Trolling for trout

[taxid]

My biggest rainbow out of Oliver is in the 4 lb. range and same goes for a brown, but I caught a 7 lber. once on Clear.  If you troll on Clear for trout in the summer small planer boards will put more in the boat. Just watch out for idiot water skiers that will run right over them not paying attention.

As a taxidermist I took in a 10 lb. brown from Clear quite a few years back. It was on election day in 2008. I can post a picture of it if anyone is interested.  Also took in a couple of browns in the 4 lb. range from Olin a couple of years ago. I can post pics of those too if anyone is interested.

One of the browns would have starved to death if it had been releases. It had a slug o jamming up it's intestinal tract. Not the first time I've seen that with fish that come in.

[Panfisher67]

Yes we are interested since they haven't stocked Browns in Clear Lake Steuben County since April of 1985

[indianahooker]

we caught browns at clear 5 years ago.  i think the trout club stocks them, panfisher67.

[staubsaugen]

would enjoy seeing pics taxid!

anybody have experience with jet divers and dipsy divers?  which do you prefer? or is a downrigger a better option for summer trolling?

[izzy65]

I use jets and dipsys , down riggers also, some times have better luck with dipsys and jets than the down riggers

[taxid]

we caught browns at clear 5 years ago.  i think the trout club stocks them, panfisher67.

The northeastern Indiana Trout Association planted browns after 1985. However the association is now defunct as less and less people wanted to support it.

[taxid]

Here's the 10 lb. brown out of Clear. She was full of eggs. Faded from being on ice.

[taxid]

Here are the two browns out of Olin.

[indianahooker]

thats too bad about the trout association.

[taxid]

thats too bad about the trout association.

It is and the guy that was president, Lynn Burry, got tired of being president term after term. It seems no one else wanted the job. The fact that he did a very good job of it didn't help either.

[staubsaugen]

Another question for you trout trollers-- what type and lb. test line do you use for leaders?

[taxid]

Another question for you trout trollers-- what type and lb. test line do you use for leaders?

I don't use a leader. I use 8 lb. test mono and use a rubber band release on my down rigger as some of the trout aren't big enough to release a standard down rigger release. The rubber band is nice as it allows you to see light hits.

I'd use even lighter line but the releases and rubber bands can be hard on light line.

[Bronzebacker]

another little trolling trick is braid! for oliver we use 10# power pro with a 10' 8# floro  leader.  the braid doesnt get beat up nearly as bad as monno, realeases a lot smoother and with a 2# dia it runs deeper.  also noticed a lot better hook up rate with braid.  
also somedays the side boards(yellow birds) are the ticket.  i use my catfish rods for these and with a good side finder its silly.  see a school out 60 ft, send it out to 70 on the reel counter and BAM!  you can cover some water too, about a 60' wide pattern is normal (30 ft out each side).
yes, you can sit with a bobber and catch a limit....
but its way more fun to troll for a couple hours with doubles and tripples going off and hitting 20-40 fish in a couple hours. i can run 6 rods off my rack but usually its only 4 out there because it can just get silly. just reel 'em in, put the hemos on the hook and roll'em back to the lake.  no need to touch them.
for stockers the small x raps are tough to beat and also 1/4 oz little cleo with about 4" dropper to a single hook tinsel fly.  
and yes, bigger baits out there do catch bigger fish .

also note...
the stocked fish at oliver are about the smallest stockers i have ever seen, they are legal but not by much!!

[taxid]

Good info Brozeback!

I trolled Oliver back when I fished it a lot but still caught my biggest browns on the bottom on breaks this time of year. Backtrolling can work too. Caught other species that way too. 

[ftwwalleye]

Some awesome info. It's really nice seeing people give useful info to other anglers.. making fishing fun for others is what it's all about