questions for Pete

so my wife and I are trying to get the hang of trolling for stripers/hybrids. We went last weekend to Norman and for beginners well, at least we didnt get skunked. However, most of what we caught were large mouth, and pretty nice ones too. We were trolling in 40' of water. Were we to close to the bottom? I cant afford to set us up with new rods with lead core right now with Christmas and all so im trying the trial and error method to stay in the 20'-30- range with mono and using red/white jighead/curly tail. We were using 1/4 and 1/2 oz. jigs and cruising about 1 mph with probably 50' of line out We were trolling a creek that had birds working pretty good but they werent tearing it up. Whats the best rod action for trolling? fast or medium? Im thinking maybe a fast action would not get as good a hook up (we are using our surf rods)....going to take my son next weekend...any comments?

try hanging those jigs or better yet a 1/2 oz bucktail under a 1 oz egg sinker in a Carolina rig set up and slow troll the same waters at about 20 foot deep.

personally, i would troll sassy shad. As Banjo stated, you can use bucktails, but i personally have not done very good in the wintertime with bucktails (on NORMAN).

KEY #1. MATCH THE HATCH. everyone thinks they need to troll 4+ inch baits. NO!!!!. these fish are eating mostly baitfish 2-3 inches long.
KEY #2. speed it up. you dont want them to study that bait. your trying to get a reaction strike from these fish. right now there is so much food for the getting that they dont really have to work hard for it, but wont pass up the opportunity if it bounces off their nose. i troll from 2-2.5MPH

KEY #3. target ACTIVE fish. if you are on a school of fish sitting on the bottom, or just off the bottom, you are waisting your time until the feed switch is turned on (unless you are using live bait). when trolling jigs and such, i am looking for fish marks in the 10-25ft range. usually i dont mark BIG schools of fish. sometimes just 1 here, 2 there, perhaps 3 there. those are active fish feeding that will make the mistake of biting my hook!

hope this helps.
my boat was on the water at sunrise Sunday morning and off by 1130.
we (me and a friend who i have allowed to use my boat) have been field testing some stuff for a company that makes a sassy shad with killer action along with some umbrella righs. let me just say this stuff works, and im excited about adding it to my arsenal.

10.2 lber caught and 3 7-8 lbers along with the typical few hybrids.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...s0b3bf298.jpeg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...sa931ebd3.jpeg

As always good info Pete and Banjo.

thanks fellas....that gives me some options to tweek my game plan.....I did mark large schools of fish sittin on the bottom as you mentioned Pete, I wasnt sure what they were though, I think I'll put my cast net in the boat and see if I can catch some live bait too

Thanks for the details, Pete!

Before I got leadcore, I used(and still use) a 3 way rig. I put a deep diving plug on 2ft leader and a Roostertail on a 4 ft leader. you can learn which plug runs at what depth by trolling shallower til ya hit bottom. Most diving plugs will troll twice as deep as they go on the cast with 100 ft of line out. I've caught 8-10 different species a trip with this rig many times. But its deadly on stripers, Hybrids, white bass, LMB, white perch and cats.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pete

we (me and a friend who i have allowed to use my boat) have been field testing some stuff for a company that makes a sassy shad with killer action along with some umbrella righs.

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I'd pay good money for a small sassy shad with good action. Most lure makers are really short on action with small shad plastics. Swimming flukes do pretty good but they lose their tales too easy. :)

Let me know if they start selling....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sundance

I'd pay good money for a small sassy shad with good action. Most lure makers are really short on action with small shad plastics. Swimming flukes do pretty good but they lose their tales too easy. :)

Let me know if they start selling....

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