Does it really matter how any of us got hooked on this frustrating and exciting sport of musky fishing? The road to success can be a long and grueling battle with few rewards but wow the rewards are grand. This road, for my fishing buddy (Chip) and I, has been just that. We sometimes went a year between fish! It is mainly because of the waters we learned to fish on. There were musky in the lakes but not many. For example, last year the two lakes we started musky fishing on were stocked with five fish between them! We eventually learned of bigger and better waters but to this day my biggest fish are still from those two little lakes. Anyway as musky fisherman we all just want to put more and bigger fish in the boat. If you are not using all of the options then you just might be missing out on a pattern that might be dynamite for your favorite waters.
There have been thousands of articles written about trolling for muskies by more qualified anglers and writers than myself. But it is an issue that needs some attention. There are many fishermen out there that refuse to troll because it is too boring. I will admit that after a couple of hours of trolling your rear end could use a break and it would be real easy to fall asleep but even a thirty incher makes you forget all that boredom real quick. There are some bonuses to trolling though; you can eat lunch, wear gloves, and rest those hands that are probably shaped like an Abu Garcia 6500. What about those days when the wind is blowing so hard boat control is almost impossible? It is a lot easier to chug around with lures in the water than spend half your time casting and the other half screwing around with the trolling motor. There have been times when Chip and I have trolled all day! We normally troll when we get bored or tired of casting and almost always troll between spots when time allows. How many of you can say that? There is now a new rule in our boat; always troll out from the ramp and always troll back in. Three fish were caught this past season within 50 yards of the ramp on two different lakes. In one of these cases it was the first fish that we caught in two days and it prompted us to stay until dark and in the next few hours we boated two more fish and missed two others! All Trolling!
Trolling is a tool that should be put into your bag of tricks if it is not there already. It is an effective way to present lures in areas that can not be reached or are often over looked by casters. You can easily get a lure down to 25 feet along a secondary break and keep it there. As far as I am concerned trolling is also the best way to really learn a lake I don't really care how good your "Hot Spots" map is. Driving around slow (not 45 mph) watching your depth finder and letting your lures find the structure is about as simple as it gets. You can cover a lot of water and once you learn where the best looking structure is or where the baitfish like to hold you can easily go back and work the area casting.
Everyone knows that muskies like to follow lures. I recently read an old article about captive muskies in Musky Hunter. One of the care takers of the Bass Pro Shops tank in Gurnee reported that the musky will stalk their food from the bottom of the tank for long periods of time before they actually eat. I say "let them follow." A cast will normally last about thirty seconds and if you are lucky enough to get a follow the fish often turns and sinks off into the depths. A fish can follow a trolled lure as long as it is interested. Last spring I caught a nice fish that took a Legend Outcast from behind. She had the whole lure in her mouth long ways which probably means that she was following the lure and then decided to take it. How long she followed it? I have no clue, but this was no reaction strike, she had the time to make a decision and I happened to be the lucky one that time.
Just like casting, there are a million different presentation types that can be utilized and of course there is no magic combination that will always put fish in the boat. Some guys troll small lures fast, some troll huge lures slow, some troll huge lures fast, and most others are a somewhere in between. The trick is to find out what color, speed, lure type, and depth is working on that particular day. Remember, you are trying to find fish so mix it up and when you find a pattern that works go with it. Earlier I mentioned an incident where we landed three fish and missed two others in the last couple of hours of daylight. Chip and I were fishing for the weekend on Kinkaid Lake. Saturday was blue bird and sunny and no one we talked to moved any fish. Sunday started off the same way and by noon we were both tired and started thinking about the long frustrating drive home we were getting ready to embark on. We decided to hit one more spot before we left and it produced a follow and a little hope with the onset of some cloud cover. Things were looking up but still no connections. By four O'clock we decided it was time to go. We only had a half a gallon of gas left, the trolling motor battery was dead, and Chip had to get to work the next morning which was about eight hours away. So we trolled our way back towards the ramp and right in front of the marina a forty incher ate Chip's Jake. The fish was landed and released. Was it possible that things were turning on? So we decided to make one more pass. That fish came out of a shallow weed bed so we stuck to the same pattern and ten minutes later Chip's Jake ended up in the mouth of another fish just off a similar weed bed. Well that was it two fish in about twenty minutes, there was no going back now. I put on a Jake with a similar pattern and in the next hour or so I caught a 38 ½ incher and we both missed another fish each. The weather had a big factor in the success of that trip and caused the fish to go on a feeding frenzy but we had a pattern that worked and put three fish in the boat. Now we might have caught fish if we were casting too, but this was working so why change?
In that situation we were short line trolling Jakes, with about ten feet of line out, right up next to the weed lines and the fish were taking them. I do not know of any angler who would say that three fish in the boat and action from two others in a couple of hours was boring. Needless to say we coasted up to the dock on fumes and adrenaline. The best thing was that there was not another truck in the lot every one else gave up just before the fishing got good. On the trip home there was a totally different attitude than there would have been if we would have left the lake without trolling into the dock.
Trolling can definitely be a more versatile tool that many guys realize. You can troll weed beds, rock humps, stump fields, points, rock walls, break lines, and almost any other type of structure out there. The only place that Chip and I have not trolled is in flooded timber and right through the middle of a weed choked bay. Just imagine a cove with a small shallow shelf covered with weeds reaching the surface all the way around it. The weed bed is only about ten feet wide but is a half mile long. You know there has to be fish relating to those weeds but where? It would take hours to thoroughly cast along that weed edge and most likely your boat would be out in deeper water and you would cast to the edge of the weeds and then start your retrieve. The lure might not get to the depth you would like until it is ten feet from the weed bed. In this situation I like to make several passes right along the edge of that weed bed trolling. My lures will be at the right depth and right next to the weed bed the whole way. You could make eight passes along the entire weed bed in an hour of you were trolling at four miles an hour. I believe that you can more efficiently cover the edge of that weed bed trolling than casting. I rarely make eight passes in the same area but you catch my drift. The same scenario can be played out along or over top of a lot of different structure.
While you are trolling make sure that you pay attention to your electronics. A good depth finder is a must. When Chip and I start off trolling we always use different lures to cover a wider variety of possibilities. Usually we put out one shallow, one deep, one in the prop wash, and always different colors until we find a pattern. We also normally cover the shallower water first working our way towards the deeper break. Then we experiment with speed and bait size to try to figure out what the fish are looking for. Make sure that you have a lure retriever because you will get snagged. Pay extreme attention to make sure that your drag is not too tight, you want the fish to be able to get a good hold on the lure before you or the boat momentum sets the hook. Plus when that unexpected snag stops the lure instantly there will be less of a chance that your rod or your line will break. I like to keep the drag just a little tighter than the pressure a good sized crank bait will pull at the speed we are trolling.
You all know how it feels to read a hundred articles about fishing with a certain technique at a certain time and on a specific body of water. You can do research, buy the hot lures, and pick your spots before you even see the lake and after half a day of casting you sit in the shade eating lunch with no clue what to do next. We have all been there at one time or another and the feeling is frustrating. Here is my advice start doing some real homework, covering some water, and hopefully putting some fish in the boat.
The main point here is not that trolling is a better way to catch muskies than casting. There are many situations where casting is the better presentation option but don't rule out trolling when conditions or situations on the water suit this option. I prefer catch a fish throwing a jerk bait or watching one follow a bucktail with its nose practically touching the treble hook, but I would also rather put fish in the boat than refuse to troll. Trolling can add a new dimension to your bag of tricks and let's face it these fish are not easy to catch so why not use all the tools that are available. There are no givens in this sport and confidence only comes with practice. Think about this 10,000 casts can add up pretty quick when you're trolling!
Click the mailbox to e-mail. Last updated on ...January 31, 2004