Western Basin Michigan Water

[salmonslayer19]

Trolling /Drifting season is kinda broke down into a few sections.

We are starting drifting, trolling harnesses, and casting weapons. As Capt. Hoyt said below SPEED is the key and a game changer. You get 6 lines with you and your father or a buddy, you have a smaller boat so 6 is probably just right for room capacity.

Over the next few weeks your gonna wanna troll harnesses, this is were you will need the 1oz weights from Bass Pro and inline boards, then you will run some bottom bounces closes to boat or down the chute. Also pending on winds and weather DRIFTING with your bottom bounces with harnesses on them and drift casting your weapons with your dad or buddy's. Speed: for trolling harnesses you need to be around .9--1.4. drifting is relatively the same so you will want another bag and setting different length leads on the rope plays with the speed.

Then as water warms in late june/july/august you will need to invest in some JET DIVERS either size 20 or 30 and you will start running a spoon presentation. run a 6ft leader of 12-17lb florocarbon or mono to a HIGH QUALITY ball bearing swivel to connect spoon too. This presentation will be similar to harnesses run two divers off each side behind inline boards and two divers down chute no boards. cover the water column in 5ft depths. Speed will be from 1.9-3.0 but consistent catches come in the 2.0-2.5 range last few seasons.

I have had buddies with Whalers they have had to use a Trolling Tool called a "Easy Troll" it screws on to the Cavitation Plate of your lower unit of motor and it slows you to trolling speeds. look it up on web.

[wakina]

I have ran harnesses and spoons off of Jets and inline boards for the past 7 years and very successfully I might add! I have not used an inline wt since starting to use the Jets. To much stuff to keep track of, to many things to store, the simpler the better. Remember if you are fishing in 20 ft of water and you have only 21 ft of line out then you stand a good chance of snagging the bottom with inline wts, especially on the reefs while making turns or slowing down to net fish. You only need one size of Jet diver, you adjust your depth with the amount of line out, so why carry 3 different sizes of jets? I personally use the jet 40's, less line out to achieve the desired depth. Less line out means less time for that eye on the other end to shake the hook. Jets work well at any speed!! This year I started using the tru-trip 40 deep divers they work just like a jet and look like a jet but have a trip release that works great and dive deeper quicker! Here is a link!

http://www.walleyetacklestore.com/bigfishtuff.html

[ebijack]

Hit BB around 10 this morning. Started in 12 f.o.w. with harnesses and headed towards a waypoint. Before we got to that waypoint we had 1 in the box and missed 3. Trolled for a bit longer then turned and headed back over the waypoints. We ended up with 10 and 1 nice perch. Lost at least 30 light biters before we had to leave at 2. 1.2mph average speed, 14 f.o.w. out from sterling. The wind kept changing directions and the I-pilot worked great for awhile then losts it's freakin brains again and wouldn't work. Nice quality fish and besides the misty rain this morning not a bad day. And a big THANKS !!! to the guys in the blk lund that moved out of the way as we were working a very small spot. They noticed us working it over and politely let us continue as they were trolling randomly towards us. That's how it should be.

[wakina]

Those are some really nice fish! Thanks for bringing up those bottom bouncers forgot to mention them in my previous post. You are very lucky to have strangers allow you to keep working your fish, they most often run right in and spoil it for every one. Those fellows have some very good karma coming their way, I hope they enjoy it because they certainly earned it today with the respect they showed for you!!

[ebijack]

BB was Brestbay. Actually we only got one on a bouncer. The rest came about 6 ft down on inlines. All males, none milking.

[wakina]

BB was Brestbay. Actually we only got one on a bouncer. The rest came about 6 ft down on inlines. All males, none milking.

Well that straightens that out and thanks for the heads up on BB. But bottom bouncers can and do produce in the shallow stuff this time of year.

[ebijack]

Well that straightens that out and thanks for the heads up on BB. But bottom bouncers can and do produce in the shallow stuff this time of year.

I always have a bouncer out. My wife's favorite way to fish is with all bouncers, no boards. I have bouncers to 8oz. Down around Lorain mid summer there are day's where a 3 to 6oz inline 3 to 5 cranks off bottom will out produce a bouncer and days where the bouncer shines. Gotta check em both. And I'm talkin 40 to 60 f.o.w.

[BostonWhaler33]

Is there anyway I could see a picture of a set up? If I'm reading everything right the few options are like this...

1) Ive got my main line from the rod that connects to my board...From there I tie my bottom bouncer with my crawler harness connected to that? For drifting.

2) My main line to my board...connected to a reef runner. For trolling.

3) My main line to my board...connected to my dipsey diver, connected with a spoon. For trolling.

Thanks everyone!

[ebijack]

Is there anyway I could see a picture of a set up? If I'm reading everything right the few options are like this...

1) Ive got my main line from the rod that connects to my board...From there I tie my bottom bouncer with my crawler harness connected to that? For drifting.

No board when drifting. Line from rod right to the bouncer and put in rod holder after setting depth. Also don't tye to each lure/weight. Use snapswivels or duolock snaps on your line and clip to each lure/bouncer.