trolling with braided line

[gooch]

Since I cant buy a fish lately on a nightstalk I thought would try trolling crankbaits last weekend. I went and bought some cheap wal mart baits and one white bomber. I tied the bomber to a pole with braided line and subsequently caught all my fish off that set up (4 kenuckys, 3 green carp, 1 crappie, 7 white bass, 2 walleye, 1 goggle eye) in 3 hours. All of the fish caught were stuck hard with some of them literaly being ripped open by the hooks. My question is do you think the braided line with no stretch is the best for trolling since you have so much line out? Also I know there have been threads on how much line to put out but I cant find them. Any thoughts on how far back to troll? Any help would be appreciated.

[fishingpox]

Good question. I use braided line on everything I have. The reason I use it trolling is because the stuff is durable and strong. If I snag a tree top,I just pull it loose. Even if I snag someones trot line it will pull the trot line up and I can unhook it easily. However, in my opinion, you can't beat it's sensitivity.

[kygorski]

99% of my trolling is done with braid.With no stretch, you can long line and still get a good hook set.I like a 20/6 braid, with a 10 pd flouo leader for crappies, and I just use a 15 lb flouro for anything else, including stripers. Just remember to loosen the drag, so you dont rip the hooks out of the fish.I like a glass rod for most long line trolling.You can even make those smaller cranks run deeper with braid, just loop a rubber band onto your line, and then a short dropper with any weight you want dpending on the depth you want. Just let out 30 ft or so of line loop your rubber band add the weight, and let out as much line as you see fit. When you get a strike, reel in up to the rubber band snap it off dropping the weight into the boat and play your fish.