Low dollar trolling question

[sherman51]

as others have mentioned but i forgot to post about is boat speed. you really need some type of fish finder/gps. the gps will give your speed. early in the yr you'll need to run in the 1.5 range with cranks and raise speed as water temps rise. with spoons in warm weather you can run anywhere from 2 to 3 mph and catch fish. depending on where you fish will let you choose how you fish. you can start with cranks on boards or use snap weights on the cranks to get them deeper in the western basin. you wont need tt's for getting cranks down but will need them for spoons or harnesses.

my first piece of advice would be to fill a few open seats before hitting it on your own. but you can start with 2 boards and 2 cranks out each side. if you want more lines in the water you can add 2 cranks off each corner. or you can go to 4 boards 2 off each side and a crank off each side. as the water warms then you can think about spoons or harnesses. to get them down on the boards you can go with inline weights from rednekoutfitters.com they have a depth chart. also if you move east to deeper water you might want to think about a dipsy off each side with inline weights on your boards.

don't forget the open seats!!!

[dayze_awayze]

Everyone has their preferences and advice...no shortage of that.

Personally, I threw out every Cabela's DepthMaster I had last year. I had lots of problems with the counters on 4 of the 6 I was running. They were only 2 years old and I was extremely disappointed. I had 2 Penn Rival Levelwind Line Counter Reel RIV15LWLC 5.1:1 that I liked using, so I replaced all of the DepthMasters last year with these. It has an oversized handle that lets you really get some leverage on those hawgs (especially if you flat line a Smithwick at 280ft back...which I always do). You can get them for about $60-$70 each. You will never want to use another reel once you get used to them.

For a decent, inexpensive rod, I have run Wilderness rods for years with zero issues. I have 2 heavier rods for dipseys, but honestly don't run them that often anymore. You can get a Wilderness for about $20

Another option is look on CL. Guys are always selling their old trolling stuff and upgrading. I have gotten some good deals in the past.

I run mostly snap weights and inline boards. You can run the weights on anything you throw out. I do occasionally run the TT-20s also.

To save on your budget to start (until you can afford the Amish Trolling Bags), drill some 1/2 inch holes in 5 gallon buckets. I haven't done this in many years, but it always worked on my smaller boats.

Tight Lines!

[branhamautomotive]

(especially if you flat line a Smithwick at 280ft back...which I always do).

Just curious how far down does this put a p10????? That's a lot of cranking for sure

[dayze_awayze]

(especially if you flat line a Smithwick at 280ft back...which I always do).

Just curious how far down does this put a p10????? That's a lot of cranking for sure

I am guessing it is running between 7 and 9 feet with all of the line drag (running the Berkley 10# XT on that pole). For some reason, when the boat passes over those fish, they swim back behind the boat after we pass, and right into that P10. The biggest fish I caught over the past 3 years trolling, have generally come on that P10 280 back. It was so good last year, that my 20 year old son refused to fish with me if I put that line out. He was exhausted pulling in the 10+ lb fish that far back.

We generally run the Pink Squirrel or Floyd on the flat line. I have tried others at different times of the year, but those two generally produce best.

[branhamautomotive]

Interesting idea, and being that far back there would be little chance of it getting tangled with other more traditional line depths, even when they come around behind the boat they should slide right under that line

[itsbob]

I have set a couple guys trolling.Yes 4 line counter reels the way to go.Diawa deadline for around $110 bucks each and you can get wilderness trolling rods for $20 each.Mono is line to use,we used mono on dipsey for few years and you can get by with that.I would get 4 inline boards to start also.We troll worm harnesses most the time with the #2 tadpoles and works great.You can get some spoons and they work with the tadpoles.If going to be fishing early or late enough to use cranks,I would get stock color bandits first then add the custom colors as you see fit.Must control your speed,bags cheapest way to do on most boats.Good luck and keep reading these posts to get better each year.

[itsbob]

Wow, To start out trolling equipment with a $300 budget is atough one.Yes the widerness rods at $20 each works great.I would look for some used line counter reels since they are the most expensive.Using dipsey instead of boards is cheaper and getting spoons is way to go.Dont even consider cranks yet.Yes,a 5 gal bucket can be used to slow you down.We even trolled before with two rods with braid straight off back with bottom bounces and harnesses.Sometimes they caught great and could have used mono without much issue.Will take several seasons to accumulate what you want but evenyually you should have the equip and know how to catch trolling.

[Gerry D]

Thanks for all your advice guy's , basically my budget for this start up is about $300 so I'm going with the minimum right now. I i have an elite 4 gps/fish finder and according to that my boat (22' sundowner) It idles at about 2 mph. So if I troll into the wind that should drop a little. I might have to get a drift bag but we will cross that bridge later. Thanks guys I'll let u know how it goes.

[branhamautomotive]

You will want trolling bags, they are built heavier than drift bags. Most smaller boats, especially with running little boards tend to do better picking fish going with the waves, in line boards run smoother this way. Keep an eye on cl or ebay, might find some used boards or bags to help stretch that 300 budget, unfortunately 300 doesn't go far when buying fishing tackle.

Might try contacting some of the captains you know, they might have some older equipment they have cycled out or upgraded that still works fine they might be willing to let go.

Don't overlook running a few dispeys too, they are like 15 bucks or so each and you can run several per side. Won't have the spread of inline or big boards but they do put fish on the boat. I know almost every trip we run at least 2 if not 4. They are not normally our main producer of fish, but seems like during the summer months the larger fish of the day seem to come on them.

[sherman51]

if i was going on the cheap it would be the Okuma magda pro. 45.00 to 50.00 on ebay. but you'll be miles ahead with Daiwa accudepth plus reels 65.00 to 70.00 on ebay. these will last you for many yrs.