Bites while trolling

[lhumphre]

I have never trolled before but after reading all these ideas i am gonna...now one stupid question that i keep thinking about...how do you know if you get a bite when trolling since you dont have the pole in your hand? do they hook themselves and you just wind in? ir do you set the hook after you notice the rod going funny?

[Dutch]

when they hit you will know it, the rad with bend back and start jumpimg, reel them in. THey will hook themselves.

[dogboy]

Are you looking at fishing vertical off the front of your boat or dragging bait? If you are spider riged you can use a slip float. Another thing that helps is putting a bright color paint on your rod tips and useing hi-vis line. Sometimes a bite is no more than the line on one pole moving "differantly" from the other poles. I spend a lot of time checking my poles when this happens as it also helps you stay un-hung

[skiptomylu]

I watch my pole tip for a bite and quickly pick it up and pull the set. Or I hole my rod and control it like that. Either way you will not need to worry about that unless for some reason you would not be paying attention.

[john h]

i let them hook themselves cause im lazy

[dr_duff]

I am in the same boat as you Luke. I have never trolled before but I am going to be trying it. I got to video from Jim Duckworth and I like how he explains it. When you don't have a bite your pole tip wil "vibrate" another words go back and forth quickly. When you get a bite then your rod will "Pull or Jump" like the other guy said in this thread. I am looking forward to trying it. I got the trolling video for crappie and the spider riggin for crappie videos. They are very informative. He does do some good plugging for his sponsors in the video which is to be expected but he goes over the types of poles, reels, lines, set up, crankbaits, boat speeds (Which I was surprized at how fast he was going and still catching them, about 3 mph) he covers everything. Now I can't wait to get home so I can try all these things he talks about.

[crappiefarmer]

What type of trolling are you gonna try? Spider rigging, set the hook. Longlining, just raise the rod and start reeling. Trolling cranks, just reel em in. CF

[dogboy]

The bites you look forward to are the ones that take the tip of your pole under water. No mistaking them.
KW

[Cracker68]

You will know, It seems to me the little ones really slam it and big one nibble