Fisho, you also catch (or atleast hook) your share of the hybrids and stripers while longlining. I can guarantee you that they can and do make a REAL MESS out of your setup too. It's just a part of it though.
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I have posed this question on here before and gotten some good info, but I still consider myself a beginner, but after fishing with fisher-o-men, I believe the stained water is a big factor in the process. Wasn't doing much different when I tried it myself, but William put us on them in the stained water. Curly tails, sliders and road runners were the ticket. I can cast jigs and catch em, but try trolling through them in clear water and don't catch much. Just my 2 cents worth.
I know some of you guys use the 10' 8' 6' rod method straight off the side. Any tips for rods all the same length? I've got 5- 10ft pro anglers and 6-12ft Crappiemax tightline specials.
As I have stated many times, I cut my teeth crappie fishing jigging structure while vertically presenting the bait with a long pole. As has been posted on this thread by Southern Young Gun, most tournaments are won trolling. Slow trolling, or spider rigging is by far the choice of most veteran tournament anglers day in and day out. The reason being, is precise depth control, precise boat control, and the ability to stay right over tightly grouped or slow to bite fish. Long line trolling can be and is an excellent technique to add to ones arsenal. You fish a lake (Greenwood) where long line trolling is king most of the time. After seeing it done a number of times in Georgia's lake Sinclair and Oconee in the early 90's I decided it was something I wanted to learn how to do. I had no one to give me information so I had to learn it on my own. I fabricated some rod holders using training wheel brackets off a bicycle and a piece of conduit. They looked odd, but were effective. I only trolled 6 rods. It took much practice, and much time on the water as good graphs and fish finders were very expensive and out of my price range. After honing my few skills, I fished a Crappie USA tournament on Murray. As luck would have it, I found the mother load of fish in the Hollow Creek area near Walters Rawls cabin. Using my little 14 jon boat, a foot operated trolling motor, and 5 rods, due to breaking one. We boated over 100 crappie that day and finished in 9th place out of over 100 boats entered. Long lining can be very fun and exciting, you do cover lots of water and can catch lots of a large variety of fish. If I was to give advice on how to start, it would be this; (1) Get a Minn Kota power drive trolling motor and a wireless remote for it. (2) Purchase two rod racks that are capable of holding 4 rods on each rack, and mount them in the back of the boat. (3) Purchase a good quality depth finder (4) Get two 14 foot rods, two 12 foot rods, two 10 foot rods, and two 8 foot rods, so the spread will be staggered and lines not to close together. (5) Start with an 8 rod spread fishing all rods out of the back of the boat. (6) Learn the technique while fishing alone, problems are going to be encountered, and are better figured out by ones self. (7) Follow the instructions that were offered by Gabowman earlier in this thread. Good luck!
I've always used curly tail jigs, but last year tried bobby garland jigs but had no faith in them. This year I gave them more of a chance and I know think they are as good or better. Especially the monkey milk color. I use 1/16 oz jig, throw it out about 40 to 50 feet and troll at .8mph. You'll be about 8 to 10 ft deep.
Thanks for all the info. yall, I am hoping the wind isn't as bad as what they are calling for and I can give it a shot this weekend. All of yall have given me some great advice and things to keep in mind, but like most of you have said trial and error is the best way to figure it out, it is different for everyone. I feel like I have most of the equipment to do it with, but will have to make some minor adjustments. I don't have a remote control trolling motor, but we did get a new minn kota 55 lb variable speed foot controlled one last summer, it has a tension screw that can be adjusted so that it keeps a straight path when you take your foot off of it. It may be a little aggravating, but going to have to make it work.
Ink and Southern Young Gun, yall hit the nail on the head as to why I am going to learn how to do this. My favorite method will always be one pole jigging, but for tournament fishing on the lakes in SC it just seems like long-lining is the way to go most of the time and especially this time of year. I saw it first hand 2 weeks ago when we were tightlining an area and had been for about 3 hours, I knew the fish were in the creek we were in and we were catching fish just not the size we needed for the tournament. With 30 minutes left the boat that finished second pulled up to the opposite side of the creek and caught 3 good ones to end the day. My partner and I had just been discussing the fact that we needed to try the other side, even though from the day before I had marked more fish on the side we were on. We never tried the other side because we knew we didn't have time to tightline all the way across the creek and it's not the easiest to move with only an hour left. This taught me a lesson that the trolling maybe the way to go when you don't exactly know where the big ones are, but know they are in the area. Mainly for the fact that so much more ground can be covered. Like Southern Young Gun said I also agree that the bigger fish will be in open water away for other stuff. Even jigging you catch your bigger fish around an isolated log, brush pile, or other piece of structure. Very rarely do you catch a big one mixed in with a bunch of little fish. I won't totally change what I do, but I do believe this is something I need to add to the arsenal. One of the biggest keys to being successful in anything, including fishing is being versatile in my opinion.
I am going to run the 2' stagger method that you speak of off the sides with 14', 12', and 10' footers off of the front. Then when I have someone else in the boat I am going to run 6 shorter rods 9',8' footers and ultralights off the back . My boat is set-up to tightline 6 off front and 6 off the back. I have added another base to move the front rod holder to the side of the front deck for longlining so that when I am long-lining I can still fish 6 off the front and 6 off the back. Others can correct me if they think I am thinking wrong on this, but this is my plan, I am probably going to start out with fewer rods until I get the hang of it though.
It would be easier to run rods the same lenght off the back, you can fan or spread 'em a bit using the rod holder(s) and still get some seperation between lines. Just make sure the rods are secured in the holders so a hangup won't pull one out or set the drag correctly. Enjoy.
I fish all mine off the back. Starting at the motor I have two 5 1/2', a 6', 8', 10', 12' 14'. (In the picture the 14'ers aint on there yet.) Here's a pic of my spread...
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j.../IMG_LLing.jpg