Trolling

I've been catching a few nice fish trolling lately as the spawn is ending. I'm trying to use different setups but catch fewer fish. My question is what setup do you use and speed do you troll?

I go 10 ft rods with minnow rigs and about .8 mph. Sometimes double jig and minnows. Most the time 1/2 oz or 3/8 oz weight.

If the spawn is about over up there then they will scatter for a bit and not bite as well. Then they will start feeding and schooling back up. Follow them out to a little deeper water and slow down. I like to rig at about .2 or .3 especially with minnows.

I figured it out...then the mud came.

I know its been a while since this was posted but I will throw this out. Something i do in the heat of summer is pick a day with a decent breeze and just drift. I will start with 3 rods each rigged a little different. Anywhere from 1/16 to 1/8 oz jigs usually tipped with minnows. Then i just keep adjusting until i find fish. Watch your graph as well and if you find a school make multiple passes over it.

I have tried drifting with excellent results. The hotter the better. Just waiting to try it this year....good luck to ya

We pull 3 way rigs with floating jig heads and minnows at .6-.8. Almost always outfish the spider riggers. Its a rig we adapted to crappie and seems to work well, something the fish have likely never seen. They are in 12-15' right now down by the bottom.

Kevin that does work. I have tried that in a few spots they were a foot off bottom but I got a lot of snags with the weights in the rocks. I tried no-snagg weights and they hung up as well.
This is fun talking about this. A lot of secrets in Iowa!!!!!! Can't wait till September.

We troll 1/8 oz glow jigs tipped with a minnow after 7 or 8 pm start to midnite. about a cast behind the boat then let the line tighten up and let out a rod length or 2 .we are in a resavore with fast shore line drop offs. We are about 6 to 8 ft from the docks in 15 to 20 fow. I don' t know how fast we are going i don't have any electronics to tell , or exact depth my boat is a 16' Lund with a 44 lbs thrust Minkota tiller and we use 1 Thur 3 on the speed jumping up and down ,works for us . Another thing we use is in line spinners with glow blades and beads we made them there like a mini lindy rig for walleye fishing. The reason we go so late is the water skiers and jet skis are gone by that time.

I troll with 8 foot St. Croix EyeCons and cranks - mostly Salmo Hornets and Berkley Flicker Shads. Also spread lures out with Off Shore Planer Boards and stagger the lures in the water with the data found Precision Trolling Dive Curves (now available in Phone Apps or tackle box stickers!)

If the water is 20 foot deep - try putting one lure near the bottom, one 15 feet down, one 10 feet down and one 5 feet down. Once you get a bite - move a lower lure up to that level (duplication is the key).

As always great info tommy! Caught a lot of crappies actually walleye fishing and have most dive charts. I like snap weighting better for crappie for me on the lakes I fish. Hopefully this rain doesn't mess up the fall bite!!