My Approach to Trolling

Roy Foster

As all of you know I troll most of the time and I've learned a lot about the bottom of our lake. As you already know I fish my own baits. I fish both a 3/8’s and ½-ounce buck tail jigs on downriggers. What I do that I haven't seen anyone else doing is trolling structure.

We all know that Stripers and Hybrid hold and feed on flats or humps and we fish there with bait. I am doing the same thing with my trolling.

I see others trolling and they are mostly boat riding and are not watching their depth finder for anything but the bottom.

Have you ever noticed that if you find fish on your depth finder at one place a certain depth, they will be holding at that depth at most other places? This will hold true at least 90% of the time.

When fishing do not be afraid to let your jig a long way back from the boat. If you are fishing a light bucktail, as I do, it will run about the same depth as the downrigger ball. This will change a little on turns but not enough to really matter if you are watching your depthfinder. The main thing is to keep your bait the depth you see fish.

Trolling is really a two-person game. The person manning the downriggers is just as important as the one watching the depthfinder. When I find fish at a certain depth I tell Jan to raise or lower the downrigger balls. We may only raise or lower the ball a foot or two but have found that we catch more fish this way. I am a firm believer in keeping the bait above the fish. Their eyes are on top of his head so he will not see your jig if it's below him.

What will help you the most is to learn the lake bottom. You will find more fish at places you never fished before and you will have places to fish that others don't know about.

Roy and his best friend Janis have been partners in crime for quite some time. They now have combined to win the last three tournaments using the techniques he has outlined above.