I love to troll. That is plain and simple. I’ve logged hundreds of hours and thousands of miles trolling for salmon and steelhead on Lake Michigan. For me, it was never about reeling in the fish. Frankly, I’ve caught hundreds if not thousands of them in my short lifetime. What I always enjoyed was figuring them out. Trying to find their location, what depth they were in, what water temperature they liked, what bait they wanted, what color, the whole package. It was the planning and having that plan pay off that was gratifying to me. Catching fish was simply the reward for all the hard work. Anybody can catch fish when you follow the pack. I like to find them myself.
When we sold our big lake boat, I was forced to look elsewhere to fill the void. Crappie fishing has been that void for me. Figuring out a new species, what they like and don’t like, and how to catch them. I enjoy finding new bodies of water, exploring them, and having the work and preparation pay off with the reward of a few fish in the cooler.
Over the past couple of months I’ve had the itch to do more trolling again. I decided to fish Saginaw bag and see what all the hype and fuss is all about. Sure, I could contact a few people, find where the fish are, and go from there, but what fun would that be? I like to do it on my own.
Friday morning, Brian and I set out from my house at 5am. Armed with some crazy GPS directions, we pulled in to Sunset Bay Marina located south of Unionville just after 7:15 am. The sunrise coming in was spectacular and the wind was extremely calm. I have to say they run a top notch facility. We setup and launched our boat in one of their two single launches. There was a gentle man waiting on a Kawasaki Mule that guided me to a parking spot. After parking, I hitched a ride back to the boat. What a great idea to keep the people moving and ensure you get the most vehicles in your facility.
We headed straight North out of the harbor. I had previously found an area on a map that I thought could hold some fish and I wanted to see if it would pay off. We set down a little over 5 miles out from the harbor in 16 feet of water. Because this was Brian’s first time trolling, I took it slow. I allowed him to mimic my moves on the port side of the boat while I setup the starboard. I explained what the gear would do and why I was settings things up this way.
I started with a simple down rod. This allowed me to get a rod in the water really quickly. On my down rod located on the back corners of the boat I utilize a 3oz bottom bouncer tipped with a special made harness. I utilize floating hooks to avoid fouling of weeds. From there, we ran our furthest outside planner boards. I use the same practice as I do trolling Lake Michigan. My furthest boards are set with longer leads and are shallower. My inside boards are set deeper. This allows a fish on the outside (higher in the water column) to clear over top of my inside board without fouling it. Many people I hear do it the opposite and I notice they have issues.
On my outside boards, I ran Off Shore drop weights. I started with ½ oz running their 50/50 program. (Run 50 ft of line, clip on the drop weight, then another 50 feet before attaching the board). For the boards, I use Off Shore OR 12 boards with tattle flags. On my outside boards, I run an OR-16 rear clip, and an OR 12 front clip. This allows me to release the line with a simple jerk when a fish hits. This makes the board float to the back of the boat and allow me to fight the fish straight up the middle.
For my inside boards, I run Off Shore OR 12’s with OR 16 clips on both the front and rear. We used OR36 tadpoles (size 1) running at 25ft and 35ft. I have been using these for the last month or so and really love the way they fish. My numbers are way better with these than traditional bottom bouncers. Most guys I talk to are still not using them yet. They do not know what they are missing.
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This is a picture of Brian with his first fish caught on the Tadpole setup.
Watching my electronics I was able to find pods of bait and fish on the bottom and suspended off the bottom. I was able to target these fish by adjusting my depth leads for my 50/50 weights and my tadpoles. The morning saw most of our bites coming on a copper and caramel colored blade. Later in the day, the bite switched over to a fire tiger style blade. Taking a page out of a buddies play book. I broke my crawlers in half. This greatly increases fish catch for a couple of reasons. One, they have to take the hook. They cannot just nip the crawler. Second, by breaking the bait it puts vital scent in the water. We caught our 10th keeper after we put on our last crawler piece. We ended up with 10 keepers and 6 sub legal fish that we threw back. Our biggest fish was 22 inches and our average for the day was 18 inches.
When we returned dockside we spoke with a DNR fisheries guy. He said that most of the boats he polled had a tough time. They did catch fish but they were small and they just couldn’t catch a limit. Could it be that they didn’t adjust with the bite? Was it that they always use one bait and target the bottom?
We were all alone where we fished. Not a sole in sight. When I could stomach it, I listened to the VHF and heard chatter of people having issues. Some did well, some not so good. I attribute this to people who prefer to scout via “the radio”. I say “stomach it” because the radio on Saginaw bay is simply annoying to listen to. Unlike Lake Michigan, people are rude in the sense that they have about zero radio etiquette. They talk over one another, and argue with what appears to be no one who is listening. At least I had the liberty of turning it off and listening to some tunes while we enjoyed a day on the water!
