05-14-2004, 06:13 PM
Flat lining plugs works best for us, running them over 15-20 feet of water. This is easy to do on the plains resivours because they are so bowl shaped and its easy to keep a pretty steady depth. We like running the deeper model shad raps, and suspending rogues, something that will get you running about 8 feet deep. As far as color, anything with a white belly works. I think it must give off a little flash from ambient light. We do it really slow with the troll motor, just fast enough to feel the wobble of the lure. We also don't use rod holders because we give the lure slack about every 5-10 seconds. It seems the pause and than subsequent start triggers fish.
We're not running that long of lines either, 100 feet usually. With just the troll motor on low setting you don't really have to worry about spooking fish. We'll do slow S turns starting at 15 feet and going out to 20. If one depth or bait seems to be catching most of the fish we'll focus on it. The wiper seem to be pretty random though. You might catch one in 20 with a rogue, the next in 15 with a shad rap. I have a feeling these fish are just suspended off the bottom a bit at night, and when you run a bait over them they come up to smack it. The walleye are a bit spottier, and to be honest it's not a big numbers thing at night, but the average size seems to be better than trolling harnesses during the day.
Now Pueblo is a whole different animal, at least the areas I fish, which is the north marina cove, Hoby Cat, and some of the other smaller coves along the north shore. It is tough to troll, at least when the lake has some water in it because most of those 15-20 foot areas are in the backs of coves, or are just brush choked. We know some areas that are pretty clean, and we'll troll those, but at Pueblo you really have to cast unless you want to spend a fortune, and a lot of time on snagged lures.
We use strictly floater model shad raps and rogues there. The thing is with these baits if you feel a lure tick brush, you can just stop the retrieve and it will float up and out of trouble usually. You just can't do that trolling. So we just drift and fan cast. The backs of the coves can be really good, and you never know what your gonna catch. We had a night a few years ago there where we caught 12 wiper, 8 walleye, a bunch of smallmouth and 2 really nice lgmouth all in the same night.
Also moonlite nights seem the best, especially if it is full or close to full.
PS.
Don, I have tried using lights here, in fact I have a really nice submersible, but I have never had much success. I think I might not be patient enough. I have a hard time sitting around for hours waiting for the fish to show up. For some reason I can sit all day in a duck blind without a problem, but I'm lucky if I can hack a couple hours sitting in a boat. I could see it working though later in the year when the shad hatch is starting to get bigger and using open water.
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We're not running that long of lines either, 100 feet usually. With just the troll motor on low setting you don't really have to worry about spooking fish. We'll do slow S turns starting at 15 feet and going out to 20. If one depth or bait seems to be catching most of the fish we'll focus on it. The wiper seem to be pretty random though. You might catch one in 20 with a rogue, the next in 15 with a shad rap. I have a feeling these fish are just suspended off the bottom a bit at night, and when you run a bait over them they come up to smack it. The walleye are a bit spottier, and to be honest it's not a big numbers thing at night, but the average size seems to be better than trolling harnesses during the day.
Now Pueblo is a whole different animal, at least the areas I fish, which is the north marina cove, Hoby Cat, and some of the other smaller coves along the north shore. It is tough to troll, at least when the lake has some water in it because most of those 15-20 foot areas are in the backs of coves, or are just brush choked. We know some areas that are pretty clean, and we'll troll those, but at Pueblo you really have to cast unless you want to spend a fortune, and a lot of time on snagged lures.
We use strictly floater model shad raps and rogues there. The thing is with these baits if you feel a lure tick brush, you can just stop the retrieve and it will float up and out of trouble usually. You just can't do that trolling. So we just drift and fan cast. The backs of the coves can be really good, and you never know what your gonna catch. We had a night a few years ago there where we caught 12 wiper, 8 walleye, a bunch of smallmouth and 2 really nice lgmouth all in the same night.
Also moonlite nights seem the best, especially if it is full or close to full.
PS.
Don, I have tried using lights here, in fact I have a really nice submersible, but I have never had much success. I think I might not be patient enough. I have a hard time sitting around for hours waiting for the fish to show up. For some reason I can sit all day in a duck blind without a problem, but I'm lucky if I can hack a couple hours sitting in a boat. I could see it working though later in the year when the shad hatch is starting to get bigger and using open water.
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