9 Aug Outing

[rps]

Yesterday morning, I waited for the rain to end before going out. When you live on the lake, you can choose whether you fish in the rain or not.

I fished the back end of Leatherwood Creek for two hours. Many shad, brown water runoff from the creek itself, and a number of freshets spilling in from the hills and bluffs. Caught four largemouth, two on a jig, two on a spook. Three of them were keepers, but none were large.

Then I went walleye hunting. Because of the cloud cover and chop, I started with shallower baits. No luck until I switched to baits running 25 feet+/-. Once I started at that depth, I began to have action. I caught one keeper walleye, one keeper crappie, two short spotted bass, hooked two good fish that pulled off unseen, and brought a second keeper walleye to the boat where I knocked it off with the net.

Method: 165 feet of 10 pound Power Pro pulling a firetiger original wiggle wart at 1.5 to 2.5 mph.

[Troy Gregg]

Method: 165 feet of 10 pound Power Pro pulling a firetiger original wiggle wart at 1.5 to 2.5 mph.

rps, just curious but what kind of rigging do you use to get a wiggle wart 25 ft deep?

[rps]

Several years ago, the guys at precisionangling.com published a book called the troller's bible. It began with the dive curve for popular baits using 10 pound monofilament line. Later editions added the dive curves for 10 pound fireline as well as some different size lines. If you use a lure in the book and use a line counter or marked line to know how much line is out, then you can look up at what depth your bait is travelling. 25 feet is near the limit you can reach with an original 3/8 oz. wiggle wart before you have to switch to another bait. For every bait I have tried, the dive curves are accurate. If anything, the baits run a hair deeper than stated. It is a great tool.

The newest edition, Precision Trolling Pro, is printed on Tyvek and water proof. Unfortunately it contains far fewer baits than the old 8th edition and costs twice as much. I ruined my old 8th edition by leaving it in the boat during last spring's monsoon. (Waterpoof compartments aren't waterproof if the boat fills up.) I ordered the new edition because the 8th is shown as out of print. When I found out about the changes, I wrote Mark an email stating my dis-satisfaction. He wrote back a very nice reply and promised to ship me a copy of the 8th edition so I can laminate the pages I want to add to the newest edition.

Anyone interested in the book should try and find an 8th edition if they can. That or stick to the lures in the newest edition.

[powerdive]

rps, just curious but what kind of rigging do you use to get a wiggle wart 25 ft deep?

Troy, note that rps was using 10# PowerPro. That stuff has the equivalent diameter of 2# mono. It gets your lures WAY deeper, especially with that much line out, since it doesn't float and puts up very little water resistance.

With certain lures (Reef Runner 800), I'm able to run baits unassisted at 40' with only about 125' to 135' of line out. And if the fish want smaller lures, leadcore can get 'em there too.

[Sam]

I had a bunch of points built up on my Bass Pro Rewards Card, so I did a little "tackle enhancement" yesterday - with this thread in mind.

I replaced my Daiwa 1500 spinning reel that finally blew up after 18 years of hard use. That's been my favorite reel, and I wouldn't want to be without one. While I was at it, I picked up an Ugly Stik rod, 6 foot, medium action - gotta have something new to hang the new reel on.

Then I bought 300 yards of green Power Pro 10-lb. line. Boy, that stuff's thin - I've been using FireLine but this is thinner. Got a couple of original Wiggle Warts as described, too, plus I already had a bunch of Bandit II's that I usually deep-troll with. I'm gonna try some trolling at Tablerock this week.

I took that rig with a Wiggle Wart tied on out in the yard and made a couple of casts. It throws 86' without even trying hard. Sitting down in a boat trolling I figure it'll probably cast about 80'. I measured that one full crank on the Daiwa reel takes up 20" of line, so if I cast out with the boat moving and then back-reel 25 times I oughta have about 125' of line out.

One thing I like about trolling is that you never know what you might catch. Bass, white bass, and walleyes of course - but sometimes crappie, and I caught a 17-lb. flathead cat out of Bull Shoals that way a couple of years ago. That was on 6 lb. monofilament and a light spinning outfit, and it was a 45 minute fight. If I hadn't been able to chase him around the lake with the trolling motor on high speed I never would have caught that fish.

I'll give a report here on how the trolling goes.

[rps]

Sam:

This may help.

Use the Power Pro 10# and tie on with a double Palomar (the overhand loop goes through twice before you pass the bait through) then figure the feet back - reel winds backwards is valid for spinning reels.

Until you buy the trolling book:

Cordell Wally Minnow: 35'=13 feet, 105'=19 feet, 220'=23 feet

Shad Rap size 7: 60'=15 feet deep, 100'=17 feet, 180'=19 feet

3/8 oz original wiggle wart: 40'=12 feet, 80'=18 feet, 135'=22 feet, 165'=25 feet (the Bandit 300 series is nearly the same)

1/2 oz. original Hot N Tot: 100'= 23 feet, 200'=29 feet

Good luck.

[Sam]

rps - Thanks, that helps. Do the tables in the trolling book take speed into account?

I don't know what speeds I troll at, but I'll take a GPS along on this trip to find out. If I use the main motor, my 50 hp four-stroke will troll as slow as 900 rpm. Trolling a Bandit 200 on Bull Shoals for walleyes in past years, I usually keep it on 1100 rpm to drive the plug deeper.

At 1100 rpm with about 140 feet of FireLine out, I get the Bandit 200 down to 20 feet. I've found my depthfinder to be real accurate - and if I troll over a gravel point where it reads 20 ft. the Bandit will barely bump. In 19 feet it bumps hard, and it won't hit bottom at all if the depthfinder read 21 feet.

I think I'll be able to go a little deeper, as your book shows, with the Wiggle Wart and Power Pro line. I'll be interested to see what speeds my motor rpm's translate into.