Trolling

[borndownsouth]

I was wondering if yall can tell me how to troll. like what speed, depth, bait.

[boatman44]

I'm by no means no expert on this, but maybe. will get others involved to fill in the gaps, first you need to decide on jig head weight 1/32 or 1/16 etc. next you need to figure out the depth of the fish, depthfinders is the way to go, you will need to keep the baits above the fish. most of the time I'll troll around 1 mph up to 1.8 mph. I'll usually put out around ten poles by myself, if I have partner i'll put out 16 to 18. Also use different colors and weights to figure out what they want. I use slider jigs the most, but thats just my experience. You can troll for hours with no sucess then all a sudden you hit the sweet spot, keep going over that area and area alike, you'll figure out a pattern, then the next time you go you'll think you have them figured out but guess what you can start the lesson all over. In my case I usually use darker colors in stain water, and clearer to natural colors in clear. There is some other articles from the pros on this board. I Don't do alot of trolling in the summertime. Hope this helps in some way? GOOD LUCK

[tarheel]

I usually troll about 1 MPH, slower in the winter (.5 MPH or less). I rig 5-10 poles and simply spread them around the boat. I prefer a 1/16th jig head in order to keep the line more vertical at 1 MPH. I always seem to do best when I tip the jig with a live minnow, but it isn't truly necessary and can start getting expensive with alot of poles out. I fish High Rock Lake which is ALWAYS dirty. Green/chartruse seem to do best in dirtier waters. I am at the point where I will put out at least half of my lines with Green and then experiment with some of the others. There is some scientific formula having to do with the rainbow as to which color shows up best depending on Sun/Clouds/Time of Day/Murk of the water but that gets too technical for me. I varry my depths from 5 to 15 feet to start and within an hour or so you will get a feel for what depth they are biting at and adjust the rest of your rigs accordingly.

Crappie trolling isn't as fancy as striper or walleye trolling. To sum it up all you are trying to do is put the minnow in front of his face and cover as much of the water column as possible in doing so.

[tkpaul]

Check out the articles written on trolling, both on spider rigging and trolling crankbaits. The Mississippi board has some good threads on trolling crankbaits.