News & Stories

CATCH MORE FISH BY TROLLING THIS SUMMER

by Bob Jensen

Across the Midwest, most fish have set up their summer homes.  They’ve completed the spawning ritual and now those fish are hungry.  If you put a bait near a fish, it will probably bite that bait.  The key is to show your bait to as many fish as possible and trolling is a good way to do that.  Trolling enables an angler to cover lots of water quickly and efficiently.  Trolling is most often thought of as a walleye technique, and trolling certainly is an outstanding way to find and catch walleyes.  But in many situations, all of the freshwater fish that I’m familiar with can be caught by trolling.  Following are some ideas for trolling up a few or a bunch of fish.

Lakes, rivers, and reservoirs are prime trolling locations.  From now and through the rest of the open water fishing season, the predator fish will be where their food is.  Walleyes will suspend if the baitfish they’re after are suspended, and largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, muskies, and crappies will do the same.  If you find their food, you'll find the predator fish that live in that body of water.

A variety of bait types can be effective when trolling, but many anglers reach first for a crankbait.  Pretty much any predator fish will hit a crankbait that’s properly presented. You can troll faster with crankbaits, so you can cover more water faster.  Much of the time in the summer the boat will be moving in the two miles an hour range:  Sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little slower.  

Depending on how far below the surface I want my crankbait to be running, I’ll probably start with either a Lucky Shad, a KVD 300 Deep, or a Banana Shad.  These are long, thin crankbaits and appeal to most fish.  The Lucky Shad runs about 8 feet below the surface, the KVD about 11 feet, and the Banana Shad goes down almost 20 feet.  You want the bait running a little bit above where you think the fish are because fish are usually more willing to go up for a bait than down.  Generally, fish see above them better than they see below.

 Getting multiple lines in the water is very beneficial when trolling.  You can show the fish lots of different baits, which helps determine which bait they want on that day.  Planer boards enable an angler to fish more lines more efficiently. Planer boards take your bait out away from the boat so a wider trolling pass is possible.  In 2 line states, and if there are 2 of you fishing, you can put a line on a board out to each side of the boat, and put 2 lines behind the boat.  You'll cover a wide area and you'll get bit more often. In a 3 line state you can get even more lures in the water. The lines directly behind the boat should have the deeper running lures on them to help prevent spooking the fish.   Off Shore in-line planer boards are easy to use and easy to read.  They’ll help an angler put more fish in the boat when a trolling presentation is employed.  Off Shore Tackle is the leader in trolling technology.

It used to be that most trolling was done with an outboard motor providing the power, and today’s outboards do an outstanding job of trolling efficiently and quietly.  However, electric bow-mount motors are becoming more and more popular as they become more and more powerful.  Many of the Minn Kota electric motors can be operated with a small handheld control.  You can control speed and direction from the back of the boat, so you’re near the rods, but you’ve got complete control of the boat.  You can even chart a course and the motor will steer itself.  

If you want to catch more fish, and that's one of the main reasons that we go fishing, try trolling crankbaits the next time you're on the water.  Trolling will increase your chances for catching more and bigger fish, you'll probably catch a variety of species of fish, and those things put together usually make for a good time.

Photo Caption-Bruce DeShano with a mid-summer walleye that was taken while trolling.  

Catch more fish!

By Mike Frisch

As a fishing educator and TV show host, one of my goals is to help people find and catch more fish.  With that in mind, I am constantly researching and experimenting with new fishing equipment and cutting edge fishing techniques, as well as staying on the lookout for good bites that materialize across the Midwest.  This process has revealed some suggestions that I think can be useful for other anglers looking to “up their game” this fishing season.

See the fish, catch the fish!

For years, hardcore anglers, walleye anglers in particular, used their “down looking” sonar units to search for “marks” on those units’ screens that indicated what appeared to be walleyes below.  When found, a marker buoy was pitched near the marks and the fishing began.

That process still works and produces lots of fish – though marker buoys have been replaced with electronic marks on a GPS screen.  To really “be in the game” now, however, anglers may need to take advantage of the various sonar technologies available that “look” off to the sides and around the boat.  Many of today’s top tournament anglers, for example, are catching money-winning fish using these technologies.   

I must admit that I am still learning this game, but found it enlightening in recent seasons to “see” cover and fish out away from my boat, pitch baits to them, and actually catch them at times!  Simply put, the underwater world and its potential for producing fish is a lot bigger than what we used to see when we focused mostly on what was below the boat and ignoring, or maybe better said “not knowing,” what was around the boat!

Fish the Ned Rig

Much of my bass fishing when guiding over the years involved throwing what were then called “jig-worms.”  These were 4 to 7 inch plastic worm style baits threaded on light (often 1/16- to 1/8-ounce) jig heads.  We’d slowly work down deep weed lines in good bass lakes casting and slowly working the baits along those weed edges. 

Several years ago, however, smaller plastics fished on similar jigs came to the forefront, known as Ned Rigs.  These baits are often in the 2 ½ to 3 inch size range making for a much smaller, more finesse style bait.  And, they work!  Clearer waters and increased bass fishing pressure on many lakes appear to be, in fact, ideal conditions for fishing them. 

The past two summers a bunch of largemouth and smallmouth bass have fell victim to Ned Ochos and Rage Ned Cut-R Worms fished on 1/8-ounce jigs by my guide clients.  This year, a new Rage Ned Craw is available that I can’t wait to try as well.  

If you like feeling the tug of a fish pulling back, a Ned Rig fished on the deep weed line will probably produce bass, northern pike, panfish, and maybe even a walleye or two!

Fish “smallies”

For whatever reason (I suspect clearer waters to be the cause), smallmouth bass populations have expanded and exploded in many lakes.  That’s a good thing because smallmouth bass are extreme fighters and acrobats that are flat out fun to catch! 

Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota has developed into one of the premier smallmouth lakes in the world.  There are, however, expanding populations in a bunch of other lakes, both big and small, all across the Midwest.  The good news is that a stop at a local bait shop may be all it takes to find lakes with good smallmouth fishing as it seems anglers are more willing to share details about their good smallmouth catches than they are to give up where the good walleyes are being caught, or details on a big crappies!

Mike Frisch hosts the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series.  Follow Fishing the Midwest on Facebook for more “fishy” information!

Photo – The author with a nice bass largemouth bass from last season.