I`m having trouble with the correct amount of line out for short line trolling…either……to little or to much.Seems I get bit when I can barely still see my bait workin with like 6-8ft.of line out.If I put some weight on and I`m under the wash or back in the wash a bit further…nothing seems to happen.Is the real short line trolling the ticket??Don`t bother with the 10-15-20ft of line back???
DU
So much goes into the answer to that question…
How long is your leader and what is your mainline? What kind of baits? Does debris on the surface require the rod tips to be under water? How fast are you trolling? Etc.
When I'm fishing baits short it's because I'm seeking a desired depth and not a specific amount of line behind the boat. For instance and SS Shad would be running about 3' down on 25' of line @ 5mph with 30# diameter mainline and a 5-6' flouro leader. However, if I replaced that SS Shad with a 9" Grandma and let out the same amount of line I would be achieving a depth of about 9-10'. To get the Grandma at the same depth as the SS Shad I would be running zero feet of line between the rod tip and leader.
So, depending on the variables you might be lining fish if you are running a deep diving bait 10-20 feet back when they're high in the water column. I always want to be 5-10 feet above the fish that I'm fishing for because you can turn them off in a hurry if you are fishing too deep (common mistake for most people when trolling).
Like Will says the bait determines how far back and the fish location in the water . Weeds forced me to short line back when I got first got into trolling for muskies on Hudson. I wanted to run on the edge but Lokes went too deep when I had them back 30 and 40 feet. Today for instance when Im trolling an edge like Hudson has where weeds in 10 feet are 5 feet up off the bottom Ill run my inside line 8 to 12 feet back. then my first prop wash rod 10 to 15 feet back outside prop wash 17 to 20 back and out rod 20 to 25 back. . When doing this my lures are following the drop off contour staying just off the weeds and in the fishes faces. When just open water short lining I let the setup tell me where to run them. Big 12 foot flats like upper Thornapple Ill run all 4 rods at different lengths and after hooking up Ill set two at that depth and one slightly lower and one slightly higher. I dont find shortlining effective in real clear water . I feel boats spook fish in this situation unless you have hard chop and dark skies. Presision trolling is one of my favorite ways to get Muskies. Use a G.P.S. to mark hard turns and nasty weed edges this will help keep you on the edge where those short lines will get crushed more often. Kingfisher
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