Originally Posted by
Fisher-o-Men
I like your question, so I'll give it a shot. I've been guiding for around twenty years, and so I've had to figure ways to put fish in the boat whether they're active or not. I, of course, love the days when all I have to do is troll mostly open water to produce a nice cooler of fish, but I've also had the experience you mention. I've had days where it seemed like only trolling over brush would produce quality fish, but sometimes I had to troll so close to the top of the brush to get bit that I've gotten hung in it. This can be a disaster, as hanging one jig can slow the boat's progress, causing the jigs to travel deeper, and the next thing that happens is six hung jigs. So, when I encounter days that this fish are tight on brush like that, I will usually troll the fish I can, and then put up the trolling rods and position the boat directly over the pile and feed them live minnows on downlines. I haven't encountered many days when I marked numbers of fish holding over or in brush that minnows wouldn't put a lot of fish in the boat. While it may have been less trouble if they would have hit trolled jigs, your electronics are telling you they're there, so that's when live bait or meticulously fished single jigs can save the day. I know some folks simply have no interest in using minnows, but they've been productive too often for too long for me to not to have some along on most of my trips. Just my two cents, by the way. But a great question and I'll look forward to hearing others' responses.
