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Help with slow trolling stripers

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 9:09 am
by Bass hack
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.

Re: Help with slow trolling stripers

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:10 pm
by Biggvic
Hello sir. Stripers love live bait. Your technique is correct. The only thing you have to do differently is wait a long time to set the hook. Shad, jumbo minnows, and mudsuckers have soft fins. You still have to wait a while till the striper kills the bait and turns it in it's mouth to swallow it When it comes to bluegill and bullheads. they have hard,sharp, spiny fins. They are harder for the bass to kill and turn in their mouths. I had the same problem you had until i learned to wait a long time to set. Try waiting twice as long with shiners. The stripers wont drop the bait unless they tension from your rod tip. There is actually a video here on westernbass where they slow troll 'gills for striped bass in Discovery Bay. Hope this helps. Good fishing to you.

Re: Help with slow trolling stripers

Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:23 am
by Bass hack
Thank you for the advice. We will wait longer to set the hooks.