Electric only lakes trolling

[fakebait]

Hi Guys new to the site from northeastern Ohio. I basicly fish electric only lakes here and was looking for some advice on using my trolling motors to cover more water. I know thrust does not equate to speed but; using my hand held gps I can capture speed. So I use light action or ultra lites to troll with and 4 lb. test. Basic beetle spin with twister tails. I was hoping to find a speed that I can start with that would put me in the ballpark which I can either speed up or down if things are not working. Jig heads I use are from 1/32nd to 1/8th. Now that we are starting to warm up here finally the fish will be moving up. I know some of the larger slabs hang back in a little deeper and I like to troll these areas before I set up for working the shallow areas. At this time I use a 30lb thrust transom mount and set the speed at 2 with the wind and 3 against the wind. This has worked fairly well so far. I just wonder how many fish I may be not catching because I'm to fast or to slow. I came up with these setting by watching my rod tip viberation to see if the lure is working proper. To much speed or to little causes the vibration to slow down. So please tell me what I may be missing.

[feelay]

Most guys who longline troll pull their jigs at .5 mph to 1 mph most of the time. When pulling crank baits, 1.5 mph to 2.5 mph.

[fakebait]

Thanks feelay. This was the main response I was looking for. I asked this of many sites and your the only one that came back with what I was looking for. I knew this site might be what I have been looking for.

[STUMP HUNTER]

Welcome to CDC.
You also control the jig depth by the amount of line you have out and speed. Each boat will travel different but with the gps you will know the speeds you are fishing. I like to use an 1/16 most of the time and 90% o the time I'm traveling close to .8 mph.
Are you longlining or slow trolling (spider rigging) tight lines. What kind of boat are you fishing out of.

[fakebait]

I have about 70 ft or more of line out on two rods. In Ohio you can only use two rods. The boat is a 1960 Red fish shark 16ft fiberglass about 800 lbs. when I'm fishing. I move the boat in a serpentine motion to speed and slow down the lures rather than a straight line troll.

[fakebait]

This is the boat I use.

[whiskerwhipper]

If you go to monkscrappie.com, i think he has a speed reading device that allows for accurate jig trolling speed. I'd try a multiple jig rig to cover certain water columns too. Are minnows allowed on the lake?

[fakebait]

I can use minnows but; I have out work for a long time now and no money for minows. I basicly only use lures, hence my name fakebait. I'll check out monks crappie. How do you rig for mutiple jigs ? I have thought about that just never looked into it.

[kingkrappie]

crappie angler mag had a graph for what size of head, how much line, what speed, and what depth that puts you at.

nice boat by the way!

[fakebait]

I'll check that out as well and thanks about the boat, it is always a conversation starter at ramps.