Revealing a Secret

[Mumpy]

So, I want to share with you a Secret technique I have been using for about 12 years now that has caught me a large amount of Bass and has given me many places to fish.

In the heat of the day when the Temperature outside is 95 – 102 degrees a lot of people don’t fish. Usually it’s hard for people to catch Bass in this type of condition. I found out about 12 or so years ago that I could catch Bass in those conditions and it also helped me later as well.
The Technique I use is I troll for Largemouths. I have a large Rod Setup that I used to use for King Salmon Fishing. I’ve spooled up 85lb Test Braid and I use 20+ Deep Diving Crankbaits. I will take the Crankbait, cast it behind the boat and let out about 75 or so yards of line and then start trolling.
I keep the boat in the 22-25’ Depth Range and I follow the Contour of the Bank. I can’t tell you how many bass I’ve caught like this over the years. It’s done more for me than just put Bass in the boat, it lets me learn the lake and also when I catch a bass this way, don’t think I caught it out of luck. There is a Reason that Bass was there where he was. He was there because of the structure. So, I mark that spot and I now have a spot I can fish normally. I’ve caught multiple Bass in the same spot by making a Pass, catching a bass then making another pass and I would catch another bass. When this happens I will go to that spot and fish it normally.

Has anyone else ever done this? I’ve always been curious to know if there were other Bass Fishermen out there that Trolled for Largemouths.

[WTL]

Paging nofear engineer....paging nofear engineer....

[DaveW731]

Trolling crankbaits around rockpoints and dropoffs has been productive for smallmouth for me over the years. Never tried it seriously for largemouth.

[3dkicker]

Trolling was a popular method back in the day. Got a few older books on bass fishing and it was very common way to catch bass. Also if you look at some of the antique baits you'll see that they were designed to be trolled.

Striper guides on Smith Mt catch bass all the time while trolling so it does work.

[WTL]

As for me, there was this one trip to florida about 8 or so years back where the only working method of any note was trolling shiners. It was pretty simple, just either let the wind drag you across a huge expansive flat or use the TM to take you along. We tried trolling with lures one day and had a blow up on one, but no hookup.

[Jigger]

Buck Perry back in the 1960's? or so, made trolling for bass with his spoonplugs famous. He is sometimes known as the Father of structure fishing offshore for bass. He had a set of spoonplugs that ran various depths. He pioneered offshore structure fishing for bass before fishfinders became popular. He was often featured by the Lindners in their "In Fisherman" magazine. Trolling for bass has been around a long time.

[Mumpy]

Yep, it's been around a long time, you just don't see people doing it anymore.

[IowaBasser]

My Dad has a house on a small (500 acre) private lake stocked with largemouth and walleye. My Dad loves to fish for walleye and this lake has a rule prohibiting minnows, so we do a lot of trolling. For waterever reason, the walleye don't reproduce in this lake. (But they do get big! )
The bass on the other hand reproduce and thrive. So much so that the home-owner's association often trades bass for walleye when the DNR stocks the lake.

So when we troll, we inevitably catch more bass than walleye. Trolling is a good way to learn the lake, especially some structure in 12 to 20 feet of water. Unfortunatly we usually find the structure by snagging a tree rather than catching a bass.

I've found a couple good spots that I should fish more often, but haven't really fished them that much. Probably cause the bass are so abundant that it's pretty easy to catch them shallow and I'd rather cast a top-water, spinnerbait, or plastic worm than fish deep. There is a tournament late this fall - I think I'll scout a couple of those deeper spots and hopefully find a bigger fish or two for the tourney.

P.S. Trolling is legal in our tournament ...at least it's not illegal! The tourney rules were made up by the home-owners fishing-comittee. The rules are pretty simple: 1) No live bait. 2) Follow Iowa fishing laws. In addiotion to torlloing, in Iowa we can fish with 2 poles per person! My dad and I have trolled in the tourney, but we didn't have much luck so abandoned it.

[keithdog]

The boat I own is powered only by a trolling motor, so when I'm going from point A to point B, I will often troll unless I'm in a hurry. I often pick up a bass or two doing this.

[Top Tiger]

The first boat that I ever had was a 12ft. Lone Star with a 3hp Johnson that folded in the middle. Long before troll motors. Trolling was the only way to catch bass other than still fishing live bait. I've still got the broken back Mirro-Lures that I used back then. Still catch fish on them. Funny how something goes out of fashion and then comes back as a new technique. On a real hot day, bass are going below the thermocline where it is nice and cool.

[Garry2rs]

For a number of years I "quit" bass fishing to target Musky in my area.
I often caught very large bass on musky lures while trolling.
When I returned to bass fishing, I sort of forgot about trolling...
Thanks for reminding me.

[fiker]

Try spoon plugging. It actually begins with trolling lures that are specific to certain depths. Once you know where the fish are, and how deep other you can turn off the motor, and probe more thoroughly.

[Thingfish]

I caught a 5 pounder this past winter while trolling for crappie (it took a little crappie jig). Funny thing is, I caught a nice crappie a few weeks later trolling a 5 inch LC Pointer for bass!

[waldershrek]

Wow, I guess I've never thought about trolling for bass. I guess I never thought of it as a bass fishing tactic although things have slowed down in my area lately (upstate NY) so I might try it the next time I'm out.