Info on fresh water trolling?

marty_scher	Anyone have any info (or web sources) on techniques, equipment, etc., for fresh water trolling for trout or Kokonee salmon? I'll have to wait a bit to purchase downriggers, but if I get some depth other ways, it would be useful. I'm new to real trolling, so any information on rigging and lures (hopefully true ) will be quickly absorbed. thanks	2002-06-04
DTB	I haven't trolled for trout in years but we would use a 2-4 oz banana weight with a gang troll 3-5 feet away and then a 2ft leader to a worm or fly we would troll as slow as a 75horse would go and drag a bucket and zigzag the area	2002-06-05
lepper	we would just troll using a 1/8 or 1/16 size rooster tail, or panther martin, put a couple of split shots on there and just go barely fast enough to make it spin...	2002-06-05
mountainboy	If your trolling for kokanee in the summer they are pretty deep 25 to 45 feet depending on the lake. I use lead core line to get to the right depth. Any lure bright orange works well (needlefish, criplure, sockeye slammer, Arnie's). I attach an attractor to the lead core, 3 ft. of 10 lb. line and my lure. I went to a nice lake in NM a couple days ago and caught some nice sized kokes. Did as well as people with downriggers. Check out Google and type in kokanee trolling and lure jensen has a nice site on kokanee fishing as well as other kinds of fishing techniques. Good luck --MB	2002-06-23
Massey	Hey Marty, I agree with the last comment by Mountain boy...Lead Core line is a great alternative to downriggers. It's tough line, and 12-15 pound test will handle just about any fish to 15 pounds. It actually has a lead center, and the line sinks 1 foot down, per 6 feet off your reel. An easier math is 5 feet down per 30 feet out. Lead core line is colored, so you count by the 10 colors on the reel. There's 300 feet on a spool, so, 10 colors, 30 feet per color, 5 feet deep per color. Also, there are spools you can buy at 200 yards, but there becomes a small problem. Lead core line has a very thick diameter. You will most likely not be able to use traditional spinning reels unless you're into saltwater or massive line content on your reels. A good standard is to find a reel that holds at least 120 yards of 40 pound test of traditional line. If it doesn't hold at least that much, you probably won't be able to fit all the lead core on your reel. Most trolling reels are very expensive, $100.00 and up, but, any kind of reel will do since there's no casting involved. Wal-Mart carries some giant spinning reels that really work great, and they're only $30-$40.00. Reel all the lead core onto your reel, then at the end of the line attach a barrel swivel, medium sized depending on the size of fish and pound test you're using. Then, I use a 10-15 pound test spider line leader about 3 feet in length to black snap swivel. Make sure you know the brand of snap swivel you're using as they take a huge brunt of action because there's no stretch in the lead core or spider line! Black is great even in clear water. If you want to use flashers and dodgers you can, but I've never found them useful. In fact, I've used them and caught a couple, removed them, and started slamming fish! They have their place, I just don't know where that is! Anyhow, lures...the most important thing with trout, kokane, and land locked salmon is their diet is controlled by the feeder fish in that body of water...shad, blue gill, minnows, mackerel, whatever it be. So, find out what the feeder fish of the lake is first. Then, find out when that feeder fish spawns. You can figure about 2-3 months after that feeder fish spawns, it's hatchlings will start moving in schools through the lake looking for well oxygenated areas, as well as places food sources...insects, plankton, garbage, floating outhouses! Most feeder fish average between one to 1 and a 1/2 inches at birth. Every couple of months, these fish will increase in size, and the fish you're fishing for know that. So, you need to pick spoons that follow the size of the bait fish. The bigger your lure, the bigger the fish you're targeting, so, biggest isn't always best, if you're looking to catch a wide variety of sizes. Needlefish and ex-cel lures seem to have the best array of colors, and the best size charts. I never fish with anything other than a size 2 or 3. It seems that size 1 just doesn't do any good, and anything larger than a 3 gets to be to big for my local lakes. 10-15 pound land locked king salmon hunt for these size 3's! A tip about trout...they mostly prefer bait fish colors like shad and mackerel....silver, a little gray or black - with an eye marking on the spoon somewhere. Salmon prefer gold it seems, with the same marking, gray and black...with an eye. Kokane prefer either bright pink, red, or silver with an eye, AND, tipped with white corn, white power bait or something like that. I'm not sure what the bright colors do, or what the white tip does, but it slays them here! For the lakes around me, size 2 works until about now...July or so, next couple of weeks, I'm going to a size 3. The bait fish are growing, so my lure size will too. Trolling at .8 to 1.8 miles an hour is the most suggested, and try different speeds, it makes a world of difference when the fish are aggressive. Flies and other top water or similar associated lures are fine, but I've never caught anything with a fly under the water, especially at 30 feet deep. So, good luck with your trolling! Make sure you always reel up extra lead core lines when you catch a fish. They'll hit the bottom very quickly! Also, with needlefish and ex-cel lures...remove the single hook and replace it with a treble hook. This does not change the action at all, and you will loose way to many fish if you don't! See you, and good luck! Major	2002-06-24

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