Chasing the Pig

[BearLakeFishGuy]

As to the setbacks. Its personal preference mixed with some science. The fish do scatter when boats are above. How much they scatter depends on a combinations of several-to-many things (what overall depth of the water, what depth the fish are at, how clear the water is, what type of rock walls/cliffs are close to where you are trolling (sound bounces off those rock walls and we were fishing very close the walls), and how many other boats are trolling in a particular area. Personally, I RARELY fish shorter than 50' behind the ball and at Bear Lake in the shallower water I will run 150-175' back! In the deeper water I "only" run 80-120' behind the ball in water 70' and less. Over 70' depths, I will shorten that up to 60-80'. I challenge people to measure out 30' in their yard, then go 50' back. Then just look at it. It is pretty dang close to what would be the surface. Anyway, I SOLELY run superline (braid) on ALL my trolling rods and about 90% of my casting rods. I use a 6-8' piece of mono or flouro as a leader. The superlines basically have no stretch so running back further doesn't have any impact when it comes to hooks up compared to mono where you might get 2-3' of stretch in 50' of line. I also like slow action, medium weight rod for trolling for both kokes and lakers. When casting I like the fast action rods much better. The slow action rods allow you to fight the relatively soft-mouthed kokes without ripping hooks out. There are many people who like the noodle-soft koke rods, but I want to land fish more quickly than the noodle rods permit. Each to their own, but those are my reasons.