Whether you want to catch salmon on a freshwater lake in the Midwest or target tuna out on the open ocean, learning how to troll for fish will allow you to cover more water in order to find and catch fish.
Trolling for fish is a technique that involves towing lures or baits behind a boat at a certain depth in order to get the fish to bite. You can troll for fish out in the ocean or while fishing on a freshwater lake from a troller boat. If you want to know the answer to the question, “How do you troll for fish?”, start out with the right tackle and fish from a troller fishing boat that is equipped with multiple rod holders.
For inshore or freshwater fish trolling, most stiff 6.5 to 7-foot rods will work. When it comes to trolling for fish offshore; however, your gear should be more specialized and made to handle large game fish. Heavier rods with roller-type guides in the 5 to 7-foot range work best if you’re targeting big fish out in the open ocean.
Conventional reels have more line capacity than spinning rods and usually have stronger drag systems, making a conventional reel the best choice for trolling. Another feature of a trolling reel that you may want to consider is a “clicker “that makes a distinctive sound when a fish strikes and starts to take out line while trolling.
Among the best tips I can offer is to avoid being a drone when trolling. Too frequently, I hear about guys who spent hours trolling and didn’t find anything. They will always say something like, “I trolled two perch Rapalas all over this lake for hours and didn’t even have a bite,” when asked what kind of fishing they were doing. “Even if I am trolling only two baits, I never start out with identical plugs. If they didn’t get a bite in the first hour on a bait, why continue to pull it all day?” I simply shake my head. Until I find something the fish want to eat, I will usually always start with different colors and diving depths and switch out the bait every 15 to 30 minutes. There are times when incredibly tiny changes can occasionally have a significant impact. I remember the days when you would think you were fishing in a desert when you would see rainbows and browns only hitting tiny crystal minnows in the hot tiger pattern. They would troll rapala that was the same size, color, and depth. In summary, you should never stop experimenting with depth, color, size, and manufacturer until you find something that the fish will eat.
Another excellent method for exploring a new body of water or finding fish schools is to trot. Even though many small boat anglers don’t have fancy electronics, trolling is a quick way to cover water and find fish. Throughout the years, I have made numerous portaging canoe trips into remote lakes and ponds. When I was out on the water, trolling diving crank baits was typically the first thing to land in the boat. In fact, it is a waste to not have a lure dragging behind the boat to maximize your fishing time and effort when you are fishing with a paddle-driven boat or an electric trolling motor.
The following day brought more of the same; the rain had stopped, but the fish were still not in the mood to eat. A few small walleyes and hammer hand pike had been caught jigging deep, and some small pike had been caught casting to wood structures near deep water, but this was definitely not the kind of fishing for which one would travel halfway across the continent. My father and I were about to head back to the cabin after ten hours on the water without catching any fish. The boat ride was two miles long. My dad had the bright idea that since we were already moving fairly slowly because of some unmarked boulders we had to avoid, we should try slow trolling our way back out of the bay where we had been fishing. After dropping the rods into the holders and casting the crankbaits we had been fishing about sixty feet behind the boat, we began the gloomy, slow ride back. Before either rod doubled over and we were hooked up to a double of 22-inch walleyes, I don’t think the boat had traveled more than 100 yards. By the time we returned to the cabin, we had each caught four pike, one larger than three feet, and eighteen walleyes. The weather did eventually clear up that week, and by the last day, fishing was returning to normal, but during the first few days, trolling was the only viable option if you wanted to catch fish.
That day seems like it was yesterday; I was sixteen years old and it was my first time going fishing in Canada with “the guys.” For the previous ten years, I had watched my dad go for a week every spring and return with stories and images of uncountable large pike and walleyes. After thirty-two hours of driving and more than an hour in a float plane, we had arrived at our destination—a lone cabin situated on a 26-mile-long lake near the border between Ontario and Manitoba. Every point seemed to be piled high with walleyes ready to eat any jig you put in front of them, and as we unloaded from the plane that sunny 65-degree afternoon, the group that had been in camp the week before was singing sweet music to our ears. The pike were up shallow and feeding with vengeance. The breeze had picked up and it was already noticeably cooler two hours after we had unloaded all of our gear and headed down to the lake for our first evening of fishing. It was 40 degrees that first night, raining, and the wind was blowing 30 degrees out of the north by dark. After four hours of fishing, none of the six skilled fishermen had managed to land a single fish.
What You Can Catch: I can’t recall ever seeing a species of freshwater fish not be caught trolling, including a particularly memorable incident in which a 22-pound carp consumed a deep-diving plug intended to entice walleyes from the Delaware River. Nonetheless, fishermen typically use trolling to catch walleyes, striped bass, trout, salmon, pike, and musky. While walleye and musky fishing is more situational depending on the season and weather, great lakes salmon and trout are nearly always caught on trolls as they travel the wide open waters chasing alewives.
For inshore or freshwater fish trolling, most stiff 6. 5 to 7-foot rods will work. However, your gear needs to be more specialized and built to handle large game fish when trolling for fish offshore. When pursuing large fish in the open ocean, heavier rods with roller-type guides in the 5 to 7-foot range perform best.
In order to get fish to bite, trolling is a technique that involves towing lures or baits behind a boat at a specific depth. In freshwater lakes or the ocean, you can use a troller boat to fish for fish. If you’re wondering how to troll for fish, the answer is to start with the proper gear and fish from a troller fishing boat that has several rod holders.
Generally speaking, saltwater trolling speeds range from 2 to 9 knots, though there are variations in trolling techniques and speeds based on the species you are pursuing. Presenting your baits or lures at the proper speed and depth to imitate the swimming behavior of a live baitfish is the key to getting bites. When learning how to troll for fish, you’ll have to decide whether to use live bait, lures, or a combination of lures and bait. This is similar to other fishing presentations.
Learning how to troll for fish will enable you to cover more water in search of fish, whether your goal is to catch tuna on the open ocean or salmon on a freshwater lake in the Midwest.
The ideal reel for trolling is a conventional reel because it has a larger line capacity than a spinning rod and typically has a stronger drag system. You might also want to take into account a trolling reel’s “clicker,” which emits a unique sound when a fish strikes and begins to pull out line.