Fishing Forum

I'm kind of a long time rookie at this soft water fishing. I love the ice and do very well on it, but would like to start doing some trolling this summer with the fam. I have a fishing boat and a Eagle 320C fish finder. I was curious if anyone new it that fish finder would tell you how fast you are going, and any other tips that would help

I tried to troll East Canyon a few weeks ago with out a fish finder and had no success had to finally anchor and just jig to finally catch a few.

Any tips would be great.
[signature]

A fishfinder is a must. Also knowing your speed is a must. When you troll into the wind you will have know idea how fast you are going. I use a small garmin GPS for speed indication. One of these are cheaper than the accessory you would need to buy to get a speed reading on your eagle. Then find the fish, the speed they like with what you are using and pester the H*** out of them. This should produce some.[]

Bodine
[signature]

A must with depth and speed, very important to figure what speed the fish are taking lures.
[signature]

well i use a lowrance X135 fishfinder for deepth and finding fish.. and i use my lowrance gps finder to check speed and to mark any big schools of fish i might see while trolling..

but i trolled for years with out all that stuff and did ok to! [sly]..

getting to know the water your fishing is the most inportent thing.. get to know when the fish are in the right areas for ya to fish for them. and what to put in frount of them to get them to hit,. that will put more fish in the boat than the finder will.. the finder will just let ya know there is something down there.. it will not tell how to catch it tho..
[signature]

Very well said, we try not to watch the finder too much as you may find schools of fish and if there not biting so much for the concentration of fish. At times we have marked big schools and no takers, most of the time they are not active feeders.
[signature]

Also I would suggest picking up the book Precision Trolling It will help with what your lures are doing. You can either order it online or I have seen it at Cabela's. It is spendy but well worth it.

Majja
[signature]

[#000080]East Canyon is a little diffcult to figure out. A sonar is a must.[/#000080]
[#000080]If you are not downrigging, then a trick I've used over the years is this. I troll "pop gear", Luhr Jensen flashers, medium sized in copper/silver. I attach a 3/4 oz weight to the front rudder to get it down to around 30' when dragging it about 80-100' behind the boat. I then use about 30" of low vis mono and a worm hook.[/#000080]
[#000080]I start at he points that jog out near the Dam, west of the ramp. These usually hold nice numbers of fish. As you make a wide counterclockwise circle near the steep rocks, the depth will drop away very quickly. You need to stay up on the shallower water.[/#000080]
[#000080]A lot of folks like the inlet end, but I've had better luck catching the bigger fish on the North end.[/#000080]
[#000080]Good luck with your trolling...[][/#000080]
[signature]

I cant agree with me pal more, as Ron pointed out, fish were lining the bottom of boat long before the invention of fish finders. The trick is to be willing to play trial and error. Experiment with depth and speed. Of course it helps to atleast use lead core line (I much perfer a down rigger) to enable you to judge the depth you lure is running. Speed wise, well with out a good speed indicate such as a GPS unit you can always use the spit method. Spit in the water as your trolling and if you cant walk that fast, your trolling to fast for most fish other than wipers, lol!.

Experimentation is the key..
[signature]

Don't bother paying extra to get a speed indicator for your fishfinder. Been there and done that and will never do it again. The wheels are easily damaged (aka broken off) and they rarely if ever accurately show the speed that the boat is moving. Use a GPS to accurately know how fast you are trolling.
[signature]

As mentioned do not use the wheel for speed, USE a GPS, you can judge the speed better, also the GPS i have is on the fishfinder, it is a 642 eagle, that is the way to go then you only have one unit and not two to deal with, I can split the window to show fish and the speed by GPS, buy a good fish finder with GPS my 0.02 worth.
[signature]

As important as depth and speed are, i think recognizing light and water temp conditions are the most important (for the trolling i do). I like to troll minnow plugs for big trout when the water gets cold, and when they come close to the surface they become cautious of things they normally wouldn't. If you're trolling deeper than 20 feet you can get away with using 12 or 14 lb test leader, anything less than 20 feet 10lb test is the highest i would go. Big fish bite best in low light conditions (cloudy, dawn, dusk, etc.). When the sun is high and the water is calm, big fish get wary and also become more line shy. These tricks should not be used until the water cools off this fall Wait for the water to get into the low 50's before the topline bite gets hot for rainbows, browns, whatever trout you fish for. My 2 cents

CW
[signature]