Easy Question for the Expeienced

Ok, so I finally broke down and tried trolling on wednesday. I got a fluke 14" out near west sister right away then nothing. I was using mini discs because of the ability to use the directional adjustment. After a couple hours I realized I probably couldnot get any deeper than 20' no matter how much line I let out. I ran up to Monroe and ran around in 22' and did very well even though they were shorts. I got one keeper and lost 3 that were also big enough to keep. Netting by yourself with a 6 foot leader is somewhat of a chore. Lol. So do you guys change the treble on stinger spoons? Do you add a stinger behind the treble?
Another easy one. Can I run Tru-tips being my Church boards, is that the only way to keep them from coming together behind the boat? Thanks in advance! You guys with all the answers have my respect and all the help is greatly appreciated!
BTW, I was using spoons very similar to Purple demon, but without the pink dots 140'back at about 2.4 mph. I was about halfway between Detroit Edison and Toledo Harbor light.

Most people don't change treble on spoons or put stingers on them.Think church are brand of inline boards.The trutrip 40 is used Alot by charters with the big boards.I have used them on my inline boards,but I feel they they pull too hard.I want my device that gets lure down to pull less than possible.I feel I can read the boards better that way.We use the #2 tadpole to depth of around 25 ft than if need to go deeper put on a 3oz sinker.Good luck.Takes years to be productive using new technipues.Thid forum speeds it up.

I have run TT-40s behind my Church's Inline boards with some success though they do pull awfully hard. I second what MasterKraft says, use the tadpoles. They aren't that expensive to get started and work well. I have both and use the tadpoles a bunch more. I believe you can get more depth with shorter leads on the tadpoles as well depending on speed of course.

Yes you can run your tt behind your boards, I just use the stock hooks. I have up sized them on some of my spoons, if I have a color that is working good and buy matching ones I just use the stock hooks, I only go up one size,to big and it will effect the performance. Tt 40s is what most of the charters use. You can listen in on the radio and get feet back sometimes,if you have charts, you can use that to run different lures or the same lures

I usually change trebles to singles on all my spoons. When you have 2 or 3 or more fish on at a time you can clear hooks out of both the net and the fish with single hooks. Also when it is fairly calm I run my main line to a three way swivel & run a deep diver crank off 1 leg & a spoon off of the other leg. When you get two fish on 1 line, 2 trebles is enough to deal with.

I run a shorter leader when fishing by myself, the netting issue cost me a huge fish last year. When by myself I get the fish in front of the net and drop them back to the net, that way most of the fish is in the net before the hooks get there

Thanks for the info. Yes they are in line boards. That's what I was curious about if it would be too much pull. Do you seem to be as productive with shorter leaders? I bought a bunch of pro eye blades from Jann's and put Mustad number 4 trebles on them, they have turned in points. They claim to be better for holding the fish. If the wind ever let's up I'll have plenty of tricks to experiment with. Thanks also for the tip on netting from behind. Makes a lot of sense! I grew up drifting and casting and I've only been out trolling one other time with a good guy I met on here and he invited me along with him so I have the basics but you may see some more dumb questions from me, so bear with me. Greatly appreciated, Thank you

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Originally Posted by Frank

I run a shorter leader when fishing by myself, the netting issue cost me a huge fish last year. When by myself I get the fish in front of the net and drop them back to the net, that way most of the fish is in the net before the hooks get there

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X2 we do the same thing, plus if the fish comes off due to slack a lit of time with the net behind them they just slide right into the net

I run 40 tt behind my off shores with the tattle flags still working. I prefer the jet over the weight. If you are fishing just a few feet off the bottom with weights and say you slow down due to a wave or when you turn you also have a slow size the weight will be into the bottom. Now all your hooks are full of mussels or your worm is gone. With jet if you slow they raise up

The only time I see were a longer leader helps me is when the water is calm and clear ,I pull tt 40s behind 10" inline boards with flags,

The only dumb question is the one you don't ask!

The system you use to get your lure down has pros and cons.The problem we have using sinkers/weight is when you slow down with a turn or putting board back is weight will sink and could snag the bottom if rocky.Weights work good if water deep or muddy bottom.The Tru trips or jets float if you slow down so the will not snag a rocky bottom.The trouble with the planners is the release does not pull all the time and the deeper you need to go, the harder they pull.

We lowered the rear attaching location for the flag, this helps the nose come down and the board pull harder out. The hard part is getting the flags still to work. Just have to play with springs and location, every day depending on the waves it takes a different setting on the flags, bigger waves take a stronger setting, on calmer days I can lighten it up to read smaller fish better. We still end up reading the board as much as the flag. With 3 on side it makes it easier to see 1 board doing something different than just 2. We use releasing clips up front and lockers in the rear. We don't normally have to pull of move boards to get outside boards to clear inside ones. With releases they simple fall back put of line much like a clip coming off a big board set up. When we go back out we don't shuffle board, the middle board goes back to middle same as the outside. Makes it easy to remember depth we were set at plus I normally run my shallows setting on the outside. Fish are not as spoked by the boat, plus it I have a release hang up its easier to get a shallow setting to pass over the deeper without tangle than it is the other way around.

I also try to keep the distance between my boards the same. For example I might put the outside + 100 over feet back, the middle might be +75, and the inside might be +50. When there are not a lot of boats I will spread them more apart running 150/100/50.

The extra space helps reduce tangles but makes turns harder, as much as I hate doing it, sometime I pull the 2 outside boards on the inside b4 turns. I can turn faster without worring about laying tbe boards over and tangling up. The downside is I have less lines in on a turn and turns can be some of the most productive times. Plus they give me an idea of speed changes depending on if fish come on the inside or outside a couple turns in row I will have a idea of speed up or slow down

Branham.. I like the way this set up sounds !! iv been considering loosning my front clips so they snap out and pull back. My question is, do u loose more boards this way? This has been my fear and is why I've hesitated doing this . and how do you set a middle or outside board back without moving the others and getting Tangled iv tried but failed. Thanks in advance!

I use OR 18 on the back, I have never lost a board.

We use Sams pro release's up front, they are like 10 bucks each. I use the offshore snapper in the back. Don't remember the number, it's black with a retaining pin. I wrap it once around the clip cause it does slip in my braid every once and while. I run an extra swivel a few feet in front of my clip so to stop any slide down from getting to the fish when I'm running cranks. I would think the red clips with a pin would work just as well. Mine had these on when I bought them so I have not tested or used the other style. I think in the last few years I've had a board fall off once or twice......but it could be traced back to when the snap was closed the pin went outside the hole not in. So i take a few seconds now when putting out or take 20 mins to fetch a board.


As far as how I put out, I put my running depth, say 50, then my boatd, then my out say 100. I just put the board in let out the 100on a basicly free spool with the clicker on. Once out just lock it in and in a min it's pulled out to the side. So let's say they are all at 50 back, with 100, 75, and 50 out the side. Fish come's in on the middle. I put back out the 50, board, then 75 the same way, right out the back with the clicker on, lock it in and it will pull up the middle right between 1 and 3 just as it was. It does take a min or so to side up into place, and the extra pull at that time makes a bite hard to see if it occurs and sometime that board will look lagging back like a fish hangin on it. It just take's a few trips in differs conditions to see how they normally react to how you have yours set. Not all sets of boards pull the same, I have 1 of my 8 that always lags back, I try not to use it till last, it's marked , it looks lie a fish is always on it for some reason.

Went up to monroe again today. Water looked a whole lot better. Wind may have blown the heavy algae to the east. Good for me, sorry for the charters in port clinton. Any way, caught many walleye, just 4 were big enough for me. 16-17". Tried Tru tip 30s and jet 30s. They all filled up with water! I'm assuming that isn't right.lol. Just bought them thursday! Had to go back to mini discs but they worked out alright. 140 back with stinger spoons, cat dog, purple demon were best. Ran about 2.6-3 mph out in front of bolles harbor in 21-23 fow.

Jets filled with water are not correct, these will not drive correctly. I had a tt trip get water in it, they replaced it

Tim, they were all new? Take them back and get TT 40's. Advantage, less line out for same depths. Don't bother with jets get TT's. Did you loose my #?

Tim did you loose my #? Get TT40's lees line same depth.

I've been somewhat immobile. Just got back to work this week from hernia repair. That's why I'm trolling. Lol. It's just odd that all three divers I tried filled up with water. I put size 2 trebles on some of my spoons and didn't lose any fish today on the bigger hooks. I lost a bunch on the spoons with stock hooks. A couple real nice ones. Leaders too long maybe? They are about 5-6 feet. Haven't seen you on here lately Geary, was starting to wonder!

Haven't been out much this year. Been hard to get to legal size fish for all them dag gone little ones. Next couple years should be dyno mite! Take care and FISH ON!

Some of the loosin fish could have been a ton of things, not quite what they wanted,inactive, etc.