When trolling spinners boat control is critical, and luckily the walleye fishermen of today have some new tools to make the job of controlling their boat even easier. There really aren’t any rules when it comes to boat control, except one: do what you have to do to get the proper depth and speed out of your spinners. Here are some guidelines to follow to help you out most of the time.
Capt. Robertson spends about 95% of his time trolling with the waves. “Going against the waves most times will cause lures to run improperly and make depth and speed control difficult,” Capt. Robertson says. He also added that times you may have to change things due to current going at a different direction than what the waves are traveling at. Thankfully there are some great new motors out there today to help you handle everything the big water can throw at you,.
Photo by: www.fishingclub.com
Usually most walleye anglers have up to two motor options on their boat. The first option is the big motor, i.e. your main motor. The second is the kicker motor, which is a small 15 hp or less motor used to push the boat at slower speeds. A third option and newest that is now being deployed is high power electric bow mount trolling motors. These new trolling motors have some options that make life super easy. Minn-Kota has come out with the I-pilot system. With this system you are able to be in the back of the boat and still steer the boat thanks to a hand-held control. This system also has a built in GPS system that you can set a heading into it and forget about, and it will drive the boat for you and keep you on the heading you have set. Then all you have to do is adjust your speed to what the fish want.
If it gets too rough out there and you start losing speed, or if you want to reduce the stress on your batteries you can put down your kicker motor. Lock the kicker motor straight and use it to push the boat and let the electric steer the boat for you. Capt. Robertson uses this a lot, “I typically use my Minn-Kota I pilot 99% of the time. This gives me enough to troll all day when going up to 1.5 mph. If I need more speed I use my Mercury Pro-Kicker for thrust and use the I-Pilot for steering.”
Another nice bonus of using the electric instead of a gas motor most of the time is noise. You will slip over the fish quieter, which in turn, could mean more fish in the boat for you. Also, going stealth will help you catch those walleye that are riding really high that many anglers miss and never know they are there.
Having all these options in motors may not be in your budget. So say you only have your main motor, and no matter what you can’t get it to go slow enough by itself. Well there is a few things you can try to help you out. One way is by running drift socks off the boat to slow you down, either one large one out the back or two smaller ones off the sides. This does have some draw backs; if you choose to go with one off the back, it is in the way when landing fish. Also, make sure if you do go with a drift sock to slow yourself down that you don’t leave them in the water if you pick up to move to a new area, it can cause some damage to you and your boat.
There is no golden rule on speed. The speed that catches fish can change by the month, week, day and even the hour. So it is important to keep in mind to play with your speed, if you’re not catching fish. Generally though, the colder the water the slower you need to go; conversely, the warmer the water the faster you will need to go. Most people troll spinners from 0.7 mph all the way up to 2.1 mph. Anything above and below these speeds you tend to have trouble getting many of the blades to run right or the live bait can not stay on the hook. Just remember: trolling is a constant experiment of trial and error until you hook up. The more time you spend on the water doing this the better you will get.
Copyright © 2011 Out in Michigan LLC
Trackbacks/Pingbacks