Help with slow trolling stripers
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 9:09 am
Hi gang,
Sat evening , my son and i caught a dozen or so bluegill at the dock. I threw them all in the live well. I have been wanting to troll for stripers with them for a while and thought we would give it a go Sunday. I rigged them up with a 24 inch 25 lb flouro leader to a snap swivel off the snap swivel , I also rigged a 12" leader with a weight off the swivel. We trolled these guys between .5 to 1.5 mph (water speed) and dragged them along the bottom, where we thought stripers would be. Several times we definitely had fish on. I think we actually lost 2 or three that spat out the bait after we started reeling him in. We had the blue gills hooked through the mouth with a 4/0 finesse hook. Should I be using a different or larger hook? Or should we let the fish run with the bait longer before reeling? Or should I be rigging the hook differently? I like hooking them through the mouth so the bluegill live a long time and troll through the water properly. (We troll with the electric motor) We did actually catch one keeper for the day, but we were expecting a better hookup ratio.
When we troll with shiners, we usually use a smaller hook and connect every time.
Sat evening , my son and i caught a dozen or so bluegill at the dock. I threw them all in the live well. I have been wanting to troll for stripers with them for a while and thought we would give it a go Sunday. I rigged them up with a 24 inch 25 lb flouro leader to a snap swivel off the snap swivel , I also rigged a 12" leader with a weight off the swivel. We trolled these guys between .5 to 1.5 mph (water speed) and dragged them along the bottom, where we thought stripers would be. Several times we definitely had fish on. I think we actually lost 2 or three that spat out the bait after we started reeling him in. We had the blue gills hooked through the mouth with a 4/0 finesse hook. Should I be using a different or larger hook? Or should we let the fish run with the bait longer before reeling? Or should I be rigging the hook differently? I like hooking them through the mouth so the bluegill live a long time and troll through the water properly. (We troll with the electric motor) We did actually catch one keeper for the day, but we were expecting a better hookup ratio.
When we troll with shiners, we usually use a smaller hook and connect every time.