Controls and Tools

[John Bales]

You are trolling a very soft mucky bottom. You have checked your depths and speeds and caught a nice fish on the troll. You anchored and cast. First a spoonplug, then a silver buddy, then a jig, then a drop shot rig with no results. You go back to the troll and hit another fish. You again anchor down and go through the same trials with no takers. You start trolling again and again get another fish. You anchor once more and try again but to no avail. What do you think about this and why do you think the cast is not producing? John PS..... 18 views on this topic and not one person has responded.......

[Fran Myers]

Didn't Terry and Vic have a situation in Florida where they had markers in a circle around them? Seems like that every time they trolled they got a good fish or even a double but when they went to the cast they couldn't even get a weed.

Funny how even when fish are very active they can be so picky that they won't take a lure unless it's presented absolutely perfectly.

Makes me excited for November to put these things into practice.

[John Bales]

It's not just a Florida thing. Give me some reasons why? John

[Steve Craig]

Your other Speed control is simply not fast enough. On the troll, it is.

The second thing is that on the cast, the lure(Spoonplug, jump baits) are below the muck, causing your Depth control to be off. It can be just as big a sin to be fishing below the fish. In this case, into the muck.
But, you stated that you used a dropshot, and even in the muck, this presentation should have worked, as you can set this up to be above the muck.
Therefore, it must be a Speed control thing, as the dropshot, while it is at the proper depth, does not have the correct Speed control.

[John Bales]

Steve, You gave all the correct answers. You did so because your thoughts were only of depth and speed controls. Not size, color and action. It is the muck that limits the control. A count down method with a spoonplug can at times work but if the depth and speed is not controlled at the same time, you will not catch the fish. It is not necessarily not enough speed because in the cold water, the speed is not always fast. It is the exact control of line length and lure size which give precise control of depth and speed that makes the fish take. In this situation, it is very hard to duplicate on the cast. The only time you will have success on the cast in this situation is if the group of fish is really active and will take about any presentation. The count down with a spoonplug will catch more than any jump type lure but you still have to go through the controls to see what works best. After all these years, it is still amazing to see that the spoonplug is such a great tool for finding and catching fish when no other presentation will work. Great answers Steve. John

[spnplgrkenny]

AMAN!!! ABOUT SPEED CONTROL. IT IS VERY EASY TO MAKE THE MISTAKE OF FISHING IN OR BELOW THE MUCK. THE LURE STILL VIBRATES TO A CERTAIN DEGREE. TIME AND EXPERIENCE WILL ELIMINATE THIS. I DONT HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE CASTING IN MUCK BOTTOMS.

GREAT STUFF JOHN AND STEVE, THANKS, KENNY

[jwt]

John,
Great question. Sadly I didn't check the forum until today after you had posted the reply to Steve. However, after reading the question the first thing that popped into mind was speed trolling vs casting.

Keep 'em coming.