Trolling For Trout

Although this blog is dedicated to fishing for the 4 main species of freshwater trout, most of our information tends to focus on fishing for these beautiful fish without the help of a boat, but the truth is that fishing for trout from the comfort of a boat is something that many trout fishermen enjoy very much. And one of the most effective ways to fish for trout from a boat is by trolling for them.

 In this post, we are going to discuss the subject of trolling for trout. When you are trolling for trout, just like when you are fishing for trout without the help of a boat, an ultralight rod and reel are in order, with the biggest difference being that when you are trolling you want to use a fishing rod that is longer than you would when fishing for trout with other techniques. I like to use a fishing rod that's as least six feet six inches long for trolling and some people choose to use "noodle" rods that are up to 9 feet long when tolling for trout.  Why so long you ask?  Mainly because longer rods handle light line (4 lb test is my line of choice for trolling) well and enable you to fight fish more easily, as well as making for quicker hook sets when a hungry trout strikes your lure.

My favorite method of trolling is called "flat lining" which means that I use little or no weight on my line and like to fish mainly in the top of the water column.  As for lures or tackle I prefer to use either small minnow plugs that are from 2-3 inches in length or 12-24 inch trout "flashers" with some manifestation of live bait attached to the hooks as the back of the rig.  Both of these trout baits/rigs are excellent choices when trolling for trout.

Because light line and/or small plugs are being utilized slower trolling speeds are normally your best bet.  As a matter of fact, ast weekend we caught 5 trout over fifteen inches in a little over an hour trolling as slow as the 20hp motor would go.  We would simply put the motor in gear and that was it, we trolled our minnow plugs at that speed.

Once we decided to call it a day and leave the lake we began experiencing battery problems as our (very old) battery began to give out.  We managed to make it back safely and ordered a new one from our friends at batterystuff.com, suppliers of quality marine batteries at great prices and now we have nothing to worry about when we head out trolling for trout.