Deep Trolling

[fission]

Is there a decent way to troll deep (40 ft.) for lake trout without the use of downriggers?

[Bigeye]

You bet , do it all the time. Use a banana weight and run a flatfish about 4 or 5 foot behind it. With a 6 ounce weight I can get it on the bottom in 100 feet of water.

[Buckets(pa)]

use a dipsy diver with at stinger spoon on the back of it you cant go wrong and you can get as deep as you need to depending on the line and setting on the dipsy diver good fishing Captain Dan Kelly Buckets Fishing Charters Erie Pa.

[Fin Addict]

40' is really not deep. Any type of diving planer will get you there w/ ease. Dipsys are my favorite but jet divers, pink ladies, the generic stainless divers etc. will all do the job nicely. The keel sinkers ahead of a spoon work well as do dog whistles that will drop the weight when you have a fish (expensive and I'm not wild about leaving lead all over the bottom). Lead core would be a nice option. The only problem w/ all of the above is that they really deaden the fight of the fish. Size 0 dipsey or leadcore would be the best of what was mentioned above. Awful fun to catch lakers on large jigs w/ cisco etc on them or large sonars jigged while drifting. If you want to do this a lot, get a good downrigger not the little portable ones.

[Gray Ghost]

On Lake Michigan a plastic keel is used for trolling for Lakers holding to the bottom (the method is called, amusingly, "bouncing one pound balls").

Off the bottom of the keel run a 12" piece of 10 lb test with a 1 lb lead ball. Off the back of the keel run your lure (usually a dodger/squid or a Spin n Glo). Off the top of the keel you run the line up to the rod. Some people use wire line for this but I have used 30 lb superline and it is thin enough that the weight of the ball will bet you on the bottom even in 100 feet of water or more.

The keels are available at some sporting goods stores which carry great lakes tackle.

GG

[Greggb]

I often use whats called "Pound ball rigs" Its nothing more that a 1 pound lead ball and a spring release. These are used on great lakes a lot.

The way you work it is, you tie the release on the end of your line then run about a 6 ft leader from the release to the lure. The pound ball attaches to the release and when the fish hits the ball drops off letting you play the fish free.

I have run this setup as deep as 100ft an it works great.

The releases run about $2 ea. and pound balls around $1 ea.

Hope this helps

[Gunga Din]

Sounds just like a 3-way, just using a keel instead of the tri-swivel. What adv does the keel have over the swivel?

[fission]

Thanks guys, never having done this before I didn't know where to start. Going to Fort Peck and wanted to try for the lakers as well as walleye. I have jigged up some fine lakers in Canada in the past but never tried anything else. I emailed some guys in MT and they said no one ever jigs deep for them; just downriggers. I feel good about trying your suggestions now. Fish are fish , right?

[Fishing Pharmacist]

A simple way to troll down that deep is to use fire-line or equiv and let out about 180 feet of line with a Luhr Jensen Powerdive Minnow or Luhr Jensen Rock Hopper 3/4 ounce. They both will dive that deep or very close.

Have been catching nice walleye in 35-38 feet in the fall on both cranks without addition of drop weight.

Try the metalic perch or the purple on Fort Peck for starters. We caught some nice trout on rainbow color as well at Canyon Ferry Lake MT.

Depending on time of year at Fort Peck but try 8-18 feet with spinners and crawlers on bottom bouncers for walleye.

Good Luck and Good Fishing,

Eric

[Fishing Pharmacist]

It is actually a rock-walker not rock hopper, my fualt.

Eric