Is Trolling Cheating? ;)

[SirSnookalot]

Main difference between casting and trolling, you cast to a specific spot and you troll to cover more water.  As kid at our cottage I trolled a lure behind the boat as I was rowing, not only did I catch a lot of fish it was a nice workout too.

I only troll offshore now and I love it.  Either I'm trolling with the engine looking for wahoo, tuna or sails, having one on the line is anything but boring.  As we are drifting with live or cut bait I'll have a second rod with a sling jig on as well, slow drift about 2.5 mph it really produces some nice fish.

[WRB]

Trolling was as common as casting for bass before Ray Scott outlawed it for his tournaments.

Not catching bass is boring. I grew bass fishing using both casting, trolling and live bait because catching fish was the goal. There is skill envolved in all presentation techniques, location is still the key to success.

Tom

[Dwight Hottle]

Trolling was as common as casting for bass before Ray Scott outlawed it for his tournaments.

Not catching bass is boring. I grew bass fishing using both casting, trolling and live bait because catching fish was the goal. There is skill envolved in all presentation techniques, location is still the key to success.

Tom

 

 

And to twist Tom's words trolling is a technique to help locate fish as well as to catch them.

[J Francho]

Locating was always the name of game when I trolled Lake Ontario.  I'd much rather been anchored up, and casting to them, than trolling.  Trolling isn't really as easy as it sounds.  You need to have good graph reading skills, understand how your baits behave under different speeds, as well as know how to tune them.  Throw in special equipment like inline planers or dipsies, lead weights, etc., and you get the picture.  I had a good teacher in my uncle that ran a salmon charter, and I applied a lot of that to locating smallies in a lake bigger than most could imagine.

[lanzbass]

Cheating is when you use a net ! With me as long as your using a pole any way you fish is your prerogative

[merc1997]

catching fish is fun and the name of the game. trolling is a geat way to cover water and catch fish. there is also a lot of technique and knowledge to trolling, especially to be very precise with it. most bass tournament do not allow trolling though. however, since they allow multiple lures to be fished at once, i really do not know why they just do not allow trolling, and the use of live bait.

bo

[Team9nine]

Is trolling cheating? - No, unless you're in a tournament. Otherwise as has been mentioned, fishing is about catching fish, so if it works in your situation, why not try it? Not as "easy" as some might think if done right.

 

-T9

[SirSnookalot]

The only cheating is stopping off at the market and telling your wife you caught it.

[Catt]

Buck Perry's Spoonplugging (trolling) taught us more about understanding structure than depth finders.

Depth finders gave us a picture of what we already knew was there.

If aint where the fish are it don't matter what you're doing!

[leadslinger]

Thanks for all of the comments. I went out yesterday and experimented with trolling 2 lines, while casting a third. Slow day, but caught a couple each way. The bigger ones (smallies and large) were from trolling a deep diving crank/wally diver ticking bottom @ 20ft. Marked a lot, but not much biting my offerings. As others have said, location is key. I was trying areas fairly new to me.

 

One thing I realized about trolling this time of year is being able to recognize when the lure is fouled with grass. That issue created a bit more maintenance than I liked. I was trolling clear areas away from the grass, but there was still surface/suspended grass that had broken loose and worked it's way down to the lure quite often.

 

Thanks again.

Bill

[J Francho]

When I trolled, I preferred to have the rod in hand, with the other hand on the tiller.  I could feel subtle changes in the bait, detect short strikes, followers, and when the bait became tangled or fouled.  A tiller style boat works great for this, as you can control speed and direction with one hand, and have the rod in another.

[leadslinger]

When I trolled, I preferred to have the rod in hand, with the other hand on the tiller.  I could feel subtle changes in the bait, detect short strikes, followers, and when the bait became tangled or fouled.  A tiller style boat works great for this, as you can control speed and direction with one hand, and have the rod in another.

Yeah, my setup is not ideal for trolling. Rod holders in back, trolling motor up front. If I constantly watched the rods, I could see the change in behavior, but casting while up front manning the trolling motor made that hard to do. I'd eventually notice the rod tips not acting right. Thanks!

[Gotfishyfingers?]

I've trolled lake Okeechobee before.. I've found grass patches and rock structure like that as well. Usually do it while I eat some lunch . and no it's not cheating..

[Raul]

One thing I forgot to mention, trolling your cranks makes them dive a lot deeper than what you can achieve by casting.

[South FLA]

No, its an efficient method to cover water

[Broc]

not cheating but boring as hell.

[mddrew88]

I caught a nice crappie today by trolling it off my canoe. lol

 

It was totally unexpected, I wasn't even thinking about my lure being in the water until something tried running off with my entire rig!  

[pbizzle]

Guy in my bass club fishes in tournaments were trolling is not allowed, but he found a way around it. He calls it strolling. He throws a deep diving crank as far as he can, puts his reel in free spool, trolls out all of his line, stops trolling, and then starts to retrieve his lure.

[Diggy]

A kid I met told me he was trolling a lure behind his kayak at the state park, then all of a sudden he started going in reverse. 20lb snook on the line

[Chris]

A countdown lure will cover any depth. I have a heavy sinking crankbait that I use for that situation but there are other options. The key is depth control and location. I was prefishing a tournament and located fish at a depth I couldn't reach. So I went home and carved a lure that would. I have also found fish in areas where I don't have enough running room (casting room) to get the bait down to them and still be effective. This kind of lure fits the bill.

[powerduster]

I never liked the idea of saying a certain tecnique is cheating, especially when that person doesn't completely understand it. I started out saltwater fishing from both boat and shore and it always bothered me when people say boat fish don't count or that particular way is cheating, because most times they never been on a boat if maybe just a couple times that turned out really well. Of course it has it's advantages, but for me personally fishing for so long I honestly can't distinguish which areas I had the most luck.

[livetofish28]

Guy in my bass club fishes in tournaments were trolling is not allowed, but he found a way around it. He calls it strolling. He throws a deep diving crank as far as he can, puts his reel in free spool, trolls out all of his line, stops trolling, and then starts to retrieve his lure.

I read an article written by Jonathan Vandam that talks about doing this when bass are deep as it allows you to get to the desired depth and stay in the strike zone much longer and its not as boring as trolling as your casting and retrieving with my trolling motor on high i can empty my spool in about 20 seconds 

 

tight lines 

 

Andrew

[NBR]

Nothig wrong at all if I'm having a tough day fun fishing I'm apt to troll to try to find the fish. I just think trolling is super boring so I don't do it much.

[senile1]

Trolling is not simply stupidly dragging a lure with your boat to catch fish, it takes as much science and art as casting and reeling in to be consistent. You have to choose the right lure, the right location, the right speed, sounds familiar doesn´t it ?

 

 

Raul is right.  From reading the posts above I suspect most of us really haven't considered what is involved in productive trolling.  I am really weak in this area.  A guy on another forum that I frequent posted the information below about trolling.  Read this first before you decide if trolling is "cheating" or easy.  (Thanks to Feathers and Fins at the Ozark Anglers Forum.)

 

http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/38769-trolling-for-begginers/