08-12-2002, 10:02 PM
More productive?! I think that it is impossible to say one is more PRODUCTIVE than the other. Of course there are prefered methods. But as far as productivity goes, all things must be considered. Trolling has its advantages like the ability to cover a whole lot of water in a small amount of time. Trolling offers a relaxed effort that does produce fish. Casting however enables an angler to slow down and thouroughly fish a specific area, this provides time and enough presentaion to entice a fish who is not willing to chase down a trolled lure. Casting also gives you the opportunity to catch multiple fish in the same area where if you were to just troll through once you would probably only pick up one of five or six possible fish.The down side is its easy to spend a lot of time casting to areas with no fish. That is where trolling shines, trolling is a great fish locator.<br>The list of pros and cons goes on forever, basically in my opinion the best method becomes what you prefer as long as you can catch fish doing it and as long as you are willing to use bolth methods at the apprfopriate time and location. Now old Al Lindner will tell you that a combination of trolling and casting is what an angler will use to maximize his fishing potential. I think hes right. In fact, hes ALWAYS right.<br>Now for my personal opinion, I would prefer (as long as I am catching fish) to cast for ANY species of fish. I find it very rewarding to choose a specific spot that I think holds a fish, cast in there, work a lure properly, and have the reward of getting a fish to bite. But if its not the best method given the situation, I hold no ties to it. Toss out a couple lines and fire up the engine. As a end note, my most ENJOYABLE day muskie fishing, not nessescarily my best day, was in skeeters boat a couple years back, we pulled up on some underwater cover and structure that doesnt get a lot of pressure due to the fact that most people dont know its there, and started casting. I dont know how many we caught but it was one after another without moving five feet from where we caught the first one. Seems like each of us boated four fish with skeeter getting maybee five. We probably werent even there an hour. Skeeter is an old pro when it comes to muskie fishing, he had the state record when most of us didnt even know what a muskie was. If you want to learn pineview or fish with a guy who knows his muskie stuff, hes your man.<br><br>UNICORN CATCHER F.L.P.