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Crappie.com 1K Star General
First experience with long line trolling.
Well as anyone who has been following my previous posts knows this is a year of first for my wife and I when it comes to fishing. Our first owning a boat, our first fishing the Yadkin lake chain, our first using electronics and our first trying new techniques to catch fish.
To date we have only had success night fishing, and even that was after considerable reading on the forum, watching YouTube videos and considerable help and input from forum members. We finally dialed in the light set up, rod and reels and technique to get a good healthy start on filling our freezer with tasty Crappie meat.
Well as the air temps have plummeted at night time so has our interest in going fishing. Neither of like being cold and the prospect of sitting in the cold air on an aluminum boat surrounded by cold water waiting on a fish with a slowed metabolism just doesn’t appeal to us. So back to the research on how to accomplish a feat that we have never done, how to catch crappie in the daylight
My search lead me to long line trolling, trolling crankbaits and slow vertical trolling or spider rigging. After going through several articles, forum posts and videos of each technique and equipment requirements I narrowed the results, by asking myself how much do I want to spend to try out this new to us technique and how well would each technique work for my wife and myself on our boat.
Long story short and if you read the title of this thread you already know which we chose to try.
My next door neighbor has been trolling for years and occasionally talks about how the technique works with me at the fence line. He has given me some jig heads that he uses and even recommended plastic bait that he likes. Little did he know that I was actually listening.
So on 11/28 we went out to Badin for our first attempt at trolling. We fished a part of the lake that we have never successfully fished. My wife was not convinced on using plastic bait so we used only small minnows on the jig heads. We trolled for about 2.5 hours and caught six 10-12 inch crappie, 2 bass that were 13&15 inches, 3 striper that were 14-16 inches and a half dozen perch. Hey wait a minute; we just caught fish in the daylight on less than optimal gear with a technique we are just starting to learn. WT mid 50’s, air temp 70, 6 lbs. line and dual rig with 1/8 walleye head #2 sickle hook on bottom tied with a Pitzen knot and slightly smaller #4 minnow head regular hook on top tied with a loop knot. Our first hook up was a 13 inch striper on one pole and a double hook up with a 15 inch striper and 15 inch bass on the 2nd pole.
11/29 wife wanted to go back to Badin and try again. Again fished parts of the lake we have never fished before. This time we used only plastics for 5.5 hours. 13 crappie all 10-12 inches. Half dozen striper 12-17 inches, dozen perch and 2 really stupid blue gills and 1 small bass. Wife really likes trolling now, and cannot believe we caught that many fish without minnows. Both blue gill were caught while sitting at anchor cutting and unfouling lines courtesy of the bigger stripers, with a single jig just sitting in the water about 1 foot deep.
What worked for us was. 6 rods (2) 12 and (4) 9 foot rods. 6lbs. test and dual jig heads. 11/28 all minnows and 11/29 best colors were Kalin’s 2” acid rain triple threat and Bobby Garland electric chicken shad. Trolling speed was .8 to 1 mph by GPS.
Since we were trolling with our MinnKota Terrova trolling motor I can see the advantage of having a trolling plate for our outboard. So now I need to look into one of those for a 40hp mercury.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
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Long line trolling can be a really productive way to cover alot of water and also catch alot of fish. I am still learning something new every time I long line. Best way to learn is just get out there and do it. You will find this a great way to fish when the fish get really aggressive. Good luck!
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Crappie.com 2K Star General
I run 6-12' rods out the front and 2-10' and 2-8' rods off the sides when I'm tight lining
Crappie.com 3K Star General
What a great report! Those Stripers must have been fun on light tackle. They have a way of birds nesting even experienced fisher persons.
Like Shane said I learn something overtime I go out even if it's something really simple that I should have already known.
Keep at it
Slabmaster II
I have not bought any crappie minnows in 25 years. They will bite jigs in cold water. The most critical component of longline trolling is knowing the depth that your lures are running. I pull a tandem rig of 1/16 and 1/32 jigs. By trolling into shallow water, I determined how deep they would run by hitting bottom. Then I added different sizes of removable spit shot and did the same thing. I generally use three sizes of split shot and move the jigs from 8' to 18' depending on how deep I think the fish are.
Rick
Crappie.com 1K Star General
That's exactly how I suggest people learn how to fish when they ask me . . . reading some, asking some questions, and then get out there and do it. If you don't catch fish, at least you learned what not to do. How was the water clarity? thinking about pulling for stripers this Saturday down there and can't decide between High Rock or Badin. I think water clarity will be the determining factor.
Mike
Take a kid outdoors!
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Thanks to all for the encouragement.
Covering a lot of water was one of the things that got us to go this route. With night fishing we have a couple of “Spots” that produce fish. Without the intimate knowledge of the lake that more experienced fisher persons have, we needed to cover water and find areas that fish were hanging out.Originally Posted by shane1980
We may get to that, but currently 6 was about all my wife could keep up with. I was to busy netting her fish, tying on new jigs and steering the boat to be much help.
The striper were a blast, we even like the perch on light tackle. They fight really nice, they are just not the species that we want to eat. I have told my wife that I will not turn the boat around and go back through an area based on one fish, but if we catch several fish in an area, then a go back through is possible after a little bit of time passes. We did a single fish turn around once and came up empty. We did two turn arounds after catching several fish in an area and caught some nice fish on both second passes.
This is actually something that we plan to do at a later date. We just wanted to get some time fishing the technique to see if we liked it. Now that we know it produces fish and we like the concept it is time to start fine tuning the technique. My wife was just giving the jigs a nice cast out the back of the boat an letting the trolling motor do the rest.
I assume that when you go into shallow water that you go parallel to the shallow water bottom? Otherwise your boat and jigs would be at different depths and hard to tell what you wanted to know?
Water clarity is hard for me to describe. It was a greenish hue and I could see a jig about 2 feet deep barely. Badin has an east and west arm of the upper lake. We fished the east arm. The west arm is fed by Tuckertown. Tuckertown was brown as we crossed over the 49 bridge. I do not know what the water clarity was on the west side of the lake.
It was actually funny, when we started with the plastics my wife just thought they were cute. By the end of the day, she knew their names and which were producing fish and had even asked to change a few non producing colors over to the ones that were catching fish.
Crappie.com 2K Star General
Cause that's sounds like you and your wife are really doing well trolling.I love it when a plan comes togather.When the stripers hit,it don't take but a second to figure out it isn't a crappie.On the happy troller for the big motor,,,,I don't know anyone who longline trolls that uses their outboard,for crappie trolling..Pulling plugs for the striped fish folks use the big motor,as most troll around the 2 mph mark.... The .9 to 1 mph is the speed I use most while targeting crappie also.....Keep up the good work,keep posting and you know we love to see pictures!!
HEY,,WATCH THAT YELLOW ROD
Crappie Wall Hanger
Love your post. Good job
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Thats a great report..... This may sound strange but when a striper hits I put pressure on the spool and break him off, I would rather retie one rod than untangle 6 to 8
Plus Murray seems to be loaded with stripers 1-2 inches from legal size just less headache to break em off....
Three can keep a secret................If two of them are dead! (Benjamin Franklin)
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