Trolling questions.

[Gnaar Bubba]

I know there are a few of you guys here that are seasoned vets on trolling. I just bought my first fishing boat and would like to learn how to troll and put fish in the boat. Where should I start? I was at bass pro and they have a couple Cannon down riggers, I was thinking just the simple hand crank one? Or should I try lead core? Thanks

[striperaddict]

Well it depends on how deep you want to troll. If your fishing the river near willow beach I see absolutely no need for either. I use a heavy action rod with a penn fierce 8000 reel and a med heavy with a penn battle 6000 and some berkley big game mono 30#. I used to use one with braid and a top shot of flouro but if you get hooked up on your other rod the braid sinks and almost always tangles in my fish and other line.
Get some good rod holders and make sure they are secure cuz a pig striper will rip one off if its not secured well.
Just my 2 cents and I'm sure others have different ways but that's what works for me.
Good luck!!!

[Gnaar Bubba]

Thanks, that's what I've done in the past on the river and ocean. The type of trolling I would like to do is on lakes, Silverwood, Castaic, Havasu, Mead etc...

[F/W Fishwhistle]

I agree with striperaddict that downriggers aren't necessary in shallower water. And, if the body of water contains old brush or trees, it's easy to snag/lose your ball.

But.... When you find a school of fish using downriggers lets you stay right on top of them much easier as turning can be done more sharply (as long as pole lines aren't trailing/clipped too far behind the downrigger line).

The downriggers also allow coverage of more specified depth. Sometimes another ten feet down matters.

You can always use the economical approach by running a heavy pole with a heavy weight as a downrigger and then clip your pole line to that.

[chris_winz]

you won't need a downrigger at willow, however at Lake Mead they are pretty handy. Put your ac sticks or mag shads down 60-90' and troll out over 100 to 150 feet of water out in the wash and you'll catch fish. You could try them down on Lake Mohave and see if it works there, never had luck with them on lake mohave myself.

[Gnaar Bubba]

I like the poor mans down rigger, I have a couple old 4/0's and tuna sticks I could fashion as a down rigger. Thanks guys for your feedback.