Trolling is both effective and a very good way to cover a lot of water. I am looking for your personal favorite cranks that you use to catch them while trolling. I like to use T-sticks Jrs, Wally Divers, and #5 shad raps. Tell me your favorite baits to troll with.
I would have to say Shad Raps #5 and #7 and Wally Divers. Thunderstick Jrs have their places and so do stickbaits on 3-ways too. Now I am referring to lures I use on Minnesota rivers and lakes but as we see here by Axl’s post that these work well on Bago too. Do you use the lures mainly to troll reefs or also on flats too? What is your favorite depths when working the reefs and flats? Thanks, Bill
We use #5 shad raps early in June and run them about 35 feet behind the boards. Then as the water temp warms up, we start to drop our baits further in the water column. It seems to work. We generally run T-sticks deep, and shad raps shallow,and almost run at 2.2 MPH. I find this speed good for both the inside and outside boards when trolling in an “S” pattern. If we get more on one side or the other, we then adjust speed and baits, to what they want. Another thing we do, is if we pick up a fish, we mark it on our graph, and go over that spot again. This way, we cover a school of fish if they are there, and hopefully pick up a few more. Last season, we were fighting 3-4 foot waves, and I went to a shallow husky jerk, and long lined it, about 125 feet behind the boards. I felt this was keeping the baits from jerking up and down real fast, and we did rather well. We ended up with a limit of nice fish, and several in the 4-6 lb. class. That was a good night. When we troll over reefs, I try to set my baits at the top of the reef, and then slowly go over the reefs several times, and see what happens. I also always try to run a few crawler harnesses over them as well.
I favor #5 jointed shad raps!
JWB
Trolling #5 jointed rapalas too…handlining i like to use the #7,9 and 11 floating rapals, Roach Rogues and Yozuri Pins Minnows !!!
I’ve been doing very well the last couple of years on anything that is chartreuse, clown, or firetiger. Once in a great while I need to get away from the bright colors but in general, especially at night, I can’t seem to beat ’em. Husky Jerks, Shad Raps, FireSticks, Smithwick Super Rogues, Floating Raps, and a few plastics too.
I have a couple of those Pin Minnows that ecnook mentioned but I haven’t tried them out yet.
Can’t argue with the shad raps and t-sticks. Another thing that works well for me on Bago when I don’t feel like screwing around with boards if I’m fishing alone is long lining #7 or #9 rapala countdowns across the reef tops if there is any type of chop. The countdows seem to run far enough behind the boat to not experience many problems with spooking the fish. I also like wally divers and reef runners off boards.
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