fish at 70-80 feet but the bite is at 50. Depending on your boat, wind, current,and boat traffic you may have to adjust your speed or route but keep your gear at the right depth.

[tear-a-bite]

lots of good advice, and most of them have worked for me, too.

with the kids, i prefer to keep it simple, cause dad is running the boat and handling alot of rods with hooks!

our most productive method is just simply trolling powerbait or spinners. we go slow, and the actoin (depending on the lake, etc) is pretty constant.

good training for the kids, too, for when they get older for salmon.

as the kids get older, we are trying more and more of these other ideas. it gives the older kids something new and lets them handle it all so i just kick back.

good luck!