Trolling problems using light rods & reels.

[cyclops2]

Anybody carry a kids rig ? or 2 some days for just casting exercise ? I do when I switch from Smallies & floaters tp Perch & floating 1.5" Rapalas with 4 # test cheap mono. Great for still conditions & weed clumps holding everything.  Catch and release with crushed barbs & a landing net.

August finds my fish much deeper most of the time. So I use the 4 # mono lines in the 2 rod holders.  With 100' behind the boat I am getting loads of all sizes of everything on the lures.  from 4" perch to a 36" pike.  Problem WAS. They were swallowing the lures past the gills & into the throat tube. Even with crushed barbs. A TREBLE or 2 TREBLES in the throat is a long forcips surgery Job with putting the fish into the water for a minute several times to work all 6 hooks out. ...............SOO.......... I cut all 5 of the 6 hooks OFF completely and crushed the only barb down. I can now remove the lure in 5 to 10 seconds. I forgot to mention all the MONO 4 pound is replaced with 4..6.. or 10 # green BRAIDED lines.  

 

Result is at 100 feet of trolling line out. The stretch isis about 2 to 4"on a strike. The fish does not swim as fast as the boat & continur to swallow the lures deeper into the throat tube. He feels the lure & hook & is stuk by it on the first bite. I get lip & mouth hookup almost every time. ALL the fish types this year are ONLY nippin at the tail hook. RARE to get a gill or throat job.  I have NEVER had so many fish NIPPING just that single tail hook. Even the pike are nipping untill they become lip hooked. I can not be sure of multiple nips not hooking by several fish attacking or only the same one nipping until hooked. For decades hook ups were Gill Or deeper.