Question for you long liners.

[Kyle Schoenherr]

I've done some long lining with some success, but i'm not real experienced yet with it. Most of the time that I have done it has been summer time over deep water or mid range depths such as 10-15 feet of water. I have an area that I think it would work well and the depths range from 2-6 feet of water. Would you guys recommend 1/16oz jigs or maybe even pulling jigs and corks? I've never long lined with corks but it seems like that would work well in shallow water. Just looking for a little advise from someone a little more experienced than me at it. Thanks in advance.

[badbrad]

In the summer time, I swich from pulling jigs to pulling crankbaits. Try Rapala SR-5's, Bandit 200's and 300's. I increase my speed to about 1.5 to 1.7. Good luck.

[sailfish1]

the 1/16 may run too deep for the 2-6 ft range, you might have to go smaller, like 1/24 or even 1/32, we use planer boards made by tnhooker on the tennessee board, they will run out to the sides and you can adjust your depth from 6 inches deep to 12 or 13 feet depending on the size jig you use, the cork option should be fine too though.

[CrappiePappy]

I've done some long lining with some success, but i'm not real experienced yet with it. Most of the time that I have done it has been summer time over deep water or mid range depths such as 10-15 feet of water. I have an area that I think it would work well and the depths range from 2-6 feet of water. Would you guys recommend 1/16oz jigs or maybe even pulling jigs and corks? I've never long lined with corks but it seems like that would work well in shallow water. Just looking for a little advise from someone a little more experienced than me at it. Thanks in advance.

IF .... and I say "if" you're fish are IN the 2-6ft depths, longline trolling with a cork should work well. Weiss Lake anglers do this, very early in the year, with decent success. I agree, however, with Sailfish1, about 1/16oz being a bit too heavy for that shallow of water. I'd go with 1/32 to 1/64oz ... if not using a cork. Planer boards ARE another option, too ... as are 14' or longer rods out the side :p
But, with that said ... for me, if fish are in that shallow, I'm most likely to be throwing a 1/32oz or 1/16oz Roadrunner, from a distance ... fan casting the area as I slowly move the boat along.

... cp

[skiptomylu]

I use 1/32 oz. when long lining shallow water and even out to 14' water depth, but even then the fish are like 5'-10' down +-. When they get really on the banks in 1'-3' of water I like to do what I call flipping to them. I use my 10' pole and have about 14' or line out and almost like a fly rod, but sideways jerk it from one side to the other and when it hits near the bank I am already using my TM on low and add a little speed by pulling the jig away from the bank and sometime you can see them come up and hit it.

However I would say you could troll in 4' or more with a 1/32 oz. jig and do well, maybe even 3' of water.

Oh forgot to say before our hydrilla got killed off and when it was normal here I was almost always long lining in 6'-7' as the norm. That is also where they crappie would pull out to when they would come back out after laying some of her eggs and some just spawning right there. They use to stay in that depth here from about the first of March until the first of June with the end of May really more fish in the 10'-12' of water holding before summer pattern.

Skip

[Kyle Schoenherr]

Thanks for all the advice. When you guys long line with corks to you still try to stay about 1.1 mph?

[GCD]

I'd go slower with a cork, like .7 or.8 to begin with then play with the speed to see what the fish want.

[BigD]

I can't find the long line speed chart that someone posted here. It would be helpful to have the the jig size / line / speed for basic depths.

I have just started long lining and got a 30 inch walleye instead of crappie

Using the larger road runner (white) would hit the bottom at 1.1 in 12 feet on occasion.

Can someone point me to that link on jig size / line / speed for basic depths?



D

[GCD]

That's really the way you do it BigD, troll your line over clean flats until you find where it bumps bottom and you have your depth. The depth chart is just general info and not exact, speed/line diameter/jig size/amout of line out are all important factors, and you can even throw in line type... fluoro will run deeped than mono because it sinks. I use 4# fluoro with a 1/32 jig and can get down to about 6' deep on a long cast and 1.0 mph. I reel line in and/or speed up when my jig starts bumping bottom. It's all trial and error.

I wouldn't be fussin' about a 30" Walleye, those things are almost as good as Crappie!:p

[usafret99]

You can use the 1/16oz jig just like you do in 10 to 15ft of water you just have to let out less line and go a little faster. I caught most of my crappie this year in 3 to 4ft of water like this. I don't get all caught up in worrying about what my exact speed is I just go as fast as I need to to keep the jigs off the bottom with about 20 to 30 ft of line out. I think fish are normally more aggressive when there that shallow so you can go a bit faster. Of course you don't want to be full blast you just have to experiment and see what speed and length of line out works. When me and my wife go fishing in shallow water I long line from the front and she has 4 poles out the back with corks and she catches more fish than me (and bigger). Hard for me to troll corks out the front and back, seem to get tangled up to much when the front catches a fish. One good thing about corks is you don't have to worry about wind. We caught a lot of fish this year when it was to windy to troll we would put to rods out each with corks and just let the wind blow us across the cove. When we get to the end we just start the big motor up, run back down the cove and do it again.