Estimating trolling speed?

[jigstop]

You can download a bunch of different speedometer apps for free.

[Drummer Boy]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Jig

Oh, come on people! We trolled spinners and plugs for years without smart phones,gps or speedometers. Look at the lure and hows its running and go.......

When you start to catch fish you have the correct speed do not get to keyed on a number.We did catch a ton of fish back then.

[Jfraze10]

those speed-o apps had a hard time reading under 2 mph for me on the lake back in the days before the hds. I would strongly recommend getting the navionics app if you want speed on a smart phone app

[jopes]

1.8-2.3 for cranks is a decent place to start.

But there is speed trolling, and when they are aggressive it is a blast to be pulling cranks above 4mph.

[last chance]

back many yrs ago I trolled without a speedometer. I just put the bait over the side of the boat and watch how its running. when you get a good action on your lure you should be good to go. I fish erie in the summer and run harnesses at 1.8 to 2.0 and it has worked pretty good for me. just remember what speed works good in one direction may have to be adjusted when you change course.

[ffishman]

They used to sell a gizmo years ago that was pretty neat. It was black, with a rainbow colored tape on the top. It was arc shaped. It had a wire hanging off of it with a weight on it. You would mount this on your boat, with the weight in the water. Then you trolled at different speeds. When you caught a fish you would check the thing and see where the arrow pointed to what color. It then became very easy to reproduce that same speed.