Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-07-24
TROLLING.

My Dear Buck:
After few hours casting, when your
rod begins to feel like piece of lead,
just slip into on easy position and take
little whirl at trolling. besides resting
| up your casting arm and putting it in
shape for dOuble-header in the after
noon, you stand a mighty good chance
OF landing some fine fish with the least
amount of exertion up to the actual
period of fighting the fish. Trolling is
sure the lazy fisherman's delight and
the fat mans preference.
Braided Lines Best.
The best line for trolling is the
braided silk or linen, as the twisted
lines cannot be used successfully on
account OF the kinking caused by the
twisting and turning of the line, which
cannot altogether be avoided. In as
sembling your rig for trolling don't be
afraid to use SwivelS; they help keen
| the line from twisting. In rigging nm
the spoon hook for trolling, which is
the most commonly used, loop the line
on swiveled wire leader, a six or
eight inch one is plenty long enough,
and at the end of the leader snap on
the spoon, which for ordinary fishing
for wall-eyed pike or bass should not
be larger than q No. 8, while for pike,
pickerel or musky No. to No. 6 is
plenty large enough. One of the big
mistakes in using the trolling spoon
is to select a No. u in the single
spoon or No. 10 in the tandem style
with bunch of feathered hooks on
the end large enough to scare any fish
on first sight. Some of the finest
musky and pike have been caught on a
little old No. 8 spoon with sinner
or pork rind fiuttering on the hook.
Take No. 6 single spoon or a No. 4
tandem with nice-sized black sucker,
club or sinner hooked behind, and
you have an ideal pike or musky
trolling rig. Top this off with a small
piece of red flannel right in front of
the bait, and they sure cannot resist 1t.
Troll Deep for Bass.
When the bass have left the shore
waters for the cooler deep water and
you have failed to coax them up with
the cast, just locate bar, twenty or
thirty feet under water and take
shot at trolling for them with bronze
colored underwater mihnow. Take
the small size, about two-inch minnow,
let out about rs feet of line, and troll
deep. For clear water use the bronze
or copper color, and for dull days try
the aluminium. For an artificial, this
little old bait is sure winner. A mud
minnow, frog or pork rind strip with
little red yarn and a No. 3 spoon
makes a trolling outfit that looks goodt
to the bass.
There is one little angle to the troll
ing game that some of the sure-enough
fishermen have overlooked, and that
is to troll with flies for bass. Take a
nine-foot gutsleader, loop on three flies,
slip three split-shot sinkers, about No.
1, on the leader three feet apart to
keep the flies one or two feet below
the surface, and troll along very slOwt
ly and quietly. Let out Is yards Of
line and strike right after the bass
strikes. A good combination of flies
for trolling is the Coachman, Silver
Doctor and the red or brown Hackle.l
Trolling with flies for bass might be
called the highest art of that end of
the fishing game, as it requires more
skill and attention than the ordinary
run of trolling.
Cut Out the Speed.
In trolling for musky, pike or pick
erel rs to 100 feet of line is plenty
to run out behind the boat. At this
distance the lure is far enough away
from the boat and the line is easier
handled in landing the fish. The boat
should make about two to three miles
an hour, which is speed enough to
keep the spoon turning and at the sahe
time give the fish chance to see your
bait. Always troll with your rod
straight out behind the boat, never out
the side at right angle; this is treet-
ment any fishing rod would resynt.
A mighty good thing for the rod is to
use steel rod shortener, which gives
you dandy trolling rod for about 20
cents. Just slip out the first joint,
put the shOrtener in the grip, the Sec
ond joint in the shortener, and you run
no chances with your bait-casting rod.
One big point to remember in trolling
with a spoon Is the fact that 6 spoon
must be spinning around in order to
! flash under water and attract the fish.
If you will keep your eye on the rod
| tip occasionally you can easily tell
whether the spoon is turning around
| by the steady bobbing of the tip.
When it quits bobbing you'd better
| reel in and clean off the weeds. A
hookful of weeds is not much induce
ment for a fish to strike.
For wall-eyed pike put a dipsey
sinker on your rig and troll deep, and
if you get a strike, troll back and
forth over the same water as they
feed in schools. A fine artificial bait
for the wall-eye is the underwater
Dowagiac with the green mottled back
and white belly. DIXIE.