Water temps

[bikrsrule]

My second outing trolling for trout today, water temp 41 to 42...surface temp. I believe its still a bit to cold and the trout are not active enough to hit a trolled lure..Any thoughts?

[AquaAssassin]

I caught a holdover Brown yesterday on a jerk bait from shore for what it’s worth.

I know I can stop and pause etc unlike trolling persay but I was ripping it right along, reaction strike

[zwiggles]

I like flies trolling early vs metal, but if you tune up your lures for slow speeds they can produce.  Pearl DBs are a go to for a specific lure, but pearl in general, early in the year, if smelt is available as forage.

I honestly prefer all fly rods with sink tip and full sink this early, and live bait. Sew on shiners or smelt. If not then tandem streamers and maybe one single, and vary the speeds, and pump the rods. I would also run something right in your prop wash right now.

[AquaAssassin]

I like all that

[bikrsrule]

I did have a pearl db on yesterday in a lake that does hold smelt, had it out on lead line down about 8' where I was marking a  few fish. There were some other guys out trolling also without much luck. I was really surprised I didnt mark more fish than i did.

[Seahunt]

There's been an awful lot of salmon and even lake trout caught trolled in 41 and 42 degree water.
You're not seeing them on your screen as much because they're near the top of the cone and move away from the boat. Otter boards or getting your lines off to the side and way back will pick them up. Occasionally, you will catch them in your prop wash.

[800stealth]

I caught a holdover Brown yesterday on a jerk bait from shore for what it’s worth.

I know I can stop and pause etc unlike trolling persay but I was ripping it right along, reaction strike

That's cool that Browns will chase a jerkbait being burned in... Jerks are my go to for cold water bass, didn't realise they'd work well on Trout too. Learn something new all the time. Same deal on the bass though, not looking for hungry fish right now, just looking to piss them off and get attacked.

[Johnnh]

Over the years we have had some great times catching Browns on lake Ontario using jerk baits. Part of the excitement was big smallies as well.
The best way to tell what you had was smallies would go airborn and brown's would dig down.

If you can find a red head with yellow body (clown) or black head with blue body, they got good results

A couple of years ago, I was on winni near Welch enjoying some nice smallies on jerk baits and picked up a nice bow about 3 lbs

John

[bikrsrule]

I have to agree with you seahunt, especially about the fish being near the surface and moving away, I think part of my problem, not the right bait, of course I will keep trying, that is why its called fishing and not catching. Little more than a week till salmon on Winnie..

[Jethro]

I don't see a lot of planer boards being used in this area, but I have had pretty good success early season with them.

[zwiggles]

I don't see a lot of planer boards being used in this area, but I have had pretty good success early season with them.

I use them every single time I go out. I’m using otter boats, but same idea. Especially when trolling I want to get as many presentations out there as a legally can. Worse comes to worse you have a gong show to entertain you when everything snags.

[Jethro]

Worse comes to worse you have a gong show to entertain you when everything snags.

Right!! Some days that is the only excitement I get!

How do the Otter Boats compare to say, my Chesapeake style planer boards? They are hand built but on a bit smaller scale for freshwater. Not sure I am aware of the differences.

The ones I use are basically these: https://alltackle.com/bloody-point-triple-planer-boards-pair/?gclid=CjwKCAjwguzzBRBiEiwAgU0FT3SSJMzZEx35i00b3Wdhy7bmBMO2-AdV50xos5Ng_qH-YYfJZkrRZBoCg5IQAvD_BwE

I am also considering getting some smaller inlines like the Offshore Tackles but I don't know.

EDIT: Sorry for the hyjack, my only input for the original question is that in cold water I slow my speeds way, way down. As slow as possible really.

[Mac Attack]

25+ yrs ago I met up with my close friend Jeff out on Lake Erie in the western basin for some walleye fishing.
Jeff was my old roommate in college and we have stayed best friends for a very long time now.
In fact, I named my first son after him.

Anyway, we proceeded to go out to the shoals (1-2 hr boat ride) and throw Earie Dearies and retrieve them to catch fish; just as all of the locals were doing out there to catch walleye.
The Erie Dearie is a weight forward spinner with a large back hook that you thread a crawler onto.
Google them if you don't know what they are.
You use the "countdown method" to fish them.
Toss it out, then wait while counting.....one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.
For every second the lure would sink a foot and then you retrieve it.
Each cast is deeper until you located the depth the fish were at and then you stayed there on future casts in hopes of catching tons of fish.
It worked. Kind of.
But we caught lots of small fish and lots of garbage fish too.
And our arms got seriously sore by the end of the day.

We came back to shore at the end of the day with a few walleye in the cooler.
Nothing great but we got a few fish.

Later that night over a few beers we said there had to be a better way.
First, it took us an hour or more to get out to the shoals and another to get back in.
Lost fishing time!!!
Second, our arms were so sore that it was difficult to hold the beer.
(Difficult, but not impossible)
Third, we want to catch more fish and larger fish.

I mentioned to Jeff that back home in Dunkirk guys trolled for walleye with downriggers and planer boards just like the trout and salmon guys in Lake Michigan back home where he was from because the water was so deep on the eastern end of Lake Erie
We didn't have the numerous reefs and shoals in the east end that were present in the west end.
Guys were fishing for eyes that were out suspended near schools of bait fish.
I said that I had my salmon gear and the downriggers locked up in the back of the truck that we used back home on Lake Ontario for the trout and salmon.
My friend Jeff said let's give it a try tomorrow.
So we did.
We limited out by noon.
And the fish were seriously larger too.
We also were catching huge silver bass.
At first we tossed the silvers back.
Then Jeff asked me if they were any good to eat.
I told them they weren't as mild as walleyes but ate up just fine and there wasn't a limit on them.
So we started keeping them too.
And because we were trolling larger stick baits, we typically caught larger silver bass and walleyes.

We simply went out into the deeper water, a WAY shorter boat ride.
Maybe only 15-20 minutes outside the harbor.
And we located fish that were on the move.
Fish that were transitioning onto and off the reefs and shoals.
Active fish that nobody out there was targeting.
there was NOBODY around us where we trolled.
We killed them.
Every day.

Guys back at the dock were looking at our boat with the downriggers and my outriggers like we owned some sort of spacecraft.
But when we dragged the cooler up to the cleaning station.....the questions started flying!!!
Nobody trolled for walleyes back then in the western basin or Lake Erie.
Let alone with downriggers, planer boards, and outriggers.
But it didn't mean you couldn't catch fish like that either.
Nowadays, everyone out there is trolling and you see very few people casting for them.
At least not like 25-30 yrs ago.

My point here is that just because others are fishing one way doesn't always mean it's the only way to catch fish.

You are standing on a small pond and everyone around you is tossing Texas rigged rubber worms...and catching a bass here and there.
You walk up with a Mepps spinner and start tossing it.
Everyone rolls their eyes and treats you like an outsider.

These fish have all seen the rubber worms.
But the fish now see something different and smash the Mepps.
It's new to the fish.
Now the other guys are saying to themselves that they need to get a Mepps on the way home.

Don't always do what others are doing.
Don't always fish where others are fishing.
Try something new and different.
Who knows?!?!

Lastly, walleye, and other fish, will move off to the side of the boat when you troll over them.
At least the fish that are less than 1015' foot below the surface.
Just because you aren't marking fish on the graph doesn't mean there aren't fish in that area.
This is why planners, outriggers and dipsey set to run out to the side of the boat are so effective.
I haven't experimented with side imaging yet, but I think this might be of some benefit here.
Geoff - you asked about this in another thread.
Keep us posted please if you get it and how it works for you.
I would be very interested to hear what you have to say about it after you run it and get some experience running it.

As my FIL always said, "Happy Days".

[Steve H.]

^^^^^  Great post but what on earth is a "silver bass"? 

[Mac Attack]

^^^^^  Great post but what on earth is a "silver bass"?

not a striper and not a silver perch.

here's a pic -






further -

http://hooklineandsinker.ca/silver-bass/