Fall Night Trolling

[10,000 Casts]

Is it worth the time and effort with the colder weather? Also, do you do anything different than daytime trolling? Rattles, slower, shallower, does color matter, throw on the double 10s or 13s? Do you concentrate on open water or breaks?

Thanks!

[50inchpig]

ask box about that, he caught his PB trolling around midnight last thanksgiving, not really necessary to slow down too much.

i don't even get to the lake until dark during the week now, once it starts getting really cold trolling will be my main thing, jakes and other cranks, will concentrate on the deeper edge and just beyond, also will crash the edge at times with shallower running baits.

there are some dedicated fall trollers up north that put a couple huge fish in the boat each fall trolling open water. lots of slow nights but then that big slob eats and it's all worth it.

gotta fish when you can, right?

[JRedig]

I love fall night trolling, don't really change a whole lot.

[HugoBox]

I love fall night trolling, don't really change a whole lot.

What Redig said. Clearly you still have to find them but they're muskies and they still gotta eat. I don't think 3-4 mph is fast in their world. Last fall when not much was working trolling fast-"ish" and near the surface at night paid off a few times. It could just be that they hadn't read the fall MH issue though!!

RK often has said to throw surface baits until they bounce, can't get much more aggressive than that.

[10,000 Casts]

Went out last night and trolled from 7-9. We trolled breaks, saddles, humps and open water. Nothing, when the night before, we had better luck 2 hours before sunset.

[Hillbiehle]

As I have heard others mention in the past, and I believe to be true, just troll at night with a husky jerk and 8lb test, and a small net and you will most likely tie in to one. If you want to cath a big one, consider fishing by yourself and leave your camera at home.

[Nick Kuhn]

How true. We forgot the net once (now we always leave it in the boat, if it gets stolen it gets stolen), so we decided to fish bass. I think we hooked a pair of 40"+ fish in the first 15 minutes, and lost both (both could have been netted easily). We sent someone back for the net after that.

Also note that new PB I put in the photo thread, taken with my cell phone. My brother borrowed my camera for the weekend. I did make my dad take 2 pictures, which is a good thing cause the first one is of his finger.

[10,000 Casts]

The camera on my Blackberry is so good that I don't even bring a digital camera any more and it is always in my pocket so I don't have look for it when we have a fish in the net. And then I can text it to all my buddies.