Best trolling lure for largemouth bass?

[Swamp Girl]

I fish Maine ponds from a canoe and do quite well trolling a Mepps spinner for largemouth, but I'm wondering what other lures work well for trolling. When I paddle across a pond, I like to have a lure in the water. 

[Catt]

Regular spinnerbait, shallow crankbaits, maybe something on top.

[Dwight Hottle]

Suspending jerk baits would be very effective for your trolling presentation. Trolling form a canoe or kayak with a paddle is much more of a surge then slack type of movement than when using a continues speed electric or gas engine. So your forward movement will give the bait action without your input with the rod. You can control the depth acheived by length of line back and by using some medium or deep divers. Crank baits, spoons and the old flatfish bait work well also. Also like Catt mentioned you can troll a topwater bait.  

[casts_by_fly]

It has to be a rage bug, right?  What can't it do. 

 

A floating rapala in size and color to match your baitfish.  if you have to stop it will float up and not snag.  

[Swamp Girl]

2 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Suspending jerk baits would be very effective for your trolling presentation. Trolling form a canoe or kayak with a paddle is much more of a surge then slack type of movement than when using a continues speed electric or gas engine. So your forward movement will give the bait action without your input with the rod. You can control the depth acheived by length of line back and by using some medium or deep divers. Crank baits, spoons and the old flatfish bait work well also. Also like Catt mentioned you can troll a topwater bait.  

Dwight, can you suggest a brand and name of a suspending jerk bait?

[Darth-Baiter]

My friend trolls almost exclusively. You should see him try to cast accurately.  He is like lightning, never hits the same place twice. 
 

he is KILLING them with the vision 110.  Slow trolling with the occasional THWACK added for emphasis or to clear weeds.  Some days he out fishes me 3:1. It’s annoying as…..:) 

[Swamp Girl]

5 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

It has to be a rage bug, right?  What can't it do. 

 

A floating rapala in size and color to match your baitfish.  if you have to stop it will float up and not snag.  

What sort of hook and weight would I use with a Rage Bug?

 

[roadwarrior]

Just now, ol'crickety said:

What sort of hook and weight would I use with a Rage Bug?

 

 

3/0 EWG hook & 3/16 bullet weight.

[casts_by_fly]

9 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

What sort of hook and weight would I use with a Rage Bug?

 

 

I was joking about trolling it.  When a question comes up here about texas rigs, wobble heads, jig trailers, chatterbait trailers, or any other place you might think of one, it tends to be recommended.

 

That said, on a 1/4-3/8 jig head I bet you could troll it and catch fish.  it has enough of a baitfish profile.  I'd still prefer a paddle tail in that scenario but I bet it would work.

[roadwarrior]

Trolling = drifting on the Tennessee River. The Rage Bug has been very productive for me.

[Deleted account]

Depending on the cover, an open hook lure like a crank, JB, or spoon, or if grass is around, a swim jig, or t- rigged swim bait, pretty much anything.

[Togue]

The original floating Rapala or jointed Rapala will always be my favorite (along with a mepps spinner). They just work. I don't always have them with me and sometimes the grass is too thick to fish them so my other common choice is a bladed jig. 

 

Last week I caught a bunch on a southern Maine lake trolling a bladed jig behind my kayak while moving between spots. 

[PotatoLake]

Perch colored shad rap. That catches everything in the lake.  Maybe go with a number 7 for largemouth.

[TnRiver46]

H20 express cranks and jointed rattling suspending shad raps 

[Dwight Hottle]

55 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Dwight, can you suggest a brand and name of a suspending jerk bait?

 

Yes I can. Rapala husky jerks in regular suspend & deep diver style or Smithwick rogue both types. They both are competing baits with each other in price & function. You also try Lucky Craft pointers in the 100 size both regular & DD style. I also like the pointer 127MR & pointer 128 for bigger baits at 3/4 oz & 1 oz respectively. The LC are a little different type & more expensive. 

[Bankc]

I usually troll when making long distance moves in my kayak.  Since it's going to take me forever to get there anyway, I prefer to have a line in the water, just to see what I can come up with.  

I always troll a crankbait.  They're easier to control depth with, and since I get hung up often, I prefer to stick to floating crankbaits to help make unsnagging them easier.  Which crankbait depends on the time of year.  This time of year, I'm trolling deep.  And depending on where the fish are holding, the depth of the lake, and the thermocline, I'm probably trolling a Rapala DT16, Berkley Dredger 17.5, or Strike King 6XD.  You can fine-tune depth with how much line you let out.  The Rapala DT baits tend to produce the most consistently for me, but the Berkley's don't pull as hard, which is an especially nice feature when you're paddling.  In the winter, I downsize and go with silent Balsa, often Rapala Shad Raps.  In the spring and fall, I go shallower and eventually wind up trolling square bills and sometimes floating minnows.  In the low light hours, I'll sometimes troll a wake bait.  No hard and fast rules.  Just try something and see if it works.  But I always stick to crankbaits.  I've never had much luck with anything else.  

[A-Jay]

How about The spoonplug.

Odd little contraption if you’ve never seen one.

A chunk of bent metal adorned with some sort of painted pattern resembling anything from a frog to a minnow.

Buck Perry wrote a little bit about it some years ago.

 

A-Jay

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, guys! I can't wait to try some of your suggestions!

[Dogface]

On 7/29/2022 at 10:39 AM, ol'crickety said:

Dwight, can you suggest a brand and name of a suspending jerk bait?

 

Berkley Stunna. 

 

I should have elaborated. I was fishing for SM and using the Stunna over submerged rock piles. It outfished everything else we were using that day.  

 

The wind started to kick up real bad and I had to use the outboard rather than the electric to maintain control. My son was casting and I was at the controls paralleling the shore. I left the Stunna drag/troll behind the boat. Moving at 2 or 3 MPH I could not keep the bass and pike off of it. I had not considered it a trolling jerk bait but now I do. 

[Bluebasser86]

Shad raps were always my go to trolling baits when I had a 2 man and was moving spots. I caught a lot of bass trolling a buzzbait over shallow flats also, especially if there was grass. 

[fishballer06]

Another vote for shad raps. Highly effective for bass and walleye. 

[TnRiver46]

I lost some kind of fish trolling a SPRO rock crawler the other day, don’t know what it was unfortunately 

[PaulVE64]

Red Devil spoon

 

(mic drop)

[king fisher]

    It never hurts to have a lure in the water.  I even through out a soft plastic and let it sit on the bottom while I'm taking a break eating my lunch. Every time I move to a new location with my kayak I troll something.  My normal speed is over 3 MPH so some lures will not work.  Many times I catch bass trolling medium to deep diving crankbaits, even when I am not catching them casting the same baits.  This usually means I'm reeling my crankbaits to slowly.  I then start speeding up my retrieve and start catching while casting.  Sometimes the reason is my crankbait is diving deeper on the troll.  Switching to a deeper diving crankbaits can then improve casting success.

      I recently have started trolling an A rig when I move, but haven't been able to keep pedaling slow enough to make this work.  I seem to have a pace I always revert back to which is to fast. Here is a list of lures that I have had luck trolling with a Kayak in order of effectiveness for me.

 

1. Bomber 7 A

2. Shad Rap

3.  Rapala DT 10-14-16

4.  Spro Rock Crawler.

5.  Square bill crankbait

6. Floating Rapala

7.Rattle Trap

8.  Inline spinner

9.  Spinner Bait

More expensive crankbaits work, but I tend to snag more while trolling so I start with less expensive ones and the 7A probably works best anyway.

 

      I haven't tried any surface baits but after reading this thread, I may give a buzz bait and a wake bait a try.

    

 

 

      

[WRB]

KISS, Maine ponds J11 Perch Jointed Rapala.

Tom