Shallow Cranking

I have a few questions about trolling cranks this time of year at night.

Referring to the precision trolling guide, if you use a #12 husky jerk and want to get down 5 feet, you only need 26 feet of line out. According to this a guy doesn’t need a lot of line out to get the desired depth in shallow water.

Here is the part I’m confused about. I’ve read in one of James’s reports that he typically runs #12 husky’s at 100 to 115 ft in 8 1/2 to 9 ft of water. Is this with mono or fireline? Is the husky jerk ticking the bottom, or do you want it off the bottom?

Can I assume that if your trolling in weeds, you want to stay above the weeds and maybe just tick the tops?

Thanks

26 feet on a HJ? On 10′ mono? I’m not going to boldly state these number might be a little goofy but that certainly doesn’t match with my findings.

I use 6 lb diameter braid. To hit bottom in 8 feet of water I’ll have out over 140′ of line. More if I’m running right into a stiff wind.

To get down about 5′ I’ll run right around 115′ +/- 10′ or so.

Once the weeds start to lay over and die off I will typically run 120 – 140 of line in 8.5 – 9.5 feet of water and I’ll never touch botom.

I don’t think 26 ft of Leadcore would even get that HJ down that fast. I have a feeling you can trust James’s numbers

Deep diving husky jerk???

Yeah… that’s what I was thinking too.

Thanks guys.

I thought that sounded a bit erroneous.

It’s at the back of the book under stick baits.

If a guy is using 10 lb mono, hed probably have to let out more than braded line right?

This is an interesting post. I’ve often wondered the same thing about people’s reports of how much line to run out. In September I was fishing a sand/gravel and weed bottom on the West side of the lake. Trolling in 6-7 ft of water. I was using #7 and #8 shallow shad raps. Using 6lb. diameter Power Pro, I was only able to get 70-75 ft. of line out before hitting bottom and weeds. James was reporting using 90-115 ft. of line depending on lure size. That just didn’t work for me.
I can tell you that on my trolling set-ups (again, using 6 lb. diameter Power Pro) I can easily get a #12 HJ to the bottom in 9-10 FOW with only 125 ft. of line out. If I’m in 5 ft. of water, I have to shorten up to 55 ft. with the same #12 HJ.
My question is…how short is too short??(as far as line out is concerned) At what point am I doing more harm than good and spooking fish?

Now you know why I run Stealth. I’m usually more concerned about being able to run at least 80′ of line back with most of my lures in 5′ of water. Stealth is advertised as being 6lb diameter. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I do know I seem to be able to run longer leads and stay out of the bottom with shallow running lures and this helps me get the lures away from the boat and catch more fish.

Quote:

---

My question is…how short is too short??(as far as line out is concerned) At what point am I doing more harm than good and spooking fish?

---

I like to have at least 100′ of line out before I feel real comfortable and get good results. Particularly on calm night with a high moon and clear skies. On those nights we often run “extra” long, out to 165′ to get the lures away from the boat and we seem to be able to keep right on catching fish on those tough nights when others struggle.

Definitely something to think about.

Another thing(s) to consider is speed, and attitude of the rod. If I start to tickle the weed tops with less than 100′ of line, I’ll hold the rod tip higher, and give it back some slack on occasion to keep the bait higher, specifically HJ’s and floating Raps. Floating Raps will surface much faster on a slack line than an HJ, keeping them above weeds. I agree with James, I catch many more fish when I have a minimum of 80-100′ of line out.
Hopefully, by full moon here in October, this cold weather should lay some of the cabbage down, and make this a moot point.
Tuck

Hey Tuck? I usually try and stay right around 125ft…… .

Most of the readers won’t understand what I am getting at……. but Tuck knows

Good one! I was going to post that for you! I know you would have gotten it. It is the magic number you know! Not 124, or 126! Looking forward to seeing you up there. I am going to stay over at Big D’s to give you guys a little more room, and maybe escape some of the Schmidt after effects!

Tuck

Looking forward to hanging out as well . It’s nice of you to spare us your Schmdit after effects by bunking in another building

Uh…right! We all know the only person left in the Midwest that drinks Schmidt beer is you. Why do you think they closed down the breweries at St. Paul and LaCrosse? God knows you tried to keep ’em in business!
Your room mate was a little worse than you if I remember right. And he doesn’t even need to drink!

I KNOW what your talking about!!!!!!!!!