Prime Time at Willard

[MrShane]

To take it even further on Mildog suggestion of lowering engine to reduce speed, especially helpful for death rolling a crawler or even ‘fligging’ at .3-.5 mph, start big main and put in gear then shut down main to keep prop from spinning.
DO NOT try to put in to either forward or reverse while engine is NOT running.
Your wallet will thank me later.

[Troutster]

Thanks for the report. Did you need to use planer boards or just strait back?  Also do you troll with a gas kicker or use the bow electric?  I’m new to trolling and trying to figure it out. Thanks!

I ran 6 lines 4 with bottom bouncers one off each side and one on each corner facing strait back and 2 with crank baits on planer boards. The only reason I use planer boards is just to be able to fish more lines if I was only fishing four lines I wouldn’t use them they are kind of a pain to use.  I fished just with my bow mount trolling motor for the first half of the day but started using my gas kicker in conjunction with it the second half to conserve battery.

Thanks. I bought a couple of planer boards and they are cumbersome at best. Good to know I can troll w/o them and still catch a bunch.

[Troutster]

Also do you troll with a gas kicker or use the bow electric?  I’m new to trolling and trying to figure it out. Thanks!

If you have both an electric up front and a gas kicker behind, use them both.  Aline the gas motor to push you straight forward and to be the main force to set your speed forward.  Use the electric to steer the boat.  Pushing with the kicker, allows your electric to operate at a lower current draw from its battery(s) and extend your time trolling.  If you decide you need to troll at a slower speed than the kicker is giving you at idle, then you may have to just use the electric to both pull and steer.

Thanks Bob,  I tried this at Powell Mother’s Day weekend and it worked great.  I’m not much of a troller, but trying get better at it.

[obifishkenobi]

Also do you troll with a gas kicker or use the bow electric?  I’m new to trolling and trying to figure it out. Thanks!

If you have both an electric up front and a gas kicker behind, use them both.  Aline the gas motor to push you straight forward and to be the main force to set your speed forward.  Use the electric to steer the boat.  Pushing with the kicker, allows your electric to operate at a lower current draw from its battery(s) and extend your time trolling.  If you decide you need to troll at a slower speed than the kicker is giving you at idle, then you may have to just use the electric to both pull and steer.

Thanks Bob,  I tried this at Powell Mother’s Day weekend and it worked great.  I’m not much of a troller, but trying get better at it.

To add more to the kicker front trolling motor combo, I put my kicker in gear at idle and use my electric trolling motor to adjust my speed up and down in smaller increments of tenths of mph. Speeding up and slowing from turning the boat or adjusting the speed of my trolling motor triggers strikes. Nothing in nature swim in a straight line at the same speed all day. Fish will trail your gear and when you change direction and speed that is most often when they bite, so my best advice is keep turning and change speed. The other big advantage of steering with the bow mounted is the boat responds much quicker from the front than from the back. I turn and turn a lot which probably leads to more tangles but it is a trade off to hooking up more often by doing harder turns.

[MrShane]

Another trick is to pull cranks and fish for Salmon using iTroll in ‘hunt’ mode.
I have one mode set for Walleye and another mode programmed for Kokanee.
That method also helps trigger strikes.