What is your favorite way to troll?

[ToddM]

[divani]

I don't understand why one excludes the other. I just love to hold the rod in my hands because of several reasons: you feel it when a fish bites from behind or just bumps into the lure (follower), when you hit weeds, you can respond quickly to depth-changes and you can manoeuver better around obstacles and structure. I've yet to come across someone who can give me one valid reason (other than: my lures pull too hard) to not hold the rod in your hands.

I troll about 15-20 feet bahind the boat with lures that run at least 3m deep at a "normal" distance behind the boat (say 15m).

[fishpoop]

Divani: I'm with you my wife and I both hold the rods. We use 8ft. custom made rods built out of St.Croix E-glass blanks, with Diawa line counter trolling reels. These are medium/fast action rods with heavy power. These rods have about a 2 foot handle behind the reel seat. They will troll a 10 inch Believer or Jake at up to 5 m.p.h. and we hold the rods. I have had arguments with people on all the muskie boards about doing this. They say it can't be done. I know it can, we Do it!

Granted the baits pull like heck, but to help with this I tuck that long handle under my right thigh as I sit in the boat. My right hand is on the rod foregrip,rod butt under my thigh, with my left hand on the tiller of the motor. Braced this way you can troll hard pulling baits at fairly fast speeds for long hours. My wife braces her rod the same way but she also puts her other leg up on the inside of the gunnel and braces the rod with her foot.

I agree that the advantage in feel is to me a more important consideration than comfort. I know when my bait is walking bottom. I can tell how hard it's digging the bottom. I know insantly when the bait runs free. I'm starting to learn what rocks feel like,vs sand or muck bottoms. I have a ways to go before I feel that I'm good at it. I can tell when the lure tips weeds or fouls. I know what depth my bait is running at. With the line counter reel and holding the rod I have CONTROL over what my bait is doing. I'm not guessing about what it's doing. With control over the bait I do a better job of learning the layout of the lakes bottom. By haveing control and learning the lakes bottom I become; slowly, sometimes it seems to slowly, a better fisherman. The Great Buck Perry has a name for trolling in this manner, he calls it "Spoonplugging." The only difference is that I'm doing it with Jakes, Believers, and very heavy rods.

However, I'm not shortline trolling. I'm running anywhere from 35 feet to over 120 feet of line behind the boat. When I troll I usally am following a breakline or weedline and I'm attempting to get my bait down to the bottom. I will troll over cabbage weeds with shallow running baits on a shortline, but the idea here is to keep the bait from fouling in the weeds. I haven't tried shortline trolling over open water for suspended fish yet. Something new to learn about.

[ToddM]

I was just trying to put things in categories. You could troll with a planer board and hold the rod if you wanted to.

I troll with four rods so I would need four arms and hands to troll with.

[fishpoop]

Well Todd you have got me there. Holding 4 rods with planer boards would be a bit of a challange. Just a little challange though! LOL I fish primarily in Minnesota and we are restricted by law to 1 line per angler so I have never got into the multiple line trolling game.

About the only time I would consider using multiple line with planer boards is trolling for suspended fish out over the main lake basin. Then it would come in handy for covering water. But as I said 1 line per angler kind of puts the screws to that plan.

[Paul]

I love to row troll, not one of your choices but an often overlooked technique. I guess I am just too old school.

[divani]

todd, how do you manage to troll four lines at one time and not end up with a tangled mess everytime a musky grabs a lure??? I know that in canals and rivers planerboard-trolling is quite good as you hold one rod in your hand with a deeper diving lure and a planer board on a rod in a rod-rest near the shore to cover the "shallower" water with a shallowrunner. But how do you manage to reel in three rods when a musky grabs one lure and not loose that fish, or even when you take two pike at one time (as we have had several times when they are quite small ones)?? What do you do with the one rod that has the fish on it? Do you keep motoring the boat at the same speed? How about boat-control? #####, no wonder people stare at you! It must be quite a show!! triple LOL !! Just joking! But how do you do it?

[jerryb]

I have to vote for a category not listed,,, FAST!

divani, I agree with post #1.
However I must add there's nothing like when you feel a fish take a swipe at your bait, she misses it, you flip the bail and then reengage it and BANG,, there she is! It doesn't happen often but If you have ever done that, it's a blast!

[ToddM]

Divani, I have never had a problem with tangled lines with a fish. They are spread out fairly good. When one hits(usually the planer board near the weed egde) we just piut the boat in nuetral and whoever's isn't reeling in the fish reels in the other lines and takes off the board. It's not that hard actually. We get alot of stares because I have only seen one other boat like mine and nobody else trolls like I do. To be quite truthful, I don't see anybody else catching any fish trolling the other methods where I fish.