justtracytrolling

The trick is to stalk them with no lights....if you know they are in the shallows and where, less than 6-8 fow, they are extremely catchable in front of the boat as opposed to trolling behind. On flatter, brighter nights try to work into the moon not with it over your shoulder. This way your boat is less silloutted against the sky when your trolling motor is on. It might sound like im paranoid with the lights and noise, but I know what I do works. I try to slowly work with the trolling motor casting in front, and once I locate and pattern some fish I get to the spot first and anchor up. Then I fish that bite as often as possible till its over. Problem is finding a concentration of fish...otherwise trolling is the play. When I started trying to target eyes casting at night from a boat I had heard guys say they used a light to spot them and then cast to them. This has NEVER worked for me EVER!!! It will tell you where they are, but I cant catch em after Ive seen them. Finally I started fishing as though I KNEW they were there and bingo! Once the eyes are below 6-8 feet I do better trolling. Also I recommend 2-3 guys casting till you figure it out what works where that way you can throw 3 different baits. Also I scout these spots and practice fishing them in the light...you wont catch anything but it gives you a feel for the spot and really helps you understand exactly what you are doing in the dark. You have to know where weedlines are ect.

Wading the tribs to "fool steel" isnt targetting steelhead?

I suppose if you are that concerned with the fish you wont be fishing for them yourself again? Im sure if you could ask the trout they'd rather you stayed out of the streams and leave them alone too... Really....THE purpose of fishing for many of us is to eat them!! They are stocked and there is no shortage of steelhead. You want to release your catch nobody is stopping you, but if the guys in the pic want to keep them its not your decision. Nice catch Rick!

Ended up adding weight to a prefab because the little rigger ball that i thought was a pound is 2 pounds! Maybe ill make a seth green rig with it. It would be easy to run two lures off the heavy bb...ill try it thurs or fri. I made a 5 7 8 ouncer... Sent from my LG-L38C using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Kevin, Im gonna try to make 16oz bouncer today, and wondered how long to make the "down" wire? I was thinking Id like it a bit longer than the "store bought" ones I have to try to keep out of the zebras with my lures as I go down over steep sides of the points I wanna work. I can do it with riggers but i thought a heavy bb might be the ticket. Im thinking ill run floaters...I figure I can run it off a musky casting setup while im driving and I have 2 guys to run the trolling gear. I think I can get right under the drops with your style bb. BTW I went thru some tackle this weekend...open lake suspended is definitely better on gear, but we do what we have to find em. The more techniques you have at your disposal the more fish you will catch plain and simple.

I have conceded its an obsession for me...tracy says its an addiction! I guess it is....

Ive seen tons of little tigers from 8 inches up and hatchery tigers do not look like that....at least the ones that are in otisco dont!

I bought a whole rocket launcher setup with masts, trees, reels, and mast lights back in april from great lakes planers. I just never got them wired as I ran out of wire and didnt need them till now. Water temp was 75....last year bout 90. Tried yesterday afternoon just to see and only managed smallies and then did some weedline trolling for tigers...broke one off on a bx swimmer at 5 mph. Just crushed it... Matt was holding the rod...he set the hook out of instinct and busted it off. NEVER want to set the hook trolling, especially at 5 mph.

Trolling day or night for eyes is full of variables and it can take days to get on pattern even when the eyes are biting

Phisherman585 you picked a tough year to take up eyes in the. fingers its never easy but its HARD this year. Yoou need to come here and i can show you so you will at least KNOW how i do it. Connor we did 12 but Im trying to only keep bigger fish when its on. ontherise it absolutely makes a difference what color you use as well as actuon speed etc.

I too had my best night ever last night on the mega moon, friday and saturdaiy were good too but i wasnt on pattern. Great job kevin as always you hammer the river!

Let me back up a bit....I havent been catching numbers or consistantly in weeks. I have been fishing as hard as ever and finally friday i started night trolling as a last resort. I know that night trolling is productive as that was my mainstay before I learned enough to be effective casting. I just dont like as much as night casting or day trolling. Well it took me 3 nights of HARD fishing to get enough feedback from the fish to get a good pattern and last night Matt, Wayne, and I hit it in spades! Fish werent big but we weeded through a dozen to get 9 over 21 inches. Ended up going 12-13 on eyes and trolled a dozen smallies and a to of rock bass from 11 to 4. We had about 40 releases. Fish were caught on a new spread of purple and blue shad rap 7s up to reef runner deep divers. Our spread started 7 feet down just outside the weeds to 25 down over 50 fow. We caught walleye on EVERY rod. Cant say enough about the teamwork we had going and how much fun we had. Im headed out now try a deeper version of last nights spread, but theres no way there will be 1/4 the fish we marked. Bait activity is nil on the surface and walleyes are very tight on structure. Yesterday I set up my 10.5 foot dipsey rods, mounted my down rod holders, ran 2 inline board rods, and 2 riggers to defeat floating weeds in the dark. I also finally wired in my mast lights which are amazing...night trolling is no longer less enjoyable.

I couldnt agree more! Some people regurgitate what they are told or read. Others do the research or actually fish professionally, and dont hide behind screen names. One other observation...those who hide behind screen names seem to be far more critical and less constructive sharing very little useful info. Just my 2 cents....Thank you to all of you who share great reads and info! Justin Okrepki

Lost my detailed post and im going to bed...story to follow later today.

Way to work at it! Nice limit for sure!

Nice job kevin! I cant get on much of a daylight pattern for more than 1-2...night trolled last night and i think i got onto something...we will see!