Need some ideas! Trout/salmon

[Iceman4716]

I'm new to the forum and I've been looking around trying to find anyone that's into trolling for trout or salmon? I recently bought a 14ft smoker craft with a 9.9 evinrude, just looking to see what you cold water guys had.


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[Johnny]

Welcome Aboard, IceMan.
it would help if you let us know where you are from.
different methods of fishing and bait are used in different parts of the country.

 

[Stumpalump]

PNW to Alaska I would think.

 

[LDUBS]

Hi Iceman and welcome. I fish almost exclusively for trout & kokanee in Northern California lakes/reservoirs. I have a 15’ Klamath with 25 hp Merc 4 stroke. I can troll down to about 1.8 mph. I would like to be able to go down to around 1.4 mph, but have decided not to worry about it. In fact, for rainbows I am frequently in the 2.3 to 2.5 mph range. I suspect you will be good with your 9.9 hp.

I fish in deep reservoirs. For trolling the first challenge is to get your lures down to the depth where the trout are. In my areas, as it gets hot the trout go deeper. I’m currently dragging lures at 25’ to 40’. Earlier this year I was at 8' to 12' at times. I would recommend outfitting your boat with downriggers. That way you can control depth of your lures with some precision.

The two most common brands are Cannon and Scotty. I have the Scotty brand (they have great customer service). There might be a tendency to get downriggers with longer (4’) booms. For our size boats, I would recommend you get shorter (2’) booms for a couple of reasons. If you are unlucky enough to snag your downrigger weight and the clutch fails, the longer booms will have much more leverage and could potentially bend your gunnel or even pull the boat under. Also a shorter boom is just going to be easier to rig from a small boat like ours. My down riggers are manual. The electric ones are really nice but also cost (and weigh) a lot more.

A decent fish finder will show where the fish are hanging. The good news is a lot of the more costly technology, like side imaging, is not really needed, at least for the type of fishing I do. I don’t need to know bottom structure so much as I want to see where fish are hanging in open water. I will say having detailed lake charts is more useful that I would have originally guessed. Having a larger view of bottom contours really helps, especially in lakes with rapidly changing bottom contours. It is kind of hard not to want all the bells and whistles, but I would say let your budget dictate what you can get and you will be good.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Iceman4716]

Thanks for the info! Im from Massachusetts. I'm familiar with fishing with down riggers and have fished them for years. If anyone has pictures of how they went about mounting them on a small boat that would be great.


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[LDUBS]

Originally I used Scotty #1050 Side Mount Brackets. These are designed for their small manual downriggers. See them mounted in some photos below. I milled a shim and backer plate out of some phenolic sheet I had on hand. Originally I was going to use the phenolic to make some table saw inserts, but this was a higher priority :LOL2: . Hopefully you can see these in the photos. These brackets are lightweight, are designed for narrow gunnels, and worked pretty well in my opinion. You can mount the downriggers facing inward which is handy for trailering.

Not too long ago I decided I wanted to add swivel mounts, which I would highly recommend. I had aluminum mounting brackets fabricated by FishOn Fabricators (a TinBoats.net sponsor). They made these based on a rough drawing I sent to them. Cost was equivalent to what I would have paid for a heavier Scotty or Cannon mount, but of course these are custom fit to my boat. I used the same phenolic shim and backers. I used a 1/8” aluminum plate as a backer where the brackets attach to the deck. I included a photo below.

TinBoats member Johnny pointed out the bracket design can be modified to bolt directly to the hull if needed. I don’t know how to post a link, but you can see this in the subject “Trolling bars” dated 7/17/2017.

Have fun.

Edit-- not sure why the bracket image is upside down and don't know how to fix. Sorry about that. :?

 

[NautiBuoys]

Iceman, I troll for trout a lot in the Spring and Fall in MA and use a combination of leadcore and downriggers. We do real well on leadcore and only rarely have to use the downriggers, as we don't trout fish in the Summer as we're too busy with the stripers, blues & tuna. This is all for non-Quabbin trout fishing. If you plan to fish the Quabbin, I would suggest you look up some of the specific MA Quabbin fishing sites; guys have posted in great detail, including underwater trolling video, for that fishery.

I've attached a picture of how I set up my 2 downriggers on my Lund. I use the Cannon swivel bases which makes it easier to set/retrieve.

 

[ppine]

For cold water fish you need to be out there when the water is cold. Any kind of windshield and canvas arrangement will making fishing more comfortable. I have a 19 foot Jetcraft that can be closed up. We sometimes fish in the snow.

Salmon and trout follow the thermoclines where they find their preferred water temp, dissolved O and the food supply. That makes them a moving target. The trick to 25 fish days is to figure out what depth they are hanging in and then put your lure right in front of them or right above them. I have down riggers, but they are kind of clumsy. I really like lead core line which sinks around 10 feet for each color.

A trolling plate can be used to control your speed. As others have mentioned, slow is the way to go.

A fish finder will help find the fish but also show their depth. Usually they will show the surface water temp and speed.

Chasing salmon and trout is addictive. They are beautiful fish and great fighters. In the spring especially they like to jump out of the water and dance on their tails like small marlin. There is nothing like figuring out a lake, and then taking your friends out to slay a bunch of trout. Get in the habit of pinching your hooks and releasing most of them. I keep a few kokanee and rainbows to put in the smoker.

 

[ppine]

delete

 

[richg99]

LDubs...." I can troll down to about 1.8 mph. I would like to be able to go down to around 1.4 mph, but have decided not to worry about it"

You might consider adding a small drift-chute/sock. I keep two in the boat all of the time, just to slow down a wind-blown drift.

https://smile.amazon.com/MonkeyJack-Universal-Drifting-12-14ft-Inflatable/dp/B074Z43THB/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1517280790&sr=8-24&keywords=fishing+boat+drift+chute

 

[Bob9863]

Down here we troll very slow, usually a tassie devil behind a cowbell.
Best method I've ever used and a true Aussie ckassic.

Ive also started using a modified version, using a spinner bait attachment that you can clip lures too.
This is a bigger set I use for cod, for trout you fish it with a the lure behind it on a couple of feet of leader.



I moved to the heart of Trout country in mainland Australia, but its a winter thing, the trout are deep in summer but in winter they come to the sun and trollling long behind a boat with a flashing attractor like cowbells or the spinner bait attachment at 1.5-2knots seems to make them want to bite.
You can pretty much just idol along with a beer in your hand.

 

[LDUBS]

Down here we troll very slow, usually a tassie devil behind a cowbell.
Best method I've ever used and a true Aussie ckassic.

Ive also started using a modified version, using a spinner bait attachment that you can clip lures too.
This is a bigger set I use for cod, for trout you fish it with a the lure behind it on a couple of feet of leader.



I moved to the heart of Trout country in mainland Australia, but its a winter thing, the trout are deep in summer but in winter they come to the sun and trollling long behind a boat with a flashing attractor like cowbells or the spinner bait attachment at 1.5-2knots seems to make them want to bite.
You can pretty much just idol along with a beer in your hand.

I've been seeing those Tasmanian Devil lures at just about everywhere I go. Looks like they have caught on out here.

 

[LDUBS]

LDubs...." I can troll down to about 1.8 mph. I would like to be able to go down to around 1.4 mph, but have decided not to worry about it"

You might consider adding a small drift-chute/sock. I keep two in the boat all of the time, just to slow down a wind-blown drift.

https://smile.amazon.com/MonkeyJack-Universal-Drifting-12-14ft-Inflatable/dp/B074Z43THB/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1517280790&sr=8-24&keywords=fishing+boat+drift+chute

Thanks for the tip Rich. I have actually kind of refined my approach. I have been upping my trolling speed for trout with decent results. Of course I use lures that can be trolled at a faster speed. I hope to be chasing Kokanee soon. I'll have to slow things back down again for them. I don't want a trolling plate. I've heard of guys using buckets. The chute looks like a good alternative. Because it is intended as a drift sock, I wonder if it would hold up being dragged around under power?

 

[Bob9863]

I've been seeing those Tasmanian Devil lures at just about everywhere I go. Looks like they have caught on out here.

Thats great to hear, we are always getting new stuff from OS but its good to see some of ours get exported for a change.
Tassie devil's have been a long term staple down here, a classic lure that still sells as good as ever no matter what the market does.
I'm finding the old adage everything old is new again is holding water.
My thinking is old lures are new to the current generation of fish, the big smart ones get used to the modern ones but the old ones are something different.

 

[richg99]

"Because it is intended as a drift sock, I wonder if it would hold up being dragged around under power?"

If you don't count the couple of times that I have powered up and run on plane...and THEN...remembered the chute....they hold up fine.

If you are running at two mph, I can't believe that any chutes that I have ever owned wouldn't handle that speed. They cost about $15/$20.00 so it isn't like you are spending big bucks to find out.

Did you ever get the blades that I mailed? I have very little confidence in the US mail system. The couple of other times people have sent me things, or I have sent them things, the envelopes arrived open and empty. Sheeesh...

 

[LDUBS]

"Because it is intended as a drift sock, I wonder if it would hold up being dragged around under power?"

If you don't count the couple of times that I have powered up and run on plane...and THEN...remembered the chute....they hold up fine.

If you are running at two mph, I can't believe that any chutes that I have ever owned wouldn't handle that speed. They cost about $15/$20.00 so it isn't like you are spending big bucks to find out.

Did you ever get the blades that I mailed? I have very little confidence in the US mail system. The couple of other times people have sent me things, or I have sent them things, the envelopes arrived open and empty. Sheeesh...

I did receive them Rich. Again, thanks for sending those. I responded with my first attempt to use them for trolling back in the tackle forum:

https://www.forum.tinboats.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=44230

Unfortunately, I have just not been able to get back out this year. Looks like it will be late February before I hit the lake again. Wife and I are hopping on a plane to Argentina in a few days. Going on a South American cruise from there around Uruguay and Brazil. It is one of those bucket list items for my wife. So, for the next couple of weeks I'll be on a tin boat that is 950' long and about 105' wide. 91,000 tons -- half people and half food. LOL

 

[richg99]

Sorry that I didn't see this earlier. My computer has been throwing responses on this site into SPAM. I just resurrected 25 messages from as far back as January!

Hope the trip went well. Cruises can be hard on New Year's and other resolutions. But, fun anyhow!

 

[FishinLite]

I really don't have any experience with these, but based everthing. These like the clear dope for deep water fishing. If someone has experience with these jump in here https://www.torpedodivers.com/

 

[LDUBS]

I really don't have any experience with these, but based everthing. These like the clear dope for deep water fishing. If someone has experience with these jump in here https://www.torpedodivers.com/

I've used torpedo shaped sinkers to get line down, but have never used one of these. I don't know. Having to pause to remove the torpedo diver with 60' to 100' of line still out might be OK for tuna ( ) but seems like not so good of a thing for landing a trout. To me the beauty of a down rigger is once you get a release you aren't dragging a bunch of tackle in along with your catch. You can use gear as light as you want to use. If you get a hook up there is nothing other than your lure set up and that rainbow trout on the other end of the line. I typically use 8# test but also use 4# mono with my down riggers.

 

[deadkitty]

I slay trout out here in Oregon on the regular. Can pretty much agree with what everyone has said above. For me, I really started to dial it in once I put the gps ff in the boat. Once you figure out the speed the fish are liking on a particular day, it's lights out. Also dialing in a lake can do wonders to your catch rate. Takes a bit of trial and error, and you can read up on good places to start gear wise, but I have found every lake is different and the fish can get picky sometimes. This last year I picked up my favorite boat goodie, a minnkota terrova with ipilot, I can lock in a speed and direction and spend the rest of the time just fishing instead of juggling driving the boat, rigging the lines, catching the fish, untangling the kids lines, etc.... Hands free point and go, and I can dial straight into whatever speed they seem to be biting at immediately at any time without having to constantly compensate. Downriggers are great to get down to where they're hanging out, and like others have said in the spring and fall, longlining trout is a fun battle with them jumping in the air. One of my favorite memories was when I was out by myself running 2 poles and hooking up doubles and while fighting one of the fish watching them both leap into the air multiple times as it played out. Good times. I've also found a light rain is prime fish catching, so make sure you've got good rain gear.