Trolling Bulldawgs?

[thrax]

I had a great time in a tourney on Cass Lake this past weekend, and this was a winning tactic. I didn't get enough of a chance to talk to the guys who did it to learn enough about it. Anybody out there done much of this and what is the best way to do it? Speeds? Fishing them almost near bottom, somewhere further up in the column? Seemed that they weren't fishing real deep doing this, 10-15 ft? Also sounded like they were keeping the rods in holders, but I would think that holding and pumping wouldn't hurt either? Anyone know? It sounds very interesting and would love to try it this weekend, but looking for a few ideas to be successful with it.

[Esox_Magnum]

We troll them a little, but not for long streaches mostly going from the end of a drift back to the start. Theres been a couple here caught trolling them but we havent hooked any yet but had a few follows when reeling them in. Maybe would do it more if we trolled more often.

[MuskieJunkie]

I do it sometimes. Both holding the rod - bouncing it off the bottom and strait line in a rod holder.

Because they are not a lipped style crankbait the running depth is highly dependent on the speed of the boat. To bounce them on the bottom you have to be going pretty slow, 1 to 2 mph maybe.

As far as strait line trolling, I'm not sure what depths they run (which is why I don't use the technique much). Musky Mikes trolling book has depths listed for them for 2 and 4 MPH.

Hope that helps.

[urban cowboy]

I would imagine that you could zig zag your trolling run to get the propper rise and fall, probably takes a little practice to get speed down, but sounds like it would be well worth the time.

[HooknHorns]

The articles I have ever read the author suggest adding an 1/2oz to 1 oz bell sinker to the front split ring and that gets it to run deeper. I'll try it this weekend and let you know.

[thrax]

Will be trying it Sat and Sun in the Bemidji area. Picked up a few different color options, should put in pretty long days. Hope the rewards are there. My brother decided to try trolling rubber (Suzy Sucker, not dawg) early evening Thursday and boated a 45 in the first 15 min. He smoked a real large northern tonight, pushing 40, but he unhooked and released it without taking it out of the water, no official measure. Definitely trying it now, no doubt about that.

[HooknHorns]

Did he add weight, how deep, and how fast was he moving?

[thrax]

No added weight. I believe a 9in Suzy Sucker? Moving at like 2.1 to 2.3, idling with main motor. About 90 ft of line out, which I thought would be too much. Says he hasn't hit bottom even going up to like 9ft deep on top of a few reefs. I'm going to try a variety of both depths and line out to see what I am getting for actual lure depth with the dawgs. He is holding and pumping occasionally vs in holders. Remember to watch your drag settings, sounds like these two fish pounded that bait real hard for not really moving very fast. He is fishing real hard breaks into some real deep water.

[HooknHorns]

Sweet, can't wait for this weekend. Mille lacs here I come. Thanks for the info and good luck. Let us know how you do.

[mainbutter]

I find trolling is a great technique for getting a "feeding-strike" out of any fish, and less good at getting "reaction-strikes".

My limited experience understanding bulldawgs as a lure leads me to believe that most strikes on them are fish taking advantage of a slow moving, nutritious meal that is just too good to pass up.

This is the exact opposite of my understanding of lures such as inline spinners. I'm no fish psychologist, and my guesses might be completely off, but my limited experience has lead me to these hypotheses.

Given that I try trolling to get feeding-strikes, and I generally see bulldawgs as a lure specifically made for feeding-strikes, I'd troll them slow but fast enough to not be bumping bottom. Keep it up enough so that it's where opportunistic predators looking for prey will see it.

[thrax]

So, first day of the experimental dawg trolling is bagged. So was this 43in ski. Checked a whole bunch of areas and trolled all day. Only found good baitfish on one mainlake point, Samantha stuck a nice 35in Nort there this morning. Moved around a bunch after that, never found better bait concentrations, went back this afternoon and got the ski in the same spot as the Nort. Trolling a Pounder for the ski. Had one other decent rip that tore some nice gashes in the head of the bait but never got hooks. Both fish that hit the Pounder hit it in the head. Thought that was a little strange, but cool enough, it was fun. Will definitely do it again. Samantha makes a great honey/turkey sandwich, which her husband took out for me at the perfect time. Thanks for the net and picture job and other help Bri.

[HooknHorns]

Glad to see it work for ya. How deep were ya?

[thrax]

Ran sharp breaklines from 15-30ft deep, with deeper water there, we kinda ran the edges. I don't have a good line counter reel, but my fishing partner did. Figure I was running 70-75ft of line out with a Pounder, averaged about 2.1 mph, and bait probably only ran about 10-11ft down on a straight troll, moving up and down when turning. Fish were most active in about 25ft right on the edge of drops down to much deeper water. Ski, pike, and other good bite were all at almost 25ft of water exactly. With baitfish down 10-20ft, felt the Pounder worked at the right depth.

[MuskieJunkie]

Nice fish, you gotta love it when a plan comes together.

[cbrooks]

Nice work ,it sounds like you have been hammering the fish this year.