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| Message Subject: Question for Sunshine | |||
md22 |
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Member Posts: 31 | A year or two ago I read and article about leadcore and snap weight trolling that I believe you wrote. It specifically talked about the differences between the two and when it was best to use one or the other. I know you also mentioned using these two techniques on LBDN and similar waters. I really enjoyed this article because I fish these same waters and am working on getting better at trolling more open water and trolling at night. However, I seemed to have miss placed the copy I printed out, and can't remember where I got it from. Any help? For those of you who would like to learn more or just polish up on your snap weight and leadcore trolling this is a good read. | ||
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| Sunshine |
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Member Posts: 2393 Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Mike, Thanks for the accolades! PM me here at WF with your email addy and I'll send it out to you. It may take a little time to dig it up from the vault   | ||
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| Horshak |
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Member Posts: 921 Location: Manitowoc, WI | If you don't mind Sunshine, I would appreciate a copy also. Thanks in advance! | ||
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| hgmeyer |
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Member Posts: 794 Location: Elgin, Illinois | And, you have my e-mail as well... Thanks in advance. I'd always rather do it your way... there's usually a fish at the end if I do... LOL | ||
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| sworrall |
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Location: Rhinelander | Sunshine: If you'd like, we can publish that piece here. Up to you, sir! Forward it to me at [email protected] if you'd like it placed in our articles section. | ||
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| jerry |
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Member Posts: 2567 Location: Manitowoc, WI | You mean this one? Fall - Great Lakes Hog Heaven Dennis Skurulsky - 11/1/2004 No other time of year gets me more excited than the season we are now entering. It's BIG fish time across the Midwest. I've waited for this fishing opportunity for a long time. I've cleaned the boat twice, sharpened all of my hooks on my favorite crankbaits, and checked my favorite internet sites like WalleyeFIRST five times every day for the past week. I'm ready and I'm pumped. That 5 hour trip feels like an eternity and everyone at the boat launch will seem to be moving in slow motion when I attempt to get out to that favorite night time reef. I still have the memories and the pictures from all of those doubles and occasional triples that we experienced from using those lighted planer boards last season. I continue to try and beat my personal best weight at just over 12 pounds. Big fish are putting on the feed bag in preparation for the winter and their locations are predictable. Along with their urge to feed, the forage has been thinned by predatation so your offerings have a greater chance of being hit by the big girls. This is the time of year when no one in my boat gets excited about five or six pound fish. We're after the double digit dollies. Zach Boudreau Photo Jeff Valence is in hog heaven on Big Bay de Noc Location Depending on your locale, let me suggest a few areas that produce the true hogs of the late fall season. I'm sure that there may be others but my picks include: Bay de Noc in the UP of Michigan; Lake Erie in the Huron and Vermillion areas; the Bay of Quinte on the northern shores of Lake Ontario; Green Bay and the opening of the St. Louis River on Lake Superior. All of these locations have one important similarity. They have very large fish that have been out in the main lake most of the summer. Many of these fish have been unmolested and feeding on suspended baitfish like cisco and smelt. Most importantly, these big fish are coming back close to their spawning grounds and are mingling with the resident fish. The fish will be schooling on primary structure or will be suspended just off the structure. They may also be deeper than the depths you have fished earlier in the year. Presentation Because of the deeper depths that these fish are using, leadcore line and snap weights become crucial while using your subtle action lures. Both methods are designed to be used for fishing deep suspended fish but at times one will outshine the other. Many of us who fish a lot of open water use leadcore because of the definite advantages that I'll try to explain. I use segmented leadcore line in conjunction with planer boards. By segmented, I mean that I am only using two or three colors of 18 pound test leadcore line. I'll have up to fifty feet of leader material between the leadcore and my crankbait. I'll also have plenty of backing material behind this setup. I prefer to use ten pound test monofilament for my backing. When we are fishing water on the Great Lakes there is usually some type of wave action. You're better off always fishing with the waves rather than into them! If you troll with the waves, the boards will surge and then pull back directly proportional to the wave action. This action gives your lure an action similar to pumping your rod while trolling, which is a deadly "tried and true" technique. Leadcore is more responsive to this surging and will give your lure more action from the waves. Snap weights on the other hand act as a pendulum and the snap weight itself absorbs most of the wave action with less movement occurring at the lure. Now the fine-tuning begins. There are times that the fish do not want this "surging" action and other times the waves impart just too much action to the lures. If there are no waves or if it is too windy and I feel that the waves are giving my lures too much action, I'll switch to snap weights. This happens to me while fishing the Great Lakes in late November or early December when the fish want slow subtle action lures and the water is very cold and the wind is too brisk. There are also times when I use both leadcore and snap weights together, but that's a different story and will take a future article to explain. You should also understand that it's much easier to setup your rods for a trolling pass with snap weights. It can feel like it takes forever to get out three colors of leadcore line, a 50 foot leader and then 25 feet of mono past the leadcore before you attach the boards. To help with this situation we'll start out trolling a lot faster than normal while setting out leadcore lines. Once we've got all the lures in the water we'll slow down the boat. NEVER free spool leadcore line while letting out your presentation! Leadcore line sinks and will put your crankbait on the bottom and you may pick up bottom debris if you let this happen. Early in the season and especially during the day, I'll use lures with a tighter wobble like Dave's deep KA-BOOM Shiners, Reef Runners, and Rapala deep diving Husky Jerks. At night and as the water cools down I'll switch to Rapala original floaters, Storm Thundersticks, Smithwick Rogues, and Rebel Fastrac's. My lure selection will continue to get bigger and bigger as I go slower and slower. I've been known to use number 18 Rapala's and muskie type baits right before freeze-up. Think Big and Slow At the beginning of this fall pattern, you can continue to troll at the same speeds you have been using during the late summer. Through trial and error my preferred speed always seems to be around 1.6 to 1.8 mph. I can always maintain these speeds while using my Mercury 9.9 Bigfoot kicker in conjunction with my Trollmaster throttle speed control. The Trollmaster control has become one of the most important tools in my boat. I can maintain exact speeds while turning and regardless of whether I'm going into or with the waves, all from my cockpit area. However, as the water temperature starts to drop below 50 degrees, it's time to start slowing down. The colder the water temperature the slower you need to go. Later in the season with water temperatures below 40 degrees, you'll find me trolling with my Minn Kota autopilot electric trolling motor at speeds around or below 1.0 mph. Just as it's important to be sure that diving lures are properly tuned, it's equally important to check the action of your lures at these very slow speeds. You need to maintain that seductive wobble. I've been experimenting with jointed crankbaits at this time of year and I like the results. At first glance you'd think that this type of lure would have too much action but at these very slow speeds it's possible that they may be one of the very few baits that supply the needed action to get fish to react. We need to keep an open mind! Go Shallow, Go Deep Many people have discovered the shallow water reef night bite. This is a great technique but now reality sets in as you approach that secret reef and there's already 20 boats trolling it. I guess you shouldn't have bragged so much on that walleye internet site. Posting those pictures of that big hog may have added to the frustration that you're going through right now. Well, that's okay you tell yourself, all these other boats are an indication that the bite is on. You'll just get in line and see what happens. Now an hour goes by and no fish have been boated plus you haven't seen any landing nets going out from any other boat. Now what do you do? Sound familiar? Many of us fishing big fish spots like those on the Great Lakes in fall have been through this scenario before. Before you pack up and go home I may have a suggestion for you that can save this trip. My best success when popular reefs are getting too much boat traffic is to slip off the reefs and catch the fish that have been spooked by all the boat traffic. However, when I do this I still maintain the same depth with my crankbaits that produced fish on the reef. Don't assume that the fish drop deeper when they leave the reef. I believe that most fish will stay at the same depth and suspend off the reef until they return again later when the traffic subsides. We call this the horizontal movement. Understanding this scenario will catch you more fish, not just during the fall but all season long. Another scenario that needs to be discussed is trolling in deeper water at night. I have experienced good fishing in deep water on locations like Little Bay de Noc. I don't necessarily believe that the fish I make contact with in the deep water during the day are the same fish that I catch on shallow water reefs at night. I believe that a lot of those deep suspending fish stay out there and continue feeding on the suspended baitfish. The key in my humble opinion is to stay in contact with the baitfish and learn what they do after dark. Sometimes the forage will move up in the water column. I have heard of others who have had great success catching the hogs in deep water throughout the evening hours. We all need to keep an open mind! When the frost is on the pumpkin the big fish will be arriving to the bays of the Great Lakes. Learn how to fish these big fish waters, fish the right methods by using subtle action baits, and learn the high percentage spots on and around the primary structure. Have fun experimenting, you may just catch that fish of a lifetime. Please consider taking a picture of that big fish and then release it for the next generation. We all need to keep an open mind! | ||
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| md22 |
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Member Posts: 31 | Yes sir thats the one!!!! Thanks Sunshine, and thanks to all for your quick response. Love this site!!! | ||
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| hgmeyer |
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Member Posts: 794 Location: Elgin, Illinois | That is a great read and full of good info... Thanks Dennis. | ||
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