Longline Trolling in 'Bama Yesterday

[GCD]

The details
We fished Lake Logan Martin.
I pulled into the launch parking lot at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am and Jim was already there, ready and waiting. This guy even makes the early bird look late!:rolleyes: A quick load of my stuff into his boat, a launch... and away we go! I nearly froze to death in the cold morning temps and full throttle boat ride to our destination!!!

We were fishin' by 7: am! Jim was spouting fisherman poop talk about how he and his wife had caught 5 fish in this one little spot in 4 minutes the last time he was out... we trolled thru the "gold mine" with nada.:rolleyes:... I feel certain that we would've caught fish there had I been allowed to bring live minnows.:D

The Presentation

Longline trolling in 4-7" of water with so many poles hanging of the sides of the boat you couldn't even spit over the side of the boat without getting it on a rod!:D I think we covered every square inch of water in a 40' wide swath!... actually I was using 4 rods and Jim was using 4-6. I'm not used to that kind of fishin' and it was more work than I figured.

We trolled with plain jigs because minnows aren't allowed on Jim's boat (I think we'd have caught more fish if we had some minnows). Jigs were 1/32 and 1/16 with 2" curly tails. I used SPHG and tried various colors but black and blue with a chartreuse tail and a red 1/32 head outfished everything else. Trolling speed was key as well, we started out at around .9 mph and weren't doing so good... sped up to 1.2 and started catching fish! Water temp was 62-66*

We caught a lot of fish, but a lot were throw backs. We caught more short Crappie than keepers, and we also caught quite a few Catfish and Drum.

The Pics

Jim working his magic on the trolling motor.

I didn't notice it when I took the pic, but there was a distinctive landmark in the background... hence the editing.

A couple of Jims fish back at the launch.


My catch


Jims catch



In all, we took home 13 keepers each... I think we would've caught more if we had some minnows!:p

[slickwater1]

no minners. lol

[crappieseeker]

I use to love trolling over on Woods in Tennessee. Sometimes I would hook a fish on all 3 of my poles at the same time. I lost a rod that way once lol. It is much fun at times but like you said can be a lot of work. Most of the time we caught all our fish on jigs and zilch on minnows, so I would have been sticking with the jig thing myself. However there are those rare occasions when the minnows win. Good catch and thanks for the report

[STUMP HUNTER]

Good report and nice catch but I think you would have done better if you had some minnow :D:D LOL Before this year I wouldn't leave home without minnows, I thought it was a crappie fishing sin!!! When you find the right color jig you can catch crappie and really don't have to have "minnows"

[Eager Beaver]

Went out April 1 and fished for 3-1/2 hours and no fish using a minnow. Switched to a jig and started catching some really nice fish. Most of the fish were 12 and 13 inchers on the jig. Lawrence caught a few small throw backs on minnows. Always give them what they want and you will do ok. We fished for an hour with the jig and caught 17 nice Crappie. EB

[skiptomylu]

Well at least you got some and my little program on my computer says yesterday was a poor day. Thursday when I got a few it was just a fair day. So you guys did alright!

Hey why mess with minnows if you can catch them without them little trouble makers?

Congrats,

Skip

[usafret99]

If you can't catch crappie in April without minnows you need to find something else to do!:D

[GCD]

If you can't catch crappie in April without minnows you need to find something else to do!:D

Is it just me?... or does anyone else fell a lot of "minnow hatred" in this room?:rolleyes:

[skiptomylu]

Must admit GCD I do hate messing with them. Had a friend fish the crappie USA tournament last weekend and got 3rd on not so good of a day using minnows. So I thought to my self, I will give that a try (meaning trolling minnows). Well that lasted a very short time with not a single fish caught on two attempts and then they still are down in minnow buckets in the water around my boat (up in the air it is) and have not taken them again yet. Guess they will jug die in them buckets.

I try to enjoy fishing with them and if I ever really got a good one on them I guess I would use them more, but yes just hate messing with them and soon it will be so hot they will not live well here.

Skip

[oldwun]

As my dad would say"out of minners means your out of bait".