How do you slow down for lake trout?

[NMShooter]

Wow. I just went for a quick test walk with my gps to see what 1mph or less looks like. Unbelievably slow. How the heck do you go that slow and maintain any sort of directional control? I would think that with any sort of wind you get blown all over. Do you only troll into the wind when possible?

Or do I not try to keep the boat speed at 1mph and compromise by driving in an "S" pattern to get some slow presentations only at shorter durations?

I've got a Happy Troller plate coming in, but I think I am going to need to drag a big bucket as well. If so, what sort of drag implement do you recommend?

Also... at that slow of a speed, how do you keep your lure from sinking straight down below the dowrigger weight? I read that a good starting point is 50' behind the release. Put an attractor on there, and even a Sutton paper thin spoon is going to want to hang at 1mph. How do I stay in the zone?

Crap there is a lot to learn.

 

[cedarjunki]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

what do you have for a boat? motor?


google lake trout trolling, and you will find more info to read than you can handle...
but 1 mph is a bit slow for me...anywhere from 1.5 and up. the more s turns the better action you will get.
i troll in any direction until i find which direction and which speed they want...

 

[LongLine]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Your lure will only go so deep, as long as your moving. Some lures will swim 1 ft below your weight, others may swim 6 ft below it. When you are going slow, observe your lure just below the surface - about 8-10 ft back from your rod tip. You may find that with your cannonball 10ft off the bottom, that you lure is actually 2 ft off the bottom. (size of line, length of line out and lure weight all play a part) This is where trial & error comes in.

GPS & down speed can be two entirely different things. When guys talk about going slow, they're generally refering to down speed. i.e speed at the lure. On Lake Ontario, underwater currents can give you a 2-3mph difference between gps & downspeed. Wind & currents are what make trolling a real challange when you're targeting Lakers.

Some guys swear by trolling bags. Myself, the old 5 gal bucket with a few holes in it works fine.

1 trick for Lakers is just to put it in neutral for about 10 seconds & let your lure flutter downward. When you put it in gear the lure will dart upwards. Lakers often love it.

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

I am not a great Lake Trout fisherman- in fact would call myself poor but lucky. However, I *have* caught lakers at over 2.5mph, but that is not the norm. Drift socks or buckets give a lot of directional control at slow speeds because it gives you a pivot point.

Into the wind- a nice idea but never seems to work out for me. But I am a slow learner and it seems that I keep trying :redface:

 

[rolmops]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Another thing you can try is using live bait.I often use live(or dead) shad and, if I can get them cisco, and use them just like a lure trolling at anywhere between 1.5 and 1.9 mph.
The live bait has less water resistance and has roughly zero weight in the water so it does not sink.It may not wobble as much,but it gives off a yummy smell that lakers cannot resist.

 

[NMShooter]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

I am rigging up a 17' Aluminum bluefin sportsman w/ 85hp Force. I guess I can bring a 'homer bucket along with me to drop the speed a bit! S turns too. Thank you for the 'laker tips. I'm two weeks out from my first day on the water. Can't wait!

 

[LongLine]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Tom B.
(LongLine)

(18 Ft)

 

[Expidia]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

I love when there is a steady wind. It allows me to turn of my electric and drift with the wind. Your down rigger line will start to hmmm right around 1 mph. That sound drives my wife crazy .

To slow down when there is a wind just angle into it like a sail boat does when tacking except you are doing the opposite. They are trying to catch the wind where you are trying to dump the wind by angling a little into it.

The Lakers don't care what direction you are going. Most Laker enthusiasts just troll around in a big circle anyway.

After you get bored if the Lakers are not biting pull up your presentation up to the next temperature thermocline and speed up to 2 miles and hour and you will pick up Salmon if they are in the lake you are fishing on.

Go into a local bait shop to see which lures and colors the fish are biting on. Pick up 3 or 4 different colors and styles. I usually have good luck with a spoon looking lure called a Mooselook. Been using them for 30 years. Funny, I stopped in a bait store a few years ago and asked what they are biting on and he said same thing they bit on when you started fishing for them 30 years ago. I still have Mooselook lures that are 30 years old

http://www.mooselook.ca/en/mooselook_2.htm

here is what they look like:
http://www.kitterytradingpost.com/product.php/pid/104/sid/599/tid/2342/prodid/13642

Invest in a temperature locator. You let it go down until you find the thermocline at 45 to 55 degrees. So say it's at 45 feet that day. You then lower your downrigger to 40 feet and clip your lure up 5 to 10 feet above the weight. I usually let the lure run 10 -20 feet back. I also use a flasher trailing off the down rigger weight about 10 feet back. The flashing looks like a school of bait fish to a Laker I guess raising their curiosity for your lure.

Spray your lure with an attractant so it covers up the human scent from you handling the lure. Some fisherman use WD 40, I've heard. I have good luck with this little spray bottle called Megan Fox . . . hahahaha

People troll around all day for Lakers at various depths, but once they go deeper as the waters warm up Lakers usually hang out around that temp. Every lake will have that thermocline at different depths.

I use a Fish Hawk and bought one off Ebay used for $90.
http://store.fishhawkelectronics.com/Category/Handheld-Temp-Meter/

Here is a cheapy model:
https://www.debnroo.com/Temperature...r_Portable_Fishing_Gauge_Lusterleaf_P744.html

When the fish don't bite just drink more beer! No sense in making the day a total loss

 

[cedarjunki]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Another thing you can try is using live bait.I often use live(or dead) shad and, if I can get them cisco, and use them just like a lure trolling at anywhere between 1.5 and 1.9 mph.
It may not wobble as much,but it gives off a yummy smell that lakers cannot resist.

rolmop: have you tried using a piece of mechanics wire bent in a arc in your dead bait?



(The Lakers don't care what direction you are going. Most Laker enthusiasts just troll around in a big circle anyway.)
myself and im sure many others would disagree .... the reason for doing just big circles is we dont have to pull everything up and fly back to drop the rigs back over top of them...


(I am rigging up a 17' Aluminum bluefin sportsman w/ 85hp Force. I guess I can bring a 'homer bucket along with me to drop the speed a bit)
if your going to use the happy troller you were talking about, you wont need anything else..

 

[Expidia]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

(The Lakers don't care what direction you are going. Most Laker enthusiasts just troll around in a big circle anyway.)
myself and im sure many others would disagree .... the reason for doing just big circles is we dont have to pull everything up and fly back to drop the rigs back over top of them...

So let me get this straight, the reason you "go around in circles" is to come back to the same spot.

Call me crazy, but I'd say you are going around in circles

I sometimes follow way back of the charters and you are right, they don't go around in circles, they go around in big squares

I use a circular pattern to cover more territory. Each time I circle, I'm over different section of the lake. When they bite I hit the mark button on the GPS and circle back over that area a few times where I saw the fishies!

My Navionics Hotmap chip in my fishfinder is a big time saver when I'm on a lake that I'm not familar with. It saves a lot of time to be able to start trolling on sections of the lake where the Lakers are known to hang out. $149 for the SD card but the bottom topography detail on most of the lakes makes it well worth it. I have the same 2007 card. Lake topography doesn't change much.

 

[NMShooter]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Okay... here's mine :

I'm curious... why do you clip your lure above the weight by that much?

Those Mooselooks are much like the Sutton ultralight spoons. I'll order a few! Bought some neutral buoyancy 3" rapala in rainbow trout and whitefish today too. My daughter and I have two-rod licences... my plan is to fish two deep with downriggers off the back, and fish two a bit more shallow with three way swivels and 1.5oz weights off the front. For the front rods, I'll probably fish a very light lure such as a small rainbow fish looking super-duper.

Thanks for the links on the temp sensor. I'd like to get one... I was told that early season on my lake (Heron) the lake trout are up close to the top, and that they begin to work their way down mid May, about the time the kokanee start to come up.

I'm pretty jazzed about this. I'm a little nervous about rigging and fishing a boat with a 14 year old daughter, but she is pretty handy. Eventually on the list is a decent trolling motor, something like an autopilot... would be nice to track in a direction, or if a fish gets on, point the thing in a safe direction and not have to worry about steering the boat.

I'm hoping that the Happy Troller plate will allow me to slow the boat down to 1mph... but I am still amazed at how slow that is.

 

[Expidia]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Okay... here's mine :

I'm curious... why do you clip your lure above the weight by that much?

Those Mooselooks are much like the Sutton ultralight spoons. I'll order a few! Bought some neutral buoyancy 3" rapala in rainbow trout and whitefish today too. My daughter and I have two-rod licences... my plan is to fish two deep with downriggers off the back, and fish two a bit more shallow with three way swivels and 1.5oz weights off the front. For the front rods, I'll probably fish a very light lure such as a small rainbow fish looking super-duper.

Thanks for the links on the temp sensor. I'd like to get one... I was told that early season on my lake (Heron) the lake trout are up close to the top, and that they begin to work their way down mid May, about the time the kokanee start to come up.

I'm pretty jazzed about this. I'm a little nervous about rigging and fishing a boat with a 14 year old daughter, but she is pretty handy. Eventually on the list is a decent trolling motor, something like an autopilot... would be nice to track in a direction, or if a fish gets on, point the thing in a safe direction and not have to worry about steering the boat.

I'm hoping that the Happy Troller plate will allow me to slow the boat down to 1mph... but I am still amazed at how slow that is.

I only use one Canon down rigger. I clip one rod about 5 feet up and another rod 5 feet above that. I try to keep it simple as nothing is more frustrating than getting everything tangled. That's why you need to swing in real wide circles.

For me it's not where you clip the rod's line on it's where that 45-55 degree water is. You could allow the down rigger weight to be at any level you want, it's where you want your bait to swim. I don't like the weight to be too low cause when they are down deep like 150 feet in the summer the bottom can come up to 100 feet real fast. Faster than I can drop everything and start cranking the weight up. If the weight hits bottom you could hang it up and it gets expensive to replace weights.

In the spring time the waters are cold so the Lakers are hanging out near the surface. I was on Lake George NY past Sat and noticed the water temp was 39 degrees. This time of year start fishing around the tributaries where the waters flowing in. They like the oxygen and they chase the smelt around the mouths of the tributaries.

Match the hatch. If they are feeding on smelt. Then pick up some smelt colored lures.
Years ago I fished for hours on end on a friends boat. He had a fish finder and down riggers even back 25 years ago, but we never caught anything. Now I know the reason we never caught them (they would just follow our lures but not bite) was because we were using the wrong colors as they go deeper less light is down there and you need to adjust for that. A local bait shop knows what colors work at what depth and time of the season.

Like another poster has said just google down rigger trolling and read a ton of info.

Here is a pic of where I attach my first rod's line:
http://www.seahag.com/marina2/fishingreports/downriggerfishing.html

Bow your rod more than the one in the pic. when the fish hits the release lets go and the bow in the rod sets the hook when it snaps up.

Here is a book I bought when I bought my down rigger. It's only $10 online:
http://www.protroll.com/books/?id=4

Great looking rig you got there. My Wife would love that wrap around windshield. I trailer my boat behind a Saab sedan so I needed to keep the tow weight under 1000 lbs.
In the summer when she gets bugs in her teeth on the way back to the dock at dusk since I'm the only one with the winshield . . . I just tell her to "suck it up" and floss them out

Here is a good link with tips for one of the Lakes I frequent (Lake George, NY) we can't use live smelt or Alwife's on it so I use lures mostly.

http://www.lakegeorgeassociation.org/html/fish_&_fishing_in_lake_george.htm

 

[rolmops]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

If you fish for lakers in lakes that are deep close to the shore you should try to find areas where there are humps underwater with currents going over them,or deep holes right next to them.Lakers love to hide in structure facing the current and they will attack everything that comes over the hump.Now you are no longer "going around in circles" but you are trolling over very specific areas with the right bottom structure and water column structure.Here the lakers are just above the bottom even if they are well above the thermocline.You should still go over the deeper parts of the humps
You can usually find underwater humps where the shore sticks out in the water because of creeks that have dumped run of in the lake and have filled in some areas.
I know some very good spots in Keuka Lake and in Owasco lake which will get me a dozen of lakers every time I go there.
Long Line if you are interested shoot me a private message and I will tell you where to go.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

I have run planer board releases above the cannonball for a second rod, or simply clipped a round snap swivel on the fishing line between the surface and the release as a "slider." The belly in the line makes it run roughly in the middle of the belly.

I am unclear of the advantage of running the ball 5' deeper than the line is running. With the Chamberlain, the release is immediately above the ball in line with the cable. When properly set it will not release in the vertical orientation, but will release with the smallest fish on the lure. This puts the weight only about 6" below the release.

Can't wait to see your pics and read stories of your first fish in the boat!

 

[cedarjunki]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Okay... here's mine :

QUOTE]

did you already order the happy troller? i just noticed you have a whale tail already which you will only be able to use one or the other....u might benifit more with this type....
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...&parentType=index&indexId=cat21370&hasJS=true

ill rephrase the going in circles deal.........its not because the fish care....but because of the action you get going in that direction. whether its against the current speeding up the wobble of the lure or with it that slows the action down......but either way i find i will get more hits in the certain direction and maybe one or none if i just turn around and go back over them......

the wd-40 trick......im not gonna say it did, does or will or will not work...but i can remember going out with my father almost 20 years ago and they used wd on everything they dropped in the water.......they swore by it!..but i was told as the years went by the results werent as good....there assumption is they chanded an ingredient or using cheaper stuff.


the only reason i would run my line above the ball is to add a stacker...otherwise my main line is ran off the ball......
and ill try and bounce the bottom whenever i can to stir everything up and attract them.....just starting out i would not suggest doing this!

i also run the spoons as close as 4' to the ball...and back as far as 100', there is no set distance but just remember the more line out makes turning alot harder without tangles... if you see a charter out there pounding them and there making tight s turns...... but you try and get a tangled mess instead of a fish its because there lines are very short!

just a small example of the riggers in action on my fathers boat..

 

[cedarjunki]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

nmshooter; check out this short video...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8475922745586444863#

 

[NMShooter]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Cool! Good links. That video of lake Champlain had another video off to the left of trout fishing near Mountain Home Arkansas in the North Fork... my home waters!

Yes, I have a Happy Troller plate on the way. I'm hoping to test run it this weekend.

In the video, he talked about "flat lining". Is that a non-weighted line, just run on top or the first few feet of water?

Thanks,

Frank

 

[recce43]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

if you need to slow your boat down try backtrolling it works real well you just drive your boat backwards

 

[LongLine]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Tangled rigg'r lines are a result of not properly spacing your lines and lures. I use two rigg'rs & often 2, sometimes 3 lines on each. Let's say you're running basically the same size/weight spoons. Start with your port side rigg'r bottom lure a few inches above the weight. Lower it to 10ft and attach a second line. Lower the weight to say 40 ft.

Attach a line to the starboard rigg'r, again just a few inches above the weight. Lower it to 10 ft & attach a second line. Lower this weight to 35 ft. (Keeping the boat on a straight course) You now have 4 lines in the water spaced 5 ft apart. i.e. at 40, 35, 30, 25. You now know where each lure is relative to you rigg?r counter and hopefully to where the fish are on your fish finder. (Some guys track their cannon balls on their fishfinders)

Now, here's the secret - The lowest line should be the longest. Let's say the bottom line on the port rigger is at 100 ft back, then the bottom line on the starboard should be 80-90 ft back, the upper line on the port side should be 70-80 ft back etc. i.e. shorter as you go higher in the water column.

Couple more tips: (1) Lower your rigg?r slowly. Do not let it free spool. If lowered too fast, your lures will not go down fast enough & you?re upper line can actually catch the lower line. (2) run the heavier lure on the bottom line. (3) If you?re inclined to mix plugs & spoons then run the plugs on the deepest lines. (4) generally lines with attractors such as flashers/dodgers and fly combos are run on upper lines as they never go as deep as clean spoons.

Good advice about the thermocline. On Lake Ontario, the Lakers hang out in that 20 ft zone just below the thermocline.

Yes "Flat-lining" is just letting a line out the back of the boat. The purpose of the rigg'r is controlled depth trolling. Sometimes early in the spring, we'll run a single line with a long lead on the rigg'r with it just 2-3 ft below the surface.

H.I.H.

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[NMShooter]

Re: How do you slow down for lake trout?

Great posts! I'm saving all these tips.