New to trolling

[Lucky Duck]

I was just using the Church Walleye Boards. I getting frustrated as i getting lots of information and I buy lots of gear, but then I told to use something else by others. I went to Bass Pro, the guy said I need Luhr Jensen Jet dives, so I bought multiple colors and sizes. When I got those, another guy tells me those are not good as they are they are not accurate and I should get what I think are called Tru Trips which the charters use and are more reliable for depth. I bought four of those. I am trying to read about this sport, and I find Ross Robertson's book quite helpful too. I guess I need more time on the water to experiment myself. I just am not consistent in catching fish. Thank you all for your help.

[PDnaz]

Spend the money and time to go on a couple of charters. You will gather the information and save the headache.

[itsbob]

The church walleye boards are in line planer boards and should work for you.Try and modify them with the flag that goes down when you catch a fish.One of the initial problems new trollers go through is not knowing you have fish on.That flag will help you identify small junk fish on and even bigger walleye.We have used the tru trip 40 and the charters due use them,they work well,but we used them mostly on the big boards.The 40 tru trips pull too hard for the inline boards.Yes,they make smaller tru trips that don't pull as hard,but do not like on inline boards.You can use just a sinker tied to line with rubber band to get lures down,but as I said before,I like the offshore #2 tadpoles.They only cost about $7 each and don't pull too hard on the boards.The tadpoles bottom out at about 28 fow but are fine west of islands.If fishing deeper than that get some 3oz sinkers.The boards can handle 3oz,but not much more.

[Frank]

The boards you got are fine,boards just get your baits away from the boat the jets get your lures to depth. Get dive charts for your jets.I use lurk,and true trip jets and have done very well with both,but they have their own dive charts 99% of the captains on Erie around the islands use true true trips. You need a radio to listen to the depth range they are fishing so you need their charts to see how deep they are then convert that to what your using to achieve the same depth or close to that higher up its better than lower as walleye feed up.there are more variables, speed and line size. Line size isn't as important at say 50 back,maybe a foot. Do s turns to get speeds dailed in more, inside bite slow down,outside bite speed up. I hope this helps Frank

[itsbob]

if you are going to be using jets or tru trips the lures behind those will be spoons or harnesses.You don't want to be pulling a crankbait behind either a jet or tru trip.You will not be able to find any chart on how deep your crank is running if pulled behind another planer mechanism like a jet or tru trip.An exception is you can run a crank with an extremely small bill that really doesn't dive behind a dipsy or tru trip.Majority of those charters using tru trips using big boards.

[Frank]

Learn to convert what you have to what they have, opinions are like ,everyone has one, :-) you just have to experiment. If the fish aren't bitten I find shoals to troll over to get a real grip on where im running.I have charts for my stuff.but they are only guidelines because I run a different line.make a log of what your trolling, speed ,line,lures,ect.some time on the water is always the way to go.charters are great but you still have to put that knowledge that you learn to use,no one can catch them for you.Read,listen,search online ,watch you tube. The more you learn the more consistent you will become and at a very quicker pace we all fail to catch them every day that's why they call it fishing.If you where a captain,most have friends to help them when the going gets tough. They just do it much more so there on the fish.And there very good at it

[itsbob]

lucky duck,dont get discouraged with lack of success.It took us years to get competent enough to troll successfully.Find out what works for you and add to that each season to become flexible during tough bites.Buying enough crankbaits is expensive.I have worked on getting a good assortment of bandits this season based on colors I heard caught over and over.But the stock colors are $8 and custom around$12.If you deciced to fish harness,make sure leader at 6ft fluorocarbon.Put swivel on it so don't twist.Want #5 Colorado blades and some double willow antifreeze color.Make sure you can troll down to 1.5mph for early season.Can go up to 2.3mph when water warms up.Good luck.

[Frank]

I agree with itsbob but you can also run shollow diving cranks behind jets also

[Lucky Duck]

Thank you everyone. I have my chin up now. Going to take some crank baits with the dive charts,spinners with my Tru Trips, Amish bags, tune in to channel 79, run my Church boards and get out next week and pay my dues to see if I can use some of the info I gained from everyone to catch a few fish.

[Frank]

If the water is off colored, -dirty, early in the morning,or really overcast, i would fish higher up in the water colom 60 back would be the deepest-most line I would let out to begin with, but your finder will put you in the park.one thing you won't see most of the fish that are higher in the water column at that level because of your cone Angel of your transducer. Good luck tight lines. We all second guess ourselves don't forget to log your day do a waypoint for every walleye you catch after a few trips you can look at those and rule out allot of unproductive water .tight lines!!!