Trolling Speeds

[Meat Hunter]

I usually crush the walleyes on Hot n' Tots this time of year at 1.8 mph. The water is warm for sure, but NO bites. I was wondering what speeds you guys troll the Hot N' Tots at???

Also, my son wants to fish for muskies. I was thinking J13 Jointed Rapala around 1.8 too. Too slow?

Years ago when the fish were like this, I ended up trolling deep down Husky Jerks, straight ones, at like 2.5, that worked.


Any thoughts with the warm water, I'm still catching them on the harnesses.


Meat Hunter

[REW]

Meat,
When you are out trolling - use the throttle on your motor to find the effective speed.

Only the fish can tell you what is working for that body of water on that particular lure at that particular time of the year.

Sometimes you need to troll at 5 mph for walleye.

Really - give it a try sometime.

Walleyes have no issue in catching a lure that is going 5 mph.

REW

[rps]

Your Hot N Tot speed is right. I find 1.8 to 2.4 the best.

This year we in the Ozarks never got cold enough to have a lake "turn over." It has thrown the usual patterns off. I have been forced to experiment and try other things to get bit.

[Karas3434]

Originally Posted by rps

Your Hot N Tot speed is right. I find 1.8 to 2.4 the best.

This year we in the Ozarks never got cold enough to have a lake "turn over." It has thrown the usual patterns off. I have been forced to experiment and try other things to get bit.

X2 warm water temps have made everything slightly more difficult this year. Been taking longer than usual to get the same numbers and size has been down significantly this year.

I have been thinking about running some of the Hot N Tots i have but have always had such good luck with Deep Thunderstick Jrs, i have never ran Hot N Tots before. This may be the year i try something a little different!

[louieD]

at 1 speed, I usuall go 1 1.5 mph, I prefer to drift in 5-10 mph wind, or troll in reverse, for some reason I think anything over 2mph is too fast.

[yarcraft91]

Hot n Tots have worked for me at speeds of 1.5 to 2.5 mph. Over 2.5, they tend to spin out unless well-tuned. We often run crawler harnesses and Tots at 1.5-1.7 with good results.

Now that the water has heated up around here, a 1/4 oz Tot won;t run deep enough to interest our walleyes. I run the biggest Tots I can fuind when teh walleyes are in 20'+ depths.

[REW]

Try running some deep running reef runners.
Check the speed to see how fast you can run them with out having them spin out.

REW