Trolling from a moving boat is a technique of big-game fishing .

Trolling

Trolling is a method of fishing in which bait is drawn on a line through the water. Trolling from a moving boat is a technique of big-game fishing and used when fishing from boats to catch large species in the ocean such as Tuna. It’s also a freshwater technique. Nowadays the term is often used to describe moving a boat quite slowly through the water, at the pace of a slow walk, although some people troll fast in shallow waters.

Trolling is an extremely fast method of finding fish. Many baitfish swim one mile per hour per inch of length. Fish such as Brown trout, Muskie or Mackinaw have no trouble catching lures moving at six or seven miles per hour. However, retrieving a fish while moving that fast will kill your wrists and arms. Trolling faster covers more water and improves your chance of whipping a lure past fish that stake out an ambush position. Usually, trolling is done at a slow speed, as big fish won’t expend more energy than necessary to catch a meal. Also, many lures won’t perform correctly at fast speeds.

Since the boat is moving in this type of fishing the most common lures used move with water resistance and create cavitation noise. Common types of lures are flatfish, spinners, and pop gear. Flat fish are lures as their name implies that mimic small fish swimming through the water and thus can attract either hungry or angry fish. Spinners come in bright colors and various sizes and hook variations. The premise is the same for all the purpose is to attract through flashing colors and noise. Pop gears are often shaped brass, copper or polished aluminum fins attached at intervals to a heavy gage wire, with a swivel at the end where one attaches either a lure or bait. If bait is chosen, the most popular live bait is the earthworm (crawler, night crawler). The noise attracts the fish and the worm appeals to their appetite. If a lure is chose a flatfish should be used over a spinner. The reason is the speed of the boat.

The speed of the boat propelled by the trolling motor will determine your success more than the type of lure. Flatfish and pop gear work at the same speed. Spinners need slightly faster movement. To determine the right speed, lower your bait just under water off the side of the boat and watch its action as you move the throttle until the right speed is achieved.

To get good results, you need to avoid turning too much or too sharply. Some people like to give their pole a sharp jerk or two every few minutes.

You don’t necessarily need high tech gear for trolling. Although a good fish finder can be valuable. It’s more efficient to search for water where the fish bite best. The water temperature is the most important single factor. If the water is cold, fish slow down and feed less frequently. If the water is warmer than the optimum, they head for cool springs or colder, deeper water. There are exceptions to this rule. The temperature preferences of game fish and the baitfish and insects they eat may not match. Therefore, game fish will sometimes enter water warmer than their optimum to feed.

Remember that water temperature varies during the day, peaking late afternoon and reaching a minimum around dawn. Water temperature varies in different parts of lakes. Coves that face south tend to be warm earlier in the year than those facing north.

For short periods in the fall and spring, lakes have more constant temperatures top to bottom. Wind across a lake tends to move warmer surface waters toward the lee shore and depress the cooler thermocline. Shallow trollers operate better at the upwind shore. This attracts aquatic insects blown offshore.

Different species bite in the same order. Trout, Striped Bass, and landlocked Salmon are most active in the winter. As these fish move deep, Bass becomes active. It’s important to key your trolling to the species as well.

You can use your spinning outfit to troll with or you can use a heavier pole and leaded line to use with pop gear. The pop gear rig can be a heavy lure, which is what you want because you want to go much deeper with this lure. At average trolling speed (1-4 miles per hour) a monofilament line with one to two ounces of bait or lure will lower one foot in the water for every fifteen feet of line. At the same speed leaded line with six to nine ounces of lure will lower one foot in the water for every six feet of line. Leaded line most often comes in rainbow colors so that you can tell how much line you have out by the color on the spindle of your real. Monofilament line must be let out by judgment of time and speed.