# Trolling for advice



## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

I am a pretty proficient shore fisherman, but fall short on experience with trolling gear beyond rapalas behind a regular pole. I need tips, how to's pointers for novice down rigging gear etc. Where to start at strawberry? Word on the street is I need to go deeper than my raps will dive alone. How do you set it up? Any help on the topic is appreciated.


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## Jacksonman (Jan 16, 2008)

I am by no means a pro of trolling deep lures, but I have been successful when I have tried it. You need to get deep and without down riggers, you are left with a few options. In order of preference, they are: pink ladies or dipsy divers or deep six (?), lead core line and weights.

At sportsmans and cabala's you can find different plastic devices which you tie directly to your line and due to the angle of the device, will sink your line down to about 60 ft max while trolling. When a fish bites the device evens out so there is very little resistance. These worked great for us at Flaming Gorge for kokonee and Strawberry for Cutts.

I also like lead-core line. This line is weighted and goes down about .45 ft for every yard you let out while trolling. They sell it in 100 yard spools so it will get you down about 45 feet. The downside is you need a very large reel and you have to let out a lot of line so it is hard to troll precise structure. It is a good idea to run two of the divers listed above off each corner and lead line down the middle. 

In my more ghetto days, you could always just put on a heavy weight with lots of swivels. They have some like this made for trolling at Sportsmans. The lame thing is you have to battle the weight while reeling in.

After getting the line down you need some sort of flasher in general. Dodgers, flashers, etc, about 3-5 feet after the device used to get the line down and then some lure 1-2 feet behind the flashers. I like the RMT dodgers and their UV squids and the kokonee killers. In theory, any lure would work but generally the more erratic and flashy the better. At Strawberry, use to UV squids and needlefish.

To summarize, get the line down, 3-5 feet than dodger and another foot or two and then the lure. 

Just my experience. I am sure there are better ones out there.


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## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

I started reading a bit more, you didn't mention releases . . . How much should I pay for beginning gear? What Kind of rod & line# would you use for Strawberry?


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

Jacksonman sounds like he knows what he's doing, but I just use pop gear and a worm. It's cheap, easy, and dang effective. Or pop gear and a lure like flatfish, needlefish, triple teaser, etc.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

There is always stuff on KSL for this. You can get two trolling rods with lead line for under 50 bucks. Then just experiment with different baits and pop gear. You could try trolling in mud creek or out from the dock at solder creek. Thats where I would start but I have am just going off reports I have read and pics I have seen.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Jacksonman did you a solid that was all good advice. But trolling the berry has alway been the pop gear and worm combo for me. Use brass on overcast days and silver on bright days use a good sized hook and plenty of worm. You also may consider some dodger spoon combo's I have had good luck with RMT, Shasta tackle, and z-rays this year. With a dodger the closer you put the lure to the dodger the more action the lure gets. Do not forget the sents when fishing plugs and spoons somedays it doesn't make much of a difference and some days it makes a ton. But the most important thing in trolling is boat speed and depth, depth is the obvious one to get the lure in front of the fish but speeding up and slowing down when you are not catching fish you mark will sometimes do the trick. Try some s-curves or pulling the rod in the letting it sink it will change the speed of the lure as well. Trolling can be very relaxing until you hit 2 or 3 fish at a time then all hell breaks loose and then it calms again. The best advise I can give you is to never leave a place you are catching fish to go to a place where you "might" catch fish. I have done that so many times this year I should kick myself! :mrgreen:


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## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

Thanks for the advice! I am going to give it a go this weekend.

Ever tried this setup?


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

For the Trout at Strawberry, don't forget verticle jigging.
This is very effective once you learn how to do it.

Plastic jigs tiped with bait and fished close to the bottom is a good way to try.

You just let the boat drift or anchor it and jig.
Don't jig hard. Just move the jig a bit once in a while.
You can lift it up a few feet and back down, or just twitch it a bit.
Minnows are a good bait with a 3" or so jig.
White or Green are good colors.


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## k2muskie (Oct 6, 2007)

We've been involved in a couple Summer Science Fish'n Projects. :mrgreen:

We troll extensively and don't feel the necessity to run out and purchase expensive downriggers lead line etc...at least not yet. After seeing Pavlik photos of what happened when his down rigger hooked a bottom snag-fish was enough for me. Not worth it just yet IMO.

Anyhoo...this is what we're using during our Summer Science Fish'n Projects. So far I'm very impressed as these little gizmos (Luhr Jensen Jet Divers) get our troll lures down to the depths we want to explore.

Here's a link to take a lookee see...they're also sold at Sportsman Wharehouse.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... &noImage=0

:wink: :wink:


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## k2muskie (Oct 6, 2007)

...**** O|* someday I'll learn to post a link to additional factoids... :mrgreen: I can only hope this link works... 

http://www.luhrjensen.com/prod_lure_sel ... 0-010-0086

...just something we're toying with for our "Summer Science Fish'n Project". :wink: :wink:


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## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

So after what I had hoped to be a short trip to sportsmans I am needing more assistance with exactly how to rig these jensen depth divers. Do I hook pop gear directly to the diver, then leader, then lure? or do I need leader ater the diver and before the pop gear. would you put the dodger/ flasher there with leader to replace the pop gear? Just for kicks can I hook a lure directly to the diver? How do these these little squids hook up? Soory for so many questions


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## k2muskie (Oct 6, 2007)

russt said:


> So after what I had hoped to be a short trip to sportsmans I am needing more assistance with exactly how to rig these jensen depth divers. Do I hook pop gear directly to the diver, then leader, then lure? or do I need leader ater the diver and before the pop gear. would you put the dodger/ flasher there with leader to replace the pop gear? Just for kicks can I hook a lure directly to the diver? How do these these little squids hook up? Soory for so many questions


Never too many questions as far as we're concerned 

Anyway here's a link to the Luhr Jensen tech report on how to rig up a lure. Pretty good article and you'll need acrobat reader to view it as it's a pdf. file.

http://www.luhrjensen.com/techreports/0 ... olling.pdf

Here's a screen capture of the Jet Diver and how to rig up various setups.

[attachment=0:8ejmn6zf]jet diver.jpg[/attachment:8ejmn6zf]

I used the 10' one today and it was getting my lure down at least 15' as every now and again I'd bottom bounce. Had a fish hit in about 30 feet of water but lost the fish...never saw what it was nice little battle though. Good luck and let us know how you do. :wink: :wink:


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## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

Do you use green mono or braid for your trolling main line? I lost a fish last weekend. Got a new trolling rod on KSL and it was preloaded with braid. the only Mono I had was the 18" of leader between the diver and squid. A decent fish snapped the leader when he saw the boat.


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## k2muskie (Oct 6, 2007)

russt said:


> Do you use green mono or braid for your trolling main line? I lost a fish last weekend. Got a new trolling rod on KSL and it was preloaded with braid. the only Mono I had was the 18" of leader between the diver and squid. A decent fish snapped the leader when he saw the boat.


Our primary fish'n reels both for cast'n and troll'n are spooled with 40# superbraid Power Pro. That's because of the fish we go after...When using leaders with the jet driver the leader is measured out at 4' and is also 40# superbraid.

We don't use mono except when ice fish'n and/or fish'n for pan fish and smaller game fish like bass, trout etc etc. And for that type of fish'n we use the usual light action rod/reel setup.

:wink: :wink:


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## BROWN BAGGER (Sep 13, 2007)

I use 14 to 17 pound mono on all my rigs with no problems. as far as running a leader from your diver, only go as long as your pole length. if you go longer, you find that when your trying to land a fish, your diver is at your top eyelet and the fish is to far out to land in a net. those who are using pop gear and a worm, try a dodger.  the action your worm recieve's from it is unbeleveable. pop gear just sits there in a straight line. dodgers totaly tease the hell out of fish. bonus too, is that dodger's have less drag when reeling in a fish. if i was using pop gear i would put a rubber snubber between it and the lure. the fish can work against the pop gear to get off. one thing i would add for those looking at down riggers, you must (to go deep) have a sonar. knowing where bottom is saves alot of gear and headaches. you can pick up small gunnel mounted rigger at walmart for cheap. they mount to any alum or fiberglass row boat. I have even mounted a rigger to a 12 ft fish hunter raft. I extended the motor mount board out to accomadate the rigger. was a sight. 3 hp tanaka motor, rigger, pole stuck in the built in pole holder. I picked up one of my first kokes at the berry that way.


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## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

How do you rig your dodger? 

Jet diver, 18" leader, dodger, 18" leader then lure/worm etc?

Also I get the feeling I am putting too many swivels in there, one at each junction. I hate to get super specific, but I have no one in the boat with me to look over and say "Yup, ya did it right son."

I have the feeling the green braid is visible to the fish as leader, it doesn't spook them?


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## BROWN BAGGER (Sep 13, 2007)

you bring up some good points. You never have to many swivels. Though I don't put one on my lure. swivels can deture the action. here's my set up. levelwind reel with counter. counter is wonderful to get right back to the same depth and length out. I put a very good ballbearing swivel on my main line of 14 lb test mono. attach jet diver#30 (30 feet) to that swivel. then if the jet diver doesn't have one already attached, I'll put another one after it. then I run a leader of more 14 lb test about 6 to 8 feet. this is where your pole length comes in. I use 8 to 9 foot rods for troilling. so 6 to 8 feet doesn't affect me when the jet diver gets to my eyelet when landing a fish. then on the end of the 6 to 8 foot leader another swivel attached to the dodger. that is the last swivel i use in that set up. now the important part. from the dodger I use 10 lb flouracarbon to the worm or lure.flouracarbon is invisible under water. this leader can not be more than 14 inches on a big dodger and even shorter on a smaller dodger. after getting the set up done, toss it over the side of the boat, and watch the action of the lure. it should be dancing around like a belly dancer swaying back and forth. if it isn't, two things 1) your leader is to long 2) if your leader is the right length, your trolling speed is to slow. one thing too, if your dodger does circles, your going way to fast. once you have let out your line, you should have a steady thumping action on your rod tip.


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## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

Excellent detail!!! Thanks. A few more if you don't mind. 

Since yout last swivel was before the dodger, how do you attach the worm/lure to the dodger, Duolock Snap? What size type of swivels are you using?

Have you tried this Eagle Claw worm hooks with a small spinner blade on them with a dodger setup?


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## BROWN BAGGER (Sep 13, 2007)

Every dodger or sling blade have a twist on cork loop or snap. I do use eagle claw snailed leaders. they are the perfect length, if not a hair short for the length required behind a dodger. some times I add four inches of leader. I didn't know that eagle claw made their leaders with spinners on them. I use to make my own set up with those. I like the lazer sharp style. I use to cut off the molded loop, slide on a clevis that has the ability to change blades, then re-tie two over hand knots. then I can change blades as needed. I use them primarily for river fishing up in wyoming. I would drift a worm through the deep holes, then on the retive I would have the flash of a spinner. I would use a magic marker and mark them "BB". brown bagger's. love brown trout fishing. I wish utah had more of them. I use pretty big swivels. when comes to trolling, they seem to spin more freely. make sure you are using the ball bearing type, they are pricey. size isn't as important compared to river or bank fishing.


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## russt (Apr 17, 2008)

How would you rig a jet diver for lake powell?


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