Trout Trolling Techniques and Equipment
Trolling Techniques
You have a tremendous amount of influence on the action and presentation of your trolling gear in how you run your boat. You can control the selection of your presentation, the speed of that presentation, its depth and its location in the lake. Understanding these variables is key to unlocking consistent catches of trout on the troll.
Speed. You’ll be money ahead starting off slow and experimenting from there. Some days trout like the presentation slow while on others just picking up the speed a little can make a world of difference. Certainly, the type of gear you select will influence your trolling speed. A lure with a lot of resistance, like a lake troll with several spinner blades, is best fished no faster than a slow walk. On the other hand, a spoon like a Kastmaster can be fished up to 3 mph.
Depth. Ideally, you want to keep your offering slightly above the fish where they can see it. In very clear water, trout can see for some distance and will travel quite a ways to hit a trolled lure. A good rule of thumb is to fish near the surface during the morning and evening hours and early in the season, and as the intensity of the sun increases or the water warms, fish increasingly deeper.
S-Curves. You’ll vary the depth and speed of your presentation and cover more water if you make long gentle S-Curves along your trolling path. As you turn the boat to the right the lures on the left will speed up and run slightly shallower, allowing you to cover more water while varying your presentation.
How Far? How far do you put your trolling gear out in back of the boat? It’s common in clear water fisheries to be 100’ or more, out in back of the boat. In fact, in very clear water for trophy-sized fish some guides advocate as much as 150’! As the boat travels over the fish, the fish move away from the path of the boat. Giving the fish time to “recover” by letting out more line will result in more hook-ups. As the water color changes from clear to stained, you can reduce the amount of line behind the boat. As a rule, 50’ is about the minimum length you’ll want to have your gear out behind the boat.
Line. When selecting your line remember that “less is more.” Use the lightest line you can get away with. If you’re trolling for trophy brown trout, you may want to bulk up to a minimum of 8 or 10 lb. test line, while smaller stocked trout require only 4 lb. test. Line size can definitely have an influence on your catch rate.
Trolling Gear
Flatlining. Probably the easiest, and certainly one of the most productive trolling techniques is flatline trolling. All that’s needed is to attach your line directly to a high quality ball bearing snap swivel and attach your lure to the snap swivel. From there the lure is placed anywhere from 50’ to 100’ in back of the boat and trolled.
It’s important that you always use high quality ball bearing swivels to prevent line twist. Excessive line twist is similar to wringing out a towel and will, at the very least, cause frustration while weakening the line, and more often than not, will require replacing the line on your reel.
Some of the most popular flatline trolling lures are:
1/6th and 1/4 ounce Roostertails by Worden’s/Yakima Bait spinners in black with a silver blade, and the salmonfly pattern.
Size 6 and size 9 Panther Martin spinners in the black body with gold blade and also in the Yellow body with silver blade.
Worden’s F4, F5, and F6 Flatfish in the Perch Scale and Natural Scale patterns.
Cripplures by Shasta Tackle in crushed orange with a gold body and prism green tape with a silver body.
Rapala, minnow-type lures in black and silver and blue and silver.
Top trolling lures include:
Starting from upper left and moving clockwise; Vibrac Roostertails, Panther Martin Spinners, Original Rooster tail Spinners, Cripplures, Humdingers, Super Duper, and Assorted Flatfish.
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