Long Line Trolling MS Oxbows

Day before yesterday I went long line trolling on MS oxbow lake. I had six poles out with double 1/16th jigs with a variety of Strollrs and curly tails. It was spitting rain and less than optimal conditions. I ran at different speeds from .7-1.5 MPH in 15’-25’ of water and could just never get anything going. I talked to another angler fishing a similar lake in same conditions and he caught a good box of fish. All that I can come up with is that he was using heavier jig heads and multiple sizes of jig heads and was running around 1.3 MPH. He was using double 1/8th and single 1/4ths. I was using all double 1/16ths. I’m guessing I was fishing too high up in the water column. Anyone else ever experience that? I’ve pulled crank baits a good bit now but now trying to learn on pulling jigs. I’ve been using the a trolling chart for for speeds and depths.

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I’m no expert in long line trolling by any stretch, but it sounds to me like he was just fishing deeper. With a good cast of about 40-50ft I’ve always thought a single 1/16th will run about 8 ft deep. The cast length, the style of bait, the line and size of line all affect your depth. I’ve never trolled with anything larger than a 1/16th but I have used a piece of split shot with it on occasion. From what I’ve found once you get below about 0.5 mph you don’t get much action on your baits but I have caught them at 0.4-0.5. It’s just tough to go that slow and control your speed with any wind. I don’t run over 1.2-1.3 and that’s spring time when the fish are super shallow. To me 0.8 is an ideal speed to start from and adjust baits and speed accordingly to what you see on the graph.


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