long line trolling.

I'm a rather new member here and also new to the world of crappie fishing.
Ive been a saltwater fisherman primarily excepting a considerable amount of Canadien
walleye and pike fishing. I'm very familiar with trolling having spent numerous hours and
days doing it for both the salt water and fresh water species ive targeted.
My current boat is a 17' fiberglass center console with a 90 hp outboard and a manually controlled 55# thrust Minn Kota on the bow. I have a bow mounted seat and have no problems controlling the boat except during high winds.
I am not set up for spider rigging per sey but I do have a 3 rod Bee Ready setup attached to the very low rail on both sides roughly 3' back from the point of the bow. I can observe and control rods in those from my seat.
At this point it appears that most of the fish have taken up residence in deeper water.
I'm assuming long lining simply means trolling out the back rather than tight lining up front.
My plan is to use just one rod on each side at least to start with and add more if its within my comfort level to do so. But I see no reason I cant troll from the front of the boat using my trolling motor as opposed to bumping the outboard in and out of gear in an attempt to maintain slow speed. My plan also is to mix up lure types unless a pattern
emerges. I'm also assuming when/if fish are located mark them and start jigging.
Any comments or opinions would be appreciated.

I longline off the front all the time. 4 rods off each side and then if someone is with me they can fish 5 total on rear. When I find fish I dont stop trolling just start running a figure 8 through them like running a kingfish spread.

Thanks for the information. Do you maintain lure separation by varying rod legnths, lure type/depth and dropback legnth
or both? Id also assume that conditions will dictate how many lines can be used?
My concern is time spent fishing as opposed to untangling lines. lol

Long Line trolling is what I do 95% of the time. I run 6-8 rods on the front with lengths varying from 18-8 ft long and 6 7-8 footers out the back. Usually I just fish with 6 poles out of the front, a 18, 14 and a 10 ft on each side. Like Huntinslabs said, I just make circles or run a figure 8 thru them and I never stop. If trolling is what you are gonna be doing, the only thing I see with your set up that you may want to consider is changing trolling motors. The Minn Kota Power Drive V2 (Or Terrova) with Auto Pilot or I-Pilot is the way to go. It allows you more time to concentrate on fishing (and hopefully catching) and not steering the boat. That's my most valuable piece of equipment next to my electronics. If I have to go to the back of my boat for anything, I know the trolling motor will keep me on course with trying to make any unwanted turns. Speed, weight of jigs and how far out the line is will dictate how deep you are fishing.....Good Luck!!

I can fully appreciate what your saying TNT and your not the first who has recommended I change trolling motors.
Up till now ive been slow trolling edges of weed beds, or pulling up to a specific spot and jigging with just one rod.
For that purpose the motor has worked fine. Trolling for me wether it be in salt water or fresh has always been a means
of locating fish rather than a means of catching them. But ive had friends who felt otherwise and trolled exclusively.
I'm sort of hoping to keep a couple jig rods ready and if fortunate enough to locate some fish stop the boat and try that method.
If it dosent produce then resume trolling. But what I'm hoping for and reality might be 2 different things. Which is why I appreciate
the advise from people more experienced. From my observation of your comments I assume you use jigs for trolling more than plugs
or other type lures?

I use jigs with either a plain head or Roadrunner head and various different curl tails and sliders. If you want to troll exclusively the electric steer motors are the way to go. But fishing flats, tree lines, docks and many other tasks are better suited to manual control in my opinion. Now throw in holding on an offshore reef, or other things and the anchor mode comes in useful as well. I would way all those out before dropping coins on a new trolling motor, especially if yours is working well. And if yours is tiller style steer its does not have the tendacy to spin off course as badly as a cable steer foot control, just put a lil more tension on the adjustment knob so it can not spin off unwanted.

This is my first ever electric trolling motor which ive had about 3 years. Since I still do a limited amount of salt water I bought the rip tide model.
A couple months back I hired a guy who agreed to go in my boat and help me along and also critique my boat setup.
He ran the boat and essentially liked everything about it except the trolling motor which he carped on all day.
Two days later I took my grandson to the same place and had a good day by doing what he had showed me.
I didn't seem to have the problems he was complaining about with the motor however. And the funny thing was about
a week later he called me about a guy who wanted to trade his foot control motor for mine. I'm well aware of the advantages
of having an auto pilot on offshore boats. Especially when chaos erupts in the cockpit and I'm assuming that's what TNT is referring to.
I should be so lucky to have it happen while I'm crappie trolling lol.

Since you mentioned your grandson and also yourself, please remember if considering remote control trolling motor, If you fall out with remote control the motor will not stop. It will run off and leave you. Purchase and wear a automatic personal flotation device. Especially if you are alone or with kids in the boat that don't know to do. It has happened before. Be safe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yelim

Since you mentioned your grandson and also yourself, please remember if considering remote control trolling motor, If you fall out with remote control the motor will not stop. It will run off and leave you. Purchase and wear a automatic personal flotation device. Especially if you are alone or with kids in the boat that don't know to do. It has happened before. Be safe.

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Well thanks for your concern, and rest assured it is a concern for me. I do wear a manualy operated floatation device when I'm on my boat. My grandson or anybody for that matter is rarly with me. I am also 81 years old and although in pretty decent condition, I'm well
aware of what and where I am. But I could also give up, stay home and choke to death while eating a sandwich.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by huntinslabs

I use jigs with either a plain head or Roadrunner head and various different curl tails and sliders. If you want to troll exclusively the electric steer motors are the way to go. But fishing flats, tree lines, docks and many other tasks are better suited to manual control in my opinion. Now throw in holding on an offshore reef, or other things and the anchor mode comes in useful as well. I would way all those out before dropping coins on a new trolling motor, especially if yours is working well. And if yours is tiller style steer its does not have the tendacy to spin off course as badly as a cable steer foot control, just put a lil more tension on the adjustment knob so it can not spin off unwanted.

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:hesaid The trolling motor(s) I mentioned would be your best bet for trolling. Cable or tiller steer motors work better fot other techniques. But after re-reading your post, you already have the Minn Kota Power Drive V2 (electric steer) so that's most of the trolling motor battle. If it doesn't have Auto Pilot or I-Pilot already on it, that would be worth considering.

Not sugesting you give up. A bit younger than you,70, I aint giving up either. Careful with them sandwichs. Catch a bunch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yobuck

Well thanks for your concern, and rest assured it is a concern for me. I do wear a manualy operated floatation device when I'm on my boat. My grandson or anybody for that matter is rarly with me. I am also 81 years old and although in pretty decent condition, I'm well
aware of what and where I am. But I could also give up, stay home and choke to death while eating a sandwich.

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I switched to the power drive and it was the best thing for me. Fish how YOU fish if it's working for ya and you're catching fish. Electronics and remote trolling is a proven combination. It allows you to put 20 rods out even when you are by yourself. :>}

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Specklocker

I switched to the power drive and it was the best thing for me. Fish how YOU fish if it's working for ya and you're catching fish. Electronics and remote trolling is a proven combination. It allows you to put 20 rods out even when you are by yourself. :>}

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Years back before I moved to Florida, I lived in PA. During the early 80s the fishing on lake Ontario was really becoming popular.
I rigged my 24' Grady White with 4 downriggers and bought a bunch of downrigger rods and good reels. Also a foot locker size
tackle box to house all the hafta have lures of every color and description. At the time the X15 Lowrance graph recorder and loran c
was the ultimate in electronics. My 2 sons and I would trailer the boat in both spring and fall for a few weeks each, and comute on
weekends to fish. Id spend the day trolling as slow as one of the 150 hp engines would idle down while staring at the graph and temp
gauge. One of my sons would have to stay awake and keep his eyes on all the rod tips. Hours would pass with the only excitement
sometimes being a false release of one of the rods. We did catch some nice fish but the boredom wasent offset by that brief bit of
excitement. We just couldn't make the transition to that style of fishing and after a few seasons gave up on it. Yet I introduced a friend
to fishing there and he loved it. He bought a nice boat and even a small cottage to stay in. Ultimatly we both moved to Florida, him on
the west coast and me to the keys. He got to be bringing his boat to Islamorada for a week or so in the early summer to fish for mahi.
Just him and his wife mostly but he kept after me to join him for a day. Well one day I went and took with me a medium spinner with
a 1/2 oz jig tied on it. When I approached his boat he said what are you going to do with that? I replied well hopefully catch a mahi.
He said when you go on my boat you fish my way, and my way is to troll. A couple hours later we were trolling along with 4 rods out
when I noticed a frigate bird off to one side. I motioned Harrys attention to it and he changed coarse in that direction. Wasent long till
I saw a blue streak in the water and I said were gonna get hit. Almost at the same moment a rod went off and we were hooked up.
I said to him don't stop, keep moving we might get another. But he did stop and told his wife to grab the rod. It was about a 15 # bull
and when it was ready to gaff I was there. But trailing along trying to grab the lure were quite a few other schoolie size fish. I said Harry
if we had some spinners and bait chunks we could have a ball here right now. He said nothing, and when the fish went into the box he
drove away. A little later we hooked up again and it was a repeat of the first fish with me gaffing and lots of others following the fish to
the boat. Before noon we headed for the dock with 2 nice fish, but that was my last trip with my old friend Harry.