New Member- trolling questions

[Meat Wagon]

Fist off I have to say how impressed with all of the willingness to help others I see in this forum.
I will be fishing Erie for my first time from S. Bass Island from 4/11-4/19 and have some trolling questions. At first I assumed we would be trolling RR 800s and DHJ-12s pretty much exclusively but I am starting to wonder about pulling spinners with crawlers.

1. When trolling cranks do guys prefer mono or braid?
2. When does the spinner/crawler bite tend to pick up?
3. When pulling spinners, in-line weights or snap weights. Formula to figure out depth for either method... (New technique for me, lots of questions)

Each morning when I wake up I check my count down time to make sure it says I are 1 day closer. If anyone is willing to set up a phone call I'd love to hash it over to help scratch the itch. PM me if interested. Thanks in advance.

[Hoytman86]

We pretty much run exclusively spinners, but occasionally switch to spoons. We have never used divers, just use the Cabela's inline sinkers as they have always worked, they're cheaper than divers and it's one less thing we have to dial in. We run the 3 oz. sinkers on the outside lines (farthest from the boat) so that we don't have to let out as much line and there's less of a chance of losing a fish due to a longer time fighting. I run the 2 oz. sinkers off the lines straight off the back of the boat to get them to the depth that seems to be working that day but they're farther from the boat as I feel the boat does indeed spook the fish. If I do ever upgrade to divers, which I might do, I am definitely going with Tru Trips so that I'm not fighting the diver and the fish. The biggest benefit of the divers (Tru Trips and Jets at least) is that if they were to break off, they should float up to the surface along with your crank or spinner. If you're running divers and cranks, you've got about $20 tied onto the line, so it's something to think about.

Here's a link for the sinkers and a depth chart. The depth chart is based on 10 lb. mono diameter at 1.5 mph. If you speed up and/or use a thicker line, you will be shallower than it says. There's an app that allows you to input your exact setup including line diameter, bait and speed to give you an accurate depth, but it's pretty pricey so if this is a 1-2 times per year deal you may want to just try to figure out what works for you. I usually set an outside line (3 oz.) at 45 feet, another at 55 feet, one off the back (2 oz.) at 60 and one at 70. This covers roughly 10 feet of the water column and I adjust the rest accordingly depending on which ones are catching fish.

Just remember, if you're marking fish at 20 feet, you want to be slightly above them. I try to shoot for about a foot up, but dragging baits a foot or more below a fish with eyes on the top of its head is not going to be as successful as pulling them a little above them.

Sinkers
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabel...h-All+Products

Depth chart
http://rednekoutfitters.com/inline_t...ght_chart.html

[walleye2go]

I would plan on running Reefs and Husky's. That's really early for harnesses. A of of years were are running cranks into May.

[wakina]

First let me say there is nothing wrong with the inline wts system for catching fish! I used it for years with great results. It still works pretty much issue free in deep open water. Now with that being said there are some advantages to the Tru-trip divers and the jet divers. The most notable advantage is when you are fishing in shallow water over rocky bottom such as the reefs.

If running inline wts and you leave out enough line to target fish at the 15ft depth and the water is only 20 ft deep there is is a very good chance that the inside rods on a turn will slow down enough to allow the wt to sink and make contact with the rocky bottom often resulting in a snag. If you do snag and have to stop then you either have to hurry up and retrieve the rest of your lines before they can make contact with the bottom and possibly snagging another 1 or more of your lines or you have to keep going and try to break off the snagged line.

The Tru-trips and Jets will either become neutrally buoyant or actually start to float to the surface making a snag less likely. With a Tru-Trip 40 it takes roughly 23 to 24 ft of line back from the inline board to reach a depth of 14 ft. to get to the 20 to 22 ft depth you would have to leave out about 52 to 53 ft of line assuming you are using line in the 10lb Mono diameter.

I use only the Tru-Trip 40 divers and have replaced all of my Jet 40 divers with the Tru-Trip 40s. The trip mechanism is more reliable on the Tru-Trips than the jet 40 which turns over from the wt of the fish and planes to the surface with the fish in tow. I only use the TT40 divers because they get deeper faster without as much line out as the TT-30s and Jet 40s they also don't pull to hard for my inline boards like the TT-50s do.

I usually start harness fishing as soon as the water gets to the 40 degree mark. There have been several tournaments won by worm fishermen in the early spring even while the jig bite is still going strong. I fish mostly harnesses and spoons from the 40 degree water temp mark to the end of the season. I do catch some large fish but do not target them specifically. I like to say that I target walleyes and whatever bites and gets to the net goes into the cooler so long as it is of legal size.

[MasterKraft]

There were still quite a few boats jigging around turtle while I was getting 2 man limits driftin/castin. It was definitely at the end of the jig bite though, early may. We each had a rod draggin bottom bouncers with homemade crawler/spinner harnesses and castin parrish peas and erie dearies. The old fashioned way, I know, but I don't have the boat to set up for trollin. We did pretty good in that area for a few weeks between turtle and harbor light. No fish ohios but we caught some nice fish. Not bad for being as west as west can be.

[skipper9]

Fist off I have to say how impressed with all of the willingness to help others I see in this forum.
I will be fishing Erie for my first time from S. Bass Island from 4/11-4/19 and have some trolling questions. At first I assumed we would be trolling RR 800s and DHJ-12s pretty much exclusively but I am starting to wonder about pulling spinners with crawlers.

1. When trolling cranks do guys prefer mono or braid?
2. When does the spinner/crawler bite tend to pick up?
3. When pulling spinners, in-line weights or snap weights. Formula to figure out depth for either method... (New technique for me, lots of questions)

Each morning when I wake up I check my count down time to make sure it says I are 1 day closer. If anyone is willing to set up a phone call I'd love to hash it over to help scratch the itch. PM me if interested. Thanks in advance.

reef runners and husky jerks will be the ticket.. I dont run anything else till the water temp is above 50 degrees. Give me a call and i will give you all the info you will need to fill your cooler in april. I will share with you the program, location where i will be fishing those days. 614.327.7144

[ebijack]

I go by water temp, if it is 50 degrees or above I run both cranks on one side and harnesses on the other till the fish let me know which is a better selection for the day. But typically April is still going to be cranks due to water temp. And I start out at .8 MPH to a max of 1.4 MPH in the colder water. Slow "S" turns will help you dial in the correct speed. Around the Islands, 35, 55, 65 back with 1 oz inlines a 3 oz bottom bouncer off one corner ( no board) should cover the water column for you at that time of year as a starting point if your going to run inlines. 5 more foot of line out with a 1 oz inline is usually only a couple of feet deeper so while looking for biters keep it simple till you find at least a couple of biters, then you can adjust to dial the exact number in. When the sun get high the walleye typically rise up in the water column since the sun is warming that part of the column. So if you were getting bites at 55 back and the sun comes up high in the sky and bright, start shortening your line out numbers. I've taken plenty of walleye with only 8-10 ft of line out behind the board using 1 oz inlines in the spring. Even in 45 FOW. Typically the largest walleye of the day is on the high line. I run my deepest baits closer to the boat, shallowest the farthest away from the boat.

[Hoytman86]

Do you gentleman have a color preference on the Tru Trips? I wouldn't mind giving them a go this year, zebras mussels are a pain.

[high noon]

I run all black. I even paint mine flat black, both dipsey's & divers. Some say it doesn.t matter I think it does. Just my opinion.

[SPOONFEEDER]

I think I have orange, red, smoked, and clear tru-trips. They All catch fish.