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MFF US Northeast => New Hampshire => Topic started by: bikrsrule on Sep 21, 2019, 05:52 AM

Title: Fall trolling
Post by: bikrsrule on Sep 21, 2019, 05:52 AM
I know what has been working for me trolling deep for rainbows, just wondering what everyone else uses? Spinners, lone flies, spoons?.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: Jethro on Sep 23, 2019, 08:23 AM
I know what has been working for me trolling deep for rainbows, just wondering what everyone else uses? Spinners, lone flies, spoons?.

Was on Moosehead this past weekend, landed a number of salmon and togue trolling spoons of all sorts. Didn't have any luck with flies.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: skinnywater on Sep 23, 2019, 10:52 AM
Did you get any of those giant brookies?
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: Jethro on Sep 23, 2019, 01:02 PM
Did you get any of those giant brookies?

We landed a number of fish, did quite well despite the bluebird conditions but not one brook trout the entire weekend!
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bikrsrule on Sep 23, 2019, 06:06 PM
Were you trolling deep? Downriggers or leadline? I noticed that at Highland lake the rainbows are starting to come up some. I think I am going to hit Newfound 1 last time before it closes..
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: Jethro on Sep 24, 2019, 07:19 AM
Were you trolling deep? Downriggers or leadline? I noticed that at Highland lake the rainbows are starting to come up some. I think I am going to hit Newfound 1 last time before it closes..

We were trolling mostly between 20 and 50 feet. Most hits came off the riggers which we were stacking two lines on each because we wanted to be able to turn on a dime. Moosehead has some very steep drops that we were targeting in hopes the fish were starting to stack up and look for shallower areas.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: JDK on Sep 24, 2019, 09:14 AM
We fished this past weekend not far from New Hampshire.  Had big brookies mixed in with togue in 25-40 feet of water.

Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bikrsrule on Sep 24, 2019, 05:23 PM
Thanks for the info, I will be using a downrigger and some leadline. Report to follow!!!
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: zwiggles on Sep 24, 2019, 05:39 PM
I have not been out much at all, but in past falls small young of the year (yoy) imitations worked really well for us. Guide specials, mini mooselooks, midget anything really. Same goes for flies I’ve always had good luck in fall with singles vs tandem streamers.

They also always seemed to be deep on the big lake into late fall, but at sunrise/sunset they seemed to come up into that 15-25 range and closer to shore/structure vs during a sunny day we would still be targeting 35-65 for them around reaper structure whenever possible. The bigger lakes tend to cool down slower than the smaller bodies of water in general.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bikrsrule on Sep 28, 2019, 06:53 PM
Hit Newfound early this morning and did well with the lakers till about 10 or so when they pretty much shut right off, another boat was trolling flat line and seemed to be doing pretty well, probably on Salmon, I did put out a flat line with several different offerings and didnt get a hit, we could see fish rising but no luck.. all in all a very good day, we boated 8 lakers, not large but still a good day..Probably going to give Echo in Franconia a hit next weekend to end the season for me and get ready for muzzleloader season..See you @ the Ice shanty..
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bassin212 on Sep 30, 2019, 07:55 AM
Hit Newfound early this morning and did well with the lakers till about 10 or so when they pretty much shut right off, another boat was trolling flat line and seemed to be doing pretty well, probably on Salmon, I did put out a flat line with several different offerings and didnt get a hit, we could see fish rising but no luck.. all in all a very good day, we boated 8 lakers, not large but still a good day..Probably going to give Echo in Franconia a hit next weekend to end the season for me and get ready for muzzleloader season..See you @ the Ice shanty..


Nice work! thanks for the report. I was going to head out on Sunapee on Sunday, but 1. my winch broke so I had to replace that and then it looked windy as hell so I went bass fishing instead. Did well though!
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bikrsrule on Oct 01, 2019, 03:53 AM
I was glad I picked saturday to fish due to the wind on sunday, heading to echo lake in franconia on saturday. report to follow
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bikrsrule on Oct 14, 2019, 04:09 AM
Went to Echo lake a week ago Saturday with a little luck, caught a few small brookies on the surface and 1, 1.5 lb about 8 feet down..Last Saturday went over to Highland in Andover with some luck, caught a couple down deep on a mooselook then seeing small schools of baitfish I tried a smelt imitation fly and did very well with 1 rainbow 15" long. some on top and some down 16' or so on the downrigger. Fishing is now done for me for this season, on to the deer woods in a couple week for youth weekend then smokepole season..See you all on the ice!!!
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bassin212 on Oct 15, 2019, 08:17 AM
nice report! I may squeeze out one bass trip just because and then it's time to put the boat away and start organizing the ice gear
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: Steve H. on Oct 15, 2019, 12:39 PM
Went to Echo lake a week ago Saturday with a little luck, caught a few small brookies on the surface and 1, 1.5 lb about 8 feet down..Last Saturday went over to Highland in Andover with some luck, caught a couple down deep on a mooselook then seeing small schools of baitfish I tried a smelt imitation fly and did very well with 1 rainbow 15" long. some on top and some down 16' or so on the downrigger. Fishing is now done for me for this season, on to the deer woods in a couple week for youth weekend then smokepole season..See you all on the ice!!!

Nice report, thanks.  Too bad to hear you weren't able to troll up a holdover trout from Echo but nice that you got a good rainbow from Highland.  I knew Highland holds over fish (good smelt population) but was hoping Echo does too.  Don't know about that, as it's only brookies in there I think.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: zwiggles on Oct 15, 2019, 02:13 PM
Nice report, thanks.  Too bad to hear you weren't able to troll up a holdover trout from Echo but nice that you got a good rainbow from Highland.  I knew Highland holds over fish (good smelt population) but was hoping Echo does too.  Don't know about that, as it's only brookies in there I think.

I remember seeing a few from there in the trophy program. There is another lake up that way that does seem to produce far more holdovers.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: Dirt23 on Oct 16, 2019, 12:03 PM
Put the chickens and the pigs to rest and got a week off to do some fall trolling on terrible Tarleton.  Between the ole lady and I have 16 hours of trolling in so far and only 2 small rainbows. Been trolling from 5 to 30 feet with wobblers, DB smelt, rapalas, and tandem flies. Surface temp 55 degrees.  Any input would be appreciated on what else to try . Only got a few more days off and would like to catch a couple more fish and I have myself confused
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: zwiggles on Oct 16, 2019, 12:25 PM
Put the chickens and the pigs to rest and got a week off to do some fall trolling on terrible Tarleton.  Between the ole lady and I have 16 hours of trolling in so far and only 2 small rainbows. Been trolling from 5 to 30 feet with wobblers, DB smelt, rapalas, and tandem flies. Surface temp 55 degrees.  Any input would be appreciated on what else to try . Only got a few more days off and would like to catch a couple more fish and I have myself confused

Take it for what it’s worth as I’ve never fished it open water, but I would try around the inlets/outlets thinking maybe the fish are moving to try and spawn or at least staging in the area.

Also what speeds are you running? I haven’t trolled much this time of year, but on Winni for the end of September we had good luck trolling faster speeds around 2.5mph and up with streamers on top early and late in the day.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: Dirt23 on Oct 16, 2019, 06:09 PM
Take it for what it’s worth as I’ve never fished it open water, but I would try around the inlets/outlets thinking maybe the fish are moving to try and spawn or at least staging in the area.

Also what speeds are you running? I haven’t trolled much this time of year, but on Winni for the end of September we had good luck trolling faster speeds around 2.5mph and up with streamers on top early and late in the day.
thank you zwiggles  I haven't played with speed much been running 1.8 didn't give that much of a thought  I'll have to play with that.  It dawned on me that it what also around a full moon what's your thought on that? Fish calenders say it's supposed to be good but I don't do well around full moons personally
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: bikrsrule on Oct 16, 2019, 08:05 PM
Dirt, for what its worth, I have been trolling mainly highland lake in Andover, 2 to 3 weeks ago the rainbows were hitting mooslocks, joe's flies spinners and then all of a sudden when the water got cooler they stopped hitting hardware, I switched to smelt pattern streamers and I have been doing awesome, both deep and on the surface, 1.5 to 2.0 mph..I was going to give it up after last weekend but they have been biting so well I am going again this Saturday..Good luck too  you.
Title: Re: Fall trolling
Post by: zwiggles on Oct 16, 2019, 08:17 PM
thank you zwiggles  I haven't played with speed much been running 1.8 didn't give that much of a thought  I'll have to play with that.  It dawned on me that it what also around a full moon what's your thought on that? Fish calenders say it's supposed to be good but I don't do well around full moons personally

I always try to vary speed, and take big goofy/drunk turns. Some of the biggest fish we have caught were when my brother was driving (he doesn’t fish with my father and I often) and I’m yelling at him not to turn so hard because the lines will get tangled, then the rods start screaming drag  :P

Keep changing it up until you find a pattern.

For the moon, I don’t fish enough to really pay attention to it. I have used a full moon to explain poor fishing plenty of times, but I go fishing when I can so I’m not too keen to pay attention to all that. I have had some great fishing with moons for spawning/staging fish. Sometimes it concentrates them, or focuses them in on a hatch/spawning event.