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Going for a Troll
By Ross Grothe
Wherever and whenever you¹re fishing walleyes, you had better be
versatile.
The wind might rip. The fish might be deep, shallow or out in the middle
of
nowhere. The weather might change in a moment¹s notice.
One of the best ways to cover water‹and adjust with the whims of both
the
walleyes and the weather‹is by trolling. But such versatility, which
depends
on where the fish are located in the water column, is difficult without
the
proper equipment and the proper approach to match the conditions. As
a
touring pro who fishes the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail
and FLW
Outdoors RCL walleye tour, I know the importance of a high-quality,
slow-idling kicker motor to run my lures anywhere from 0.5 mph to 2.5
mph in
anything from flat calm to a tempest. With it, I can troll contours
or open
water, even boost the power from the back of the boat when I¹m
running my
electric motor on the bow.
Yamaha
four Stroke T-8 |
My choice for auxiliary power is Yamaha's
new T8, an eight-horsepower four-stroke kicker that runs quiet and
clean. Beyond those qualities, the
kicker possesses a sharp turning radius for following tight contours
and smooth idling for running down at a snail¹s pace. |
That's important when I¹m faced with high winds and high seas, all-too-common
conditions from the Dakotas to Minnesota. A technique that doesn't quite
qualify as traditional trolling‹really, it's more of a controlled drift
depends on the use of the four-stroke to supply additional power from the
stern of the boat when a trolling motor alone won¹t quite cut it.
If I'm jigging or live-bait rigging on contours but the gusts are too difficult
to negotiate, I¹ll pop the kicker into forward gear, then use the
bowmount trolling motor to steer and follow a drop-off.
Another asset of a kicker such as the T8 is its ability to troll contours‹forward
troll, that is‹which can be difficult if the breakline twists and turns.
This model from Yamaha comes with power tilt and trim built into it (rather
than needing to be installed as an after-market accessory) that helps when
you tilt up the motor to cut with the contours.
When I'm trolling the contours, I opt either for Stren monofilament
or lead-core line, depending on the depth of the fish. When they¹re
on the shallow side, I choose 10-pound mono; when deeper‹say, beyond 15
feet I'll switch to the lead-core. Here I have the ability to tweak the
speed, by tenths of a mile an hour, depending on how the walleyes are hitting
the lures. If the fish are engulfing the lure, it¹s a signal to speed
up. If I'm just getting them on the back hook, I'll slow down.
For forward trolling for expediency¹s sake‹meaning I¹m covering
water just
to find fish‹I know of no better technique to find out where the fish
are
than to drop the kicker and put it in gear at about 1.5 mph. What I
do next
is drop down Northland Rock-Runner bottom bouncers with spinners and
night
crawlers. In this case, the bouncer keeps me near bottom and the spinner
and
crawler unites the strum of an artificial lure with the smell and taste
of
live bait. When I get a fish, I¹ll punch in an icon or a waypoint
on my
Lowrance GPS unit, leaving me the ability to return and mop up on more
fish.
Jigs and live-bait rigs are among the more stealthy, precise options
for
hovering over fish and doing just that.
In the event the wind howls when I¹m forward trolling and I¹m
going to motor
into it, a nifty trick is to attach a drift sock to the bow eye to
keep the
bow of the boat down. I like the offerings from Drift Control for their
quick opening and the parachute effect to further slow and control
the boat
when gusts are trying to blow the bow off course. It¹s important,
though, to
make sure the length of rope on the drift sock puts the drift sock
ahead of
the outboard and kicker motors to prevent tangling. The good news is
that
the drift sock will tend to remain in the middle of the boat, out of
the way
of lines.
In open water, when walleyes are essentially in the middle of nowhere,
a
kicker again pays off in spades with its ability to run a spectrum
of speeds. Another bonus: low fumes from a four-stroke to diminish exhaust
in
your face when trolling downwind. For trolling open water, speeds that
trigger walleyes are typically between 1.4 mph and 2.5 mph, which with
the
T8 can be dialed in to the tenth. If, however, you¹re faced with
a cold front, you have the ability with such a kicker to dial down to the
low 1-mph range and then troll both crankbaits and spinners at the same
speed‹a way to achieve more variation when times are tough.
After all, that¹s what versatility is all about‹the ability to
change with the conditions and the ways and whims of the walleye. Which
is precisely where a kicker like Yamaha¹s T8 figures in. With it,
you can do whatever it takes to find or stay on walleyes regardless of
their mood or the conditions.
Fish
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