Trolling and bobbers for a few days

[Oberst]

Was down last week thru Fridayy, figuring to troll up crappie and walleye, with some shallow fishing thrown in to boot.  I've dreamed of hitting the big crappie in shallow water and started with that;  here in a shallow cove with slip bobbers set between three and six feet with minnows.  Stopped there because I saw a crappie dart past a jig I had been casting.

I did get a few nice fish that way, but couldn't locate a pattern, and didn't see many other boats catching much.  Was fishing out of Cedar Ridge back under the bridge toward LIttle Sac arm.  This bobber fishing only works for me if the wind is blowing very hard.  If it is the hassle of keeping the boat in place and the bobbers really gets tiring.  But you can see it was nice this night.  Always fun to watch a bobber!

Next, I thought, try trolling.  My boat is set up for trolling; I can run 5 rods effectively without tangles.    Really painful though to run the spread into an underwater obstruction!

In this setup I have two rods deep off the back with clip on sinkers up to 8 ounces.  No problem running a crawler at 30 feet.  Side rods have dipsy divers running out and away at 15-18 feet deep.  
Far back rod on left is a surface line.  Lures are various crankbaits in mostly bright colors, like rainbow and flo orange.  And a couple days this approach paid off nicely with fish like this 14 incher below.  Some doubles too.  That's a small Rippin' Rap in gold in its mouth below.  I was feeling a little sassy at that point, but a day later that quickly changed.  I still caught some fish,  but on Friday it was cool and overcast and very windy and trolling was a lot of motor time for not much.

I see other folks trolling walleye all the time, and catching fish too.  Why the heck I can't seem to get more than one here and there I have no idea.  With that many rods down, and at least two of those running right off the bottom over all kinds of terrain one would think . . . I typically troll from 1.5 to 2 mph.  Tried bottom bouncing a crawler on a Lindy rig using the slower electric motor and nothing there.  Every one of the female crappies I cleaned had eggs!  I threw a bunch back but assume they did too.  Was really surprised.  The wind started blasting Friday, and though not a bass fisherman of any ability decided to fish the leeward bluffs.  Did have some fun with that; biggest was 16".  Mostly on unweighted Senkos but did get one off the surface on a decades old Bass o'Reno!  Couldn't complain about the three days, but was reminded that, for me, Stockton is always a challenge.

 

 

[Ketchup]

Nice report and fish.  Sounds like the weather played somewhat of a reason you didnt fill your boat.  I live on this lake and fish it often, and have way worse days than you at times.