Thread: Longline trolling??

I troll up to 6 rods, 10 if 2 people are in the boat. Cast as far as you can. Trolling speed .5 to 1.2 depending on how deep they are. Look for the schools of fish on the screen and drive into them.

1/8 oz heads with #1 sickle hooks. Color up to you. 6-8 pound line, I like hi-viz yellow Mr Crappie line. Southern Pro or similar curly tail jigs in 2-2 1/2 inch, color up to you. I run Hi-tek rod holders off the side up front and off the back. Usually 4 rods per fisherman. Off the side I run one 7 footer and one 10-12 footer per side. Long pole in front. I run my Terrova on .7-1.0 mph in cool water. The amount of line I let out is according to how deep the water is and how fast I'm running. I experiment with depth till I find the fish and adjust all my rods to approximately the same amount of line. I also start out with several different color combos till the fish tell me what they want. One thing that takes some getting used to is NEVER stop moving foward. If you hook a fish or hang up, don't stop your forward progress.

I fish 12 poles with my first ones up front being 14', then 12' and finally 10'ers. In the back I use what mainly 8 footers and simply adjust the angle with the ones next to the engine going straight out. I only use Jiffy Jigs (Weiss Lake or on-line orders) that are 1/32 ounce and add small split shots if I need to troll deeper. I almost always troll .9 mph. Wind is a killer but I always start off with a wide range of colors until I find a pattern on what they are hitting. Then I start switching colors to match the color that is catching most. Best advise is to not worry about losing jigs. If you are getting hung up you are where the fish are. Many times I will snap off three jigs but have three keepers on the other poles. Its a rush for sure when you start seeing 4 to 8 poles with fish on at one time. Just keep the trolling motor going and pull them in one at a time. Good thing is the trolling motor will set the hook for you so once their on, they will almost always stay on until you get to the pole.