The Fishing School
When it comes to trout, trolling as many lures as possible will get you the fish. The trick is doing this while avoiding nasty tangles!
TROLLING for trout is all about numbers. The more lures you have in the water, the greater your chances of catching a fish. State regulations permit two outfits per angler on most trout lakes, however, many anglers get tangles when trying to troll multiple outfits. Choosing the right outfits and spread of lures can not only simplify your trolling, but also greatly increase your catch rate.
Trout can be found virtually anywhere in the water column from the surface to right on the bottom. Trolling a range of lures that work in the surface layers right down as deep as possible means you’re more likely to put a lure in front of a trout. When trolling on your own, it’s pretty simple to manage two outfits without tangling. More thought is required when trolling four or even six outfits, although with small boats, four rods is usually the maximum.
The best way to stop or reduce tangles is to ensure your lures track at different depths and distances behind the boat. Try this set up. Troll your shallowest lure the farthest out as a flat line, meaning straight off the rod tip. I use either a Tassie Devil or shallow running Rapala minnow for this purpose. The next closest is a medium diving minnow, like a Rapala Shad Rap, or deep rigged Tassie Devil. I fish the third outfit as either a leadcore or downrigger. The choice of lure is a lot more flexible here as the leadline or downrigger will take the lure to the desired depth. For what it’s worth, I usually use a shallow running 7 or 9cm Rapala minnow or a Tassie Devil. The fourth, and deepest, outfit will also be either a leadcore outfit or downrigger. With a bottom leadcore outfit, it will actually have be set longer as you need to pay out extra line to achieve the greater depth. With a downrigger, however, the deeper you go, the less drop-back from the bomb you need. Any more than four outfits will require you to follow the same principles of getting your lures to track at different depths and distances.
A few other basic principles to follow include keep your turning circles as large as possible and speed up as you make turns. This will help keep your lures tracking in line. Cast rather than feed your flat line outfits out so you know exactly how far back they are. In open water, fish your flatlines as far as 30m behind the boat. Shorten this up when more manoeuvring is required, for example like trolling through trees or following the shoreline. Check out the “How To” section of the Fisho website for a short video clip we plan to film down at Jindabyne or Eucumbene explaining exactly how to do all this.
