New to the site and to trolling big water

Irish1983

Irish1983

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone I'm new to the site and I am new to trolling erie I have bought a couple trolling rods with lead core and now I'm hoping to collect tips and advice from you fellow anglers to make my trips out a blast. Thanks all I'm excited to explore the site and meet some people
 
Hi Irish Normally on Lake Erie we start with perch and then later on say towards the end of june start walleye and rainbows.You will start to see more reports and results from anglers trips out.Pay attention to what the guys are using as you will hear lots of different coloured lures as say greasy chicken,nascar,green monkey puke and pink panties for some reason on Erie copper backed spoons are go to baits,but silver backed spoons work also.Start at local tackle shops also to get started on lure colours etc.
 
Angling Outfitters west of Woodstock, Lambeth Rod and Tackle, Dixie Tackle Shop in St.Thomas and Angling Sports in London all have good selections.
Steve in Lambeth and the staff in Woodstock are best for advice IMO.
 
If you are new to Erie in general, just remember that she can get nasty really quick so watching the weather is super important out there. If you are just new to trolling I think Tcat has you on the right path as for spoons. I also like to have worm harnesses on board as well(lots of silvers for practice), in case the spoons are not happening. Lots of people swear by Wally Divers and rippilin red fin body baits. I am loving the new live target bait ball body baits, but $20 a lure is a little steep. Do you know about planer boards?
 
Rapala deep tail dancers, and ripplin redfins do work very well for body baits...out produced spoons for us the last couple of seasons when used on lead core ( sounds odd but I'm now a believer)
 
Yes I was looking at inline planner boards but I think for now I'm just going to run 2 lines just off the sides of the boat maybe in the future pick up a couple boards and expand my rods
 
Body Baits: Blue/Silver, Chartreuse/White, Hollographic Green/Black or Perch coloured.
Spoons as per the above and Tcat gave you a number of them.
Just don't let you wife know how much you are spending on them!
Watch the water as Zonedfishing stated, 20 minutes makes a big difference on Erie, watch the weather and winds (Sailflow or others) all week to see any trends for the good or bad that may be coming.
 
I am fairly new to trolling Erie as well but spent my informative years trolling the big lakes and rivers between Kenora to Sault Ste Marie to Traverse City Michigan. It is kinda the same. New things to me are planer boards and how far out you need to go into the lake. If you haven't done big water before the thing you really need to learn is how to read the weather -- with mobile apps that give you a view of the radar every 15 min it is way easier. Windfinder is also helpful in planing your day.

http://www.windfinder.com/weather-maps/forecast/canada#6/42.876/-77.827

With any big water there are a lot fish out there, always. You might not mark them on your sonar but they are there. Just need to try different things. I have had success with a rainbow of worm harnesses, body baits, and spoons. On the other big lakes for salmon its always anything two tone crazy neon green. On Erie it feels like the colour and type of lure depends on the sun, waves, speed, temp, depth, time of the month, etc.

Btw, I don't find that Erie is any different than the other great lakes for weather. What is strange is that the waves can come from 2 or more different directions at the same time.
 
If you are running pre-spooled lead I would recommend tying you own knots or putting on micro swivels. I have been burned with "factory knots". Fluoro is the way to go for leader material. 2.7 mph SOG is the magic speed out there, but this needs to be played with depending on variables. Depth all depends on temp.
 
welcome aboard @Irish1983 ,
we started with using 2 dipsy's and 2 lead cores , then added downriggers the next year
keep reading this forum to see what colors are hot and what depth they are getting them at and then experiment
We seem to learn more and more as time goes on ... that's what makes it fun
 
5
Zonedfishing said:
If you are running pre-spooled lead I would recommend tying you own knots or putting on micro swivels. I have been burned with "factory knots". Fluoro is the way to go for leader material. 2.7 mph SOG is the magic speed out there, but this needs to be played with depending on variables. Depth all depends on temp.
Click to expand...

Great suggestions all. I have lost a few nice lures because I didn't retie my fluorocarbon to my leadcore. The Willis Knot is a great leadcore to mono or flouro. The small chain swivels can scratch your guides.

Something I was told a few years back that has helped me immensely is a general rule of thumb going out from Nanticoke is it is about 1 mile for every 10 feet of depth. So 60 feet of water you are 6 about miles out.

Play with trolling speeds. Slower speeds like 1.5 to 2.5 MPH for harnesses and 2.0 to 3.5MPH for body baits and spoons. Before you set your lines out put the lure or harness into the water next to the boat and see if they are tracking the way they should when you are at trolling speed. Nothing worse than washing tackle that isn't doing what it was designed to do.

By the way what size boat are you fishing from?

Welcome aboard and good fishing.
 
Irish1983 said:
Hello everyone I'm new to the site and I am new to trolling erie I have bought a couple trolling rods with lead core and now I'm hoping to collect tips and advice from you fellow anglers to make my trips out a blast. Thanks all I'm excited to explore the site and meet some people
Click to expand...
Welcome aboard. Follow along an
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
✖
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Advertising is what keeps Channel 6-8 on the air. To this end, please take a moment to disable your AdBlocker. If you would prefer an ad-free experience, but would still like to help support site operations, please consider making a donation.

I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks