Fishing

[Flench]

NICE FISH Tec !
Just got done sharping all my hook's on my Crappie Bandit's . I did not know I had 80 of them . Took all day but I'm getting ready this year . There all I use now day's . This is my hole set up . All I carry when I go but the pole's .

[TheBug]

You fish a rough neighborhood Flench?   

[Flench]

It gets pretty bad on the lake . Been more than a few fights and so on . Mostly people trying to steal stuff . Like if you come in way after dark to load your boat . Plus I had someone to key my truck last year and all I got to say about that is he better be glad I did not see him .
I can not wait for this , fun fun ! Pulling those crank's . Click to play video of a sample of how I troil

[Rich52]

The flex on the rearlines suggest dipsy divers bring your baits low. The side rods look like they are running surface baits. I use a lot of planer boards, dipsys, slide dovers, downriggers, sliders, and various mixtures of all. This salmon http://youtu.be/rfrDq3SVvkU was caught on an evil eye spoon as a slider to a main bait 70' down. A slider is, of course, a sperate lure on 10' of line attached to the main rigger line with a clip and will run 1/2 the length of your rigger ball. So if you have a lure set at 70' your slider will run at 35'. Ive used a lot of slide/dipsey divers, even ran them off rigger cables for extra depth. Even ran them off planer boards to cover more depths and widths. Ive trolled the heck out of every fish you can imagine. Salmon, trout, walleye, crappie, bass, muskie,stripers, wipers, northern, everything.

Once I patterned them they were mine. Lure color, depth, type, speed, water temp, structure, using Loran and then GPS I stayed on them.

Trolling is DEADLY!

It gets pretty bad on the lake . Been more than a few fights and so on . Mostly people trying to steal stuff . Like if you come in way after dark to load your boat . Plus I had someone to key my truck last year and all I got to say about that is he better be glad I did not see him .
I can not wait for this , fun fun ! Pulling those crank's . Click to play video of a sample of how I troil

[Tec]

NICE FISH Tec !

He was only about 23", wish I would have had a recorder hooked up to my Aqua-Vu though because the strike was something to see!  

Interesting choice on the Crappie baits, might have to try those.  And I think I should start carrying a pistol too, you never know when a Muskrat is gonna pop out of your hole and start running around the shack.

[Flench]

Hey Rich52 ! Thanks for the reply . Glade I got someone here I mite be able to answer a few question for me . I got into trolling about 6 year's ago and have found down south here the Bandit kicks azzz when it comes's to pulling crank's .
I built two , two foot  planer board's this year to try out , never ran one but that I was wanting to do is put two board's out , one on each side @ a 45 and run my pole lines down that main planer board line and space them apart . Maybe 3 Poles of each side . That Way when he hit the bait it would unclip of the Maine line and fall back behind the boat where you could pull him in without getting into your other line's ..

Hey Tec 23 inch is a nice fish bro . Wish I had one cooking right now , lol . These crank's I am using are the only ones that the Crappie will hit down here but there 5 buck's a piece . These I run are the 300 . They run about 15 feet deep and seem to do the best . If you want them to run deeper just add some egg lead in font of them .

[Tec]

What you want is a planer mast setup.  http://www.shopatron.com/products/category/646.0.1.1.25586.0.0.0.0  If you do a google search for planer board mast you will find plenty of info, a lot of people build their own custom setups.

[Flench]

That's what I'm talking about Tec thanks . I made a board but have not tried it yet . I was just going to use a hvy line and let it out aways and pull it in by hand . That's if it work's let me see if I can find that pic of it and see what you think . Thanks for the link , that stuff high dollar . Why I have to make my stuff . Those crankbait's I use went up to $5 buck's each this year and are starting to be very hard to get but they work and work good . Catfish love them too if you get the crank on the bottom . I like this one of the hole bunch . I catch more fish on it then any of them .
It's called The Mad Cow .

[Rich52]

Hey Rich52 ! Thanks for the reply . Glade I got someone here I mite be able to answer a few question for me . I got into trolling about 6 year's ago and have found down south here the Bandit kicks azzz when it comes's to pulling crank's .
I built two , two foot  planer board's this year to try out , never ran one but that I was wanting to do is put two board's out , one on each side @ a 45 and run my pole lines down that main planer board line and space them apart . Maybe 3 Poles of each side . That Way when he hit the bait it would unclip of the Maine line and fall back behind the boat where you could pull him in without getting into your other line's ..

Hey Tec 23 inch is a nice fish bro . Wish I had one cooking right now , lol . These crank's I am using are the only ones that the Crappie will hit down here but there 5 buck's a piece . These I run are the 300 . They run about 15 feet deep and seem to do the best . If you want them to run deeper just add some egg lead in font of them .

Frankly even tho I had a large mast and double board setup, when I had my 22'er, I almost always used inline yellow birds. They were just easier to use and easier to troll structure lines, keep out of the way of other boats....ect. I would drill holes on top of them, stick chem night sticks in them, and using an electric trolling motor would murder big night walleye sending the birds over cabbage structure lines near deep depth breaks. I'd be able to see the nightsticks at night and by their movements could tell if I had a fish interested or was just nicking my rapalas over the top of the cabbage weeds. Nother trick is to remove the front trebel hook on body baits you troll with. they are only good for getting snagged anyways.

One time we were at Greers Ferry Lake in Arkansas and after getting skunked for two days I convinced my buddies that the dots on my fish finder were spawning crappies hanging off brush right at the drop offs. So out came the yellow birds and small diving shad plugs. The Locals thought we were nuts as they had never seen trolling setups. Heck I was even catching crappie and stripers on small dipsies and slide divers. This was from the first few hours of trolling. For the next two days we caught hog crappie and wipers till our arms hurt.

[Tec]

Fishing my first derby come sunrise.  Given the conditions of the ice and the amount of out of towners and casual types that will be out there odds are good someone puts a truck through.  Will try to get pics of the aftermath.

[Flench]

Thanks for the tip Rich . If I take the front treble hook off will it make the crankbait run any different in the water ?
Good luck Tec , post those pic' .

OH , Anyone here got a good home made catfish bait . I have used Doc"s dip bait for year's but was tinking of trying to make my own .

[Seadog36]

How is this? I used to own and operate commercial salmon fishing vessels in Southeast Alaska 1994-2000~
This particular morning I caught 115 (35lb average) King salmon and 75 Coho (or sliver salmon 7lb average) in four hours by myself. This was on trolling gear, lures and threaded salted herring. Notice the 5 gallon bucket for scale. WARNING: Do not fish in Alaska if you do not want to ruin your fishing experience anywhere else.



Best day ever with a deckhand 411 Coho Salmon
Biggest King salmon 55lbs
Largest Halibut 350lbs

These are the old wooden fishing boats I used to own...good times

[Melvin]

Dang Seadog, my mouth is watering.

I finally took some vacation time at work this week and went out. Unfortunately the snow was too deep to move the shack to a suitable crappie location. After a few 30 packs, the final score so far is 3 small northern, 3 small walleye and 1 enormous bluegill.

[Rich52]

Thanks for the tip Rich . If I take the front treble hook off will it make the crankbait run any different in the water ?
Good luck Tec , post those pic' .

OH , Anyone here got a good home made catfish bait . I have used Doc"s dip bait for year's but was tinking of trying to make my own .

It might change the optimum speed for some but generally no. To have 3 trebels on a body bait is useless, or even two. Think of it? When was the last time you hooked a fish on a front trebel? Besides you can always put one back on but removing it will save you all kinds of trouble when fishing in weed lines and brush piles, where of course, the action is at.

BTW that video of myself catching tht 30lb King was the 1st time my old Lady had ever been fishing and had never netted a fish, "you can see her shaking her fist at me in the vid that if I yell at her one more time she's going to cut the line". Anyway the line was only 17lb test and had gotten twisted on downrigger cable so I figured I may have weakened it. Since I change all my spoon hooks to single offset I saw I had the perfect hook set in the Kings jaw and knew I had him as long as I finnessed him in. Normally I fished with experienced salmon/trout fishermen not wife/noobs so I liked to use lighter gear. Up to the end of June I trolled with 10 or 12 pound test.

Anyway I was so pumped up over catching the King that 9 mos to the day my son was born. Do the math 

[Seadog36]

Dang Seadog, my mouth is watering.

I finally took some vacation time at work this week and went out. Unfortunately the snow was too deep to move the shack to a suitable crappie location. After a few 30 packs, the final score so far is 3 small northern, 3 small walleye and 1 enormous bluegill.

Do you ever get whitefish~ I love smoked whitefish. I used to smoke up my short/seal or shark bit king salmon too. Heavenly