6/17/2014 Dam Site Report

[Chef of the Sea]

YAKFM just figuring out how to work my finder and love how much easier it makes my kayak fishing. Can't afford a boat, but don't really mind, great exercise and a helluva good time when you hook one. Any advice you could give me for trolling at depths would be appreciated. I'm see on lots of fish 12-16 ft but I ain't got a clue if my jigs anywhere it should be. P.s I reward tips with fantastic cuisine

[nathanhooper]

If your mainly fishing your jigs below you, really slow trolling, then you should be able to turn the sensitivity up on your sonar and see them drop.

I've done it out of my boat when slow trolling bama rigs. I'd watch them drop, then compensate a tad for forward speed.

To test, go over some relatively clean bottom at the depth you think the jigs should be and see if you start bumping the ground.

All in all, the best investment I made personally was to get line counter reels. Those things are the cats meow for being able to repeat trolling situations. Once you find out how much line to let out for a certain lure to get to a certain depth then you can replicate it anywhere.

[YAKFM]

YAKFM just figuring out how to work my finder and love how much easier it makes my kayak fishing. Can't afford a boat, but don't really mind, great exercise and a helluva good time when you hook one. Any advice you could give me for trolling at depths would be appreciated. I'm see on lots of fish 12-16 ft but I ain't got a clue if my jigs anywhere it should be. P.s I reward tips with fantastic cuisine

Chef, for jig fishing I agree with Nathan's recommendations. Most of my jig fishing involves casting and retrieving. The only jig-trolling I do involves using three rods in a mini-spider rig set-up. I have three rod holders in front of my seated position. I calibrate each reel based upon how many revolutions it takes to reach the bottom at a given depth. For example, if I want to target suspended fish at 14 feet and I know that there are 3 revolutions per foot, then I start with my jig at the tip of my rod and back reel 42 revolutions. I may add a few revolutions to account for my speed (paddling + wind). I typically move very slowly with spider rigging so I don't adjust my depth too much to account for the forward movement-maybe a foot or two of additional line. The heavier the weight of your jig head the easier it is to maintain your jig at the desired depth. For spider rigging I typically use 1/8 oz and will occasionally use 3/16th or 1/16th oz, depending on the depth I am trying to maintain. The key to successful spider rigging and trolling out of a kayak is to understand the performance of your kayak with you paddling it. You are the trolling motor and becoming proficient with this technique takes quite a bit of trial and error. I catch quite a few crappie spider rigging as you would expect, but you can catch just about anything with this method. Recently, I have been catching crappie in 23-25 ft in timber vertical jigging with Bobby G's while the kayak is tied to a tree.

If you haven't trolled with crankbaits yet I recommend that you start with #5 and 6 Flicker Shads. The Flicker Shad package contains a dive curve, which graphically represents the depth your lure is expected to dive as a function of the amount/size of line you have out at a given speed. Once you get comfortable with your trolling techniques you can successfully branch out to other crankbait/lure applications. You can certainly use a line counter reel as Nathan suggested, but if you aren't in the market for a new reel you can approximate the amount of line you let out based upon how much line you have on your spool. I know I have just over 300 ft of #8lb fluoro on my spinning reel, so that if I let out 1/3 to 1/2 of the spool behind the kayak I will reach x depth at x speed. If you need to run shallower to target suspended fish, let out less line. Again, use the dive curve as a guide. If you have GPS on your graph you can track your speed. If no GPS, then you will have to approximate your speed. I don't have GPS on my graph, but I do know that to reach approx 2.5 mph I will need to move fast enough to have my spinning rod maintain a bend at the 4th eye from the tip with a #6 Flicker.

[Feathers and Fins]

Sharpy the line at 10ft intervals with Black and 5ft intervals with Red. Makes knowing the depth quick and easy especially when jigging. for each 5 degree of angle on the line add 2ft of depth as a general rule of thumb.

Line counters for trolling crank baits is about the best way to replicate the depth, however never stop watching your speed either some fish get so picky they will strike only going one way and if you do it a lot you will see you may have increased or decreased speed the opposite direction by as little as .3mph and the fish wont bite it slowed or speeded.

Now if im trolling soft plastics such as keitech I use spinning gear and count out to a 40 count to reach 8 to 10fow it as well is affective but not precise and only use it in shallow water.

[nathanhooper]

My first couple of trolling rods I did just what you described there Yak about knowing how much line is on your reel. I actually did it a little different and put braid on each of them. I measured off 75 yards I think and tied it to the mono that was on the reel. Then I would let the line out to where I could start to see the mono and knew I had 150 or so feet out. Of course, I could have possibly been in a world of hurt if a good sized fish got on and decided to run.