The last couple of weeks trolling has been hot for eyes and northerns . We have even been getting some cats and stipers as well trolling. Puckaway is only 5 to 6 feet deep.
We have been trolling spinning rods with no line counter on them to trolling even lead core rods with great success the last couple of weeks. To start out with we have been running 4 rods on each side of the lund. We are using 2 tite-lok rod holders up on the bow with 2 on each side of the bow of the boat. The first pole on each side of the bow is a 7.6 footer with a diawa line counter , which has a number 7 shad rap with only 8 feet of line behind the board and this is put in the front rod holder. Then the second rod is a 7 footer with line counter and has a 2/5 once cleo , which we are running 100 feet behind the board. There is one of these rods on both sides of the bow in the 2nd rod holder. So far we have 4 rods out , 2 on each side and up on the bow in rod holders. The next 4 poles are running with no boards on them. The next 2 rods that are going out on both sides of the boat at the back of the boat are my lead core rods , which are put in rod holders and the holder is set completly horizontal to get the pole as close to the water as possible. These 2 on both sides are 90 degree to the boat.On these we are running the number 7 shad rap on one and the other the 2/5th once cleo. The amount of lead core we have out is just 1 color of lead and a 5 foot mono leader. The next 2 rods is just 2 spinning rods with 110 ten feet of mono on the reelsand we are just about letting all the line out on these. Now these poles are just running in the wake of the mercury 90 hp and they are just straight back. This is our set-up for trolling in 5 to 6 feet of water.
Colors for the shad raps that are producing are the blue and silver , the orange shad , the perch color, and most days just about any color in the box is working well. As far as the cleos the perch is always my go to color with the gold and red as well. Some times we vary the sizes of both these baits and have good results as well. We are using some type of scent as well on the baits , small peice of crawler or the spray on scents as well. Speeds are ranging all the way from 1.5 to 2.8 mph on the gps. Always doing some s turns all the time to fluctuate the speed of all the baits. This system works very well for trolling 8 rods with not too many tangled lines. When its real windy you will want to troll going with the wind. Heres some pics of some of my clients fish from this last week and a half.
From Captain Jeff Bennett.
Thanks for the report, Jeff!
Nice multispecies report Jeff.
Thanks for the report Jeff.
Very interesting rod set ups. Since the body of water is so shallow, do your planer board rod setups outproduce your long line rods? I’m assuming that you are sometimes battling noise and boat shadows when fishing calm conditions. Also, do you ever run multiple planer boards on each side?
Brad we run just 2 boards on each side up in the bow and 2 rods on each side just long lining 2 on each side of the motor 3 feet on both sides and the lead core ones 7 footers 90 degree angle of the boat and just 25 feet of lead core out for the 5 feet of water. As far as which poles get more hits , we get fish on everyone of the set ups.First year running the lead core and it works great . Thanks for the comments guys .
From Jeff
Ps fished Petenwell today and will be posting a report on that later tonight.