Hey Stueben1,
Since you got hooked on eye fishing on Saginaw Bay this winter than i would assume thats where you plan to target them this open water season.
So, ill give my local perspective on things, which is a trolling gig on Saginaw Bay. These methods will also work on other Great lakes waters as well.
First of all, Northland makes some fantastic blades. To use them your going to have to build some crawler harnesses. On the big water we normally use 17-20# flurocarbon line in lenghts of 3-5'. For hooks i like to use a #2 beak bait hook snelled for the front hook and a #6 EWG hook for the trailing rear hook tied on with a palomar knot. Use good hooks as it will increase your catch ratio dramatically. I like to use Mustad Ultra Points, Gamakatsu or even the VMC Cone Cut hooks...all very sharp premium hooks. After you have the hooks tied on thread on some beads...6 mm is a popular choice. Put enough on that when you hang a blade from the clevis it will only hang down to the eye of the first hook....I normally run 6 beads, a clevis, then another bead. From there you have some choices when it comes to clevises. You can use permanent, folded metal clevises(not wire clevises as theyll eat through your line) or plastic quick change clevises. The permanent folded clevises do not allow you to change blade size, color, style on any given harness, while quick change clevises do. They both have pros and cons though, some already mentioned. Youll be able to go slower and still have the blade rotate with the metal clevis. That said, you can still achieve good performance with the plastic quick changes at slow speeds. I personally prefer the quick change as it allows me to add more options to my presentation. I like to finsih off the harness with a barrel swivel.
So, thats the basics of the harness, now what to do with it. Well, you have to have some form of getting it down. Inline weights(bead chain sinker, keel weight or BPS XPS Weights work well), Bottom Bouncers or snap weights are all great methods to get your harness down into the strike zone. A variety from 1/2 oz. to 2 oz. will get you buy in allot of situations on Saginaw Bay with inlines and snap wieghts...I prefer inline wieghts as you can get down quickly and dont have to worry about removing a weight from your line when you bring a fish in.. As for BB, i use 1-4 oz. depending on water depth. More often than not i have a 3 oz. on the end of my line. Biggest thing with BB is keep the line at about a 45* angle. Use enough weight at your given speed to achiev this. Attach your harness to the rear of the BB or the inline weight, add bait and deploy. For Snap weights, hook your harness on your main line, then let out say 20' of line, then attach your weight and then "X" amount of line to get it down to the depths...Pretty easy methods.
Other gear youll want to add is Line counter reels, so you can duplicate your presentation. They make a big difference in how succsessful you are. Just be sure to keep all the spools full and evenly filled from reel to reel and with the same # line so you can duplicate multiple rods when you find the right depth/color etc....I think the Daiwa SG24 LCA are fine choice for the serious angler. Theyre a little pricier, but well worth it in the long run IMO.
I like to run 10# Berkley Big Game on my board rods and 20# Power Pro on my BB rods that i run directly off the boat.
For rods, a good 7-8' Medium trolling rod should do you fine. Doesnt have to be an expensive rod either. We used Ugly Sticks on the charter boat for years....We still use them today.
Youll also want to invest in some inline planer boards...Offshore tackle and Church both offer great inline boards.
Cranks in various styles for different times of year...Here are some higher action baits-Hot N Tots in sizes 1/4 oz. and 3/8 oz, Jr. Thundersticks, Reef runners are all good options. For cool water periods baits such as Rapala Original floaters in sizes f9-f18 will work well, Husky Jerks in Models HJ10-HJ14 as well as the DDHJ in 10-14, #8 Shad Raps, Smithwick Rattlin Rogues and Bomber long A's are all good choices.
When it comes to spoons youll want to stick with the smaller spoons. Silver Streaks, Jr. and Mini Streaks, Stinger Scorpions, Dream Weaver DW spoons Moon Shine's walleye version will all work well. Deploy them with Big Jon's Mini Disks, Walker Deep Diver, Dipseys and Jet divers(J20 AND J30 are commonly used).
Your jigs and grubs are also a good addition, but will be best suited for verticle jigging when fishing in the bays tributaries before and after season closes, as well as cast/jigged at the river mouths.
Hope this helps shed some light on what many local anglers use here.
Good fishing....Adam
