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Everything posted by justtracytrolling
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Ive been out anchored up on the shore side of feeding eyes and bass catching several eyes an hour plus bass. A boat idles by 200 yds away and the bait and fish go SILENT and we catch nothing for 30 minutes. This has happened over a dozen times this spring/summer. Usually if i get a little lull in the action I stop casting and take a short break and let the fish move back in. This is assuming you KNOW your in the right spot exactly. I try to use a red light to net or nothing. I will say I was very hesitant to use my mast lights trolling but they werent bothered in 15 plus fow. Kevin, Casting is far more enjoyable IF you can find a concentration of fish in shallow. For me I need surface temps under 73-74 to get many eyes shallow enough to make it worthwhile with sticks. I gotta get better at jigging em if i wanna fish deeper without trolling. Sent from my LG-L38C using Lake Ontario United mobile app
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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.
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Kings...what's up this year?
justtracytrolling replied to Storm Warning II's topic in Open Lake Discussion
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Kings...what's up this year?
justtracytrolling replied to Storm Warning II's topic in Open Lake Discussion
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
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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.
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Tiger musky in Braddocks ?!?!?
justtracytrolling replied to iceman05's topic in Musky, Tiger Musky & Pike (ESOX)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Took a while to figure out this spread but its all based on the fishing rwe did... just more rods and more depths.
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I figured out those points pretty well ill be working up some BIG bottom bouncers tto run on my musky rigs.
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Went last night with Matt and trolled for a bit without moving a rod. We hit a couple casting spots and no action AT ALL arround us. Got trolling gear back out when the moon was shaded on the west side and really got into a good bite. Ran just 1 rod on an inline and ended up 5-6 in no time all in a short stretch. Tonight im gonna hit it hard now that i have a pattern. Had a great time Alec and thanks for being patient. Ive been really struggling trying to get on pattern this summer...trolling hasnt been good at all. Fish came on a gsr 7 in blue or a berkley flicker shad 7 in blue. Fish we lost was a toad and swam right to us and went nuts at the boat....id have netted it no prib in day
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I agree with the pia of long lines and new techniques..the stuff ive been reading basically says speed up for shallow spots and slow to get down in tight areas like you describe kevin. Of course you prob lose at least a hundred in tackle figuring it out. I tried to do the same thing with clip weights to work steep points up and over them, but clip weights dont rise fast enough and i lost every lure ive tried it on...the weights go down the slope fine but cant get em back up. STEEP dive angles with super heavy bottom bouncers is my next step like kevin uses. I dont have to fish that structure to catch, but i want to be able to...plus it would be doable solo. With a boat full of people id rather fish suspended fish with a dozen lines. Sent from my LG-L38C using Lake Ontario United mobile app
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Ive handlined a few decent fish in my time, but a big musky would be a new experience. Its tough when you are after walleye and have to tackle up for musky. Tiger we trolled yesterday toasted a shad rap and bombers are a 1 tiger per lure deal. Tigers crack them on the strike everytime. Anybody fish eyes and end up with big pike or musky regularly destroying tackle. Im gonna go saltwater grade on somethings like bombers and f18s just dont know if they will catch eyes. Kevin you must run into the same problem? Sent from my LG-L38C using Lake Ontario United mobile app
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Im gonna try the copper eventually for sure. My son is fishing the BASS open on st clair in sept. and im thinking of going with him and trying the detroit, st clair river and lake for eyes. As far as braid goes its easily usable off boards open lake trolling. Ive literally caught 2 hundred on otisco in 2 plus years. If it makes you lose fish i must be an expert with it. Sent from my LG-L38C using Lake Ontario United mobile app
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Tracy and I took our friend Jimbo out for a tiger and hopefully an eye. We set up 9 lines...3 on each board, 2 riggers, and a chute. We covered from 20 - 35 feet down working 50-60 fow but up tight to the slope. First fish was a nice 35 inch tiger 25 down on a sr9 in perch. Second was a ok smb down 28on a tdd11 in flash perch. Third was a 22 inch eye down 35 on a stinger off the rigger. Last was a big smb down 30 on another tdd11 in flash perch. We fished from 4-6 pm surface temp was 78-79 and 60 degrees was down 33-38. Looks like temps are looking better for trolling and tomorrow morning should be better. Ill add pics later. Sent from my LG-L38C using Lake Ontario United mobile app