Bass fisherman goes rouge and looks into trout/land locked salmon fishing with down riggers

[The Dread Pirate Fisherman]

After years of great bass fishing I am setting up my canoe that has a cheap, no foot pedal control, 55 lb thrust trolling motor and deeper pro+ fish finder. I have 2 mini manual Scotty mount down riggers, a box of wet flies, spinners, spoons, tiny crank baits.  I need to know a few things before I fully commit to this. That being said can anyone here help me with the following questions.

1. Will my 55 lb trust trolling motor work to run two down riggers at 2 to 5 mph?

2. When fishing for rainbow trout what kind of rod reel line works best? I've gathered some info on  trolling rods and reels  in the 50 to 100 dollar price range but not enough info to determine if my planned set up of a 7.6 long medium power, fast action Diawa rod with a Okuma new magda  line counting reel with 10lb test and 6 or 8 lb floro leaders with work. Do I need to adjust anything because you know it's all about catching vs getting skunked and spending money on tackle that proves to be useless. 

Thanks! 

[Fishingmickey]

2 hours ago, The Dread Pirate Fisherman said:

After years of great bass fishing I am setting up my canoe that has a cheap, no foot pedal control, 55 lb thrust trolling motor and deeper pro+ fish finder. I have 2 mini manual Scotty mount down riggers, a box of wet flies, spinners, spoons, tiny crank baits.  I need to know a few things before I fully commit to this. That being said can anyone here help me with the following questions.

1. Will my 55 lb trust trolling motor work to run two down riggers at 2 to 5 mph?

2. When fishing for rainbow trout what kind of rod reel line works best? I've gathered some info on  trolling rods and reels  in the 50 to 100 dollar price range but not enough info to determine if my planned set up of a 7.6 long medium power, fast action Diawa rod with a Okuma new magda  line counting reel with 10lb test and 6 or 8 lb floro leaders with work. Do I need to adjust anything because you know it's all about catching vs getting skunked and spending money on tackle that proves to be useless. 

Thanks! 

   I once experimented with a trolling motor on my brothers 17' racing canoe. I did not have the trolling motor turned straight when I powered it up, It flipped me in a second. It the canoe is large enough and stable enough I am sure you'll be fine. 

    Standard spinning tackle medium & medium light 7' rods should work fine. 6-8# test mono or fluoro or braid if you want. One thing to be careful with is to make sure your lure isn't spinning. Check it's action while moving before you make the drop.

Good luck, have fun and report back!

FM

[The Dread Pirate Fisherman]

@Fishingmickey I have an old Coleman Scanoe aka Square stern flat bottom canoe that has served me very well for bass fishing. I can stand up in it in calm to moderately wind blown waters so no worries there. Is the lure spinning about line twist? I can see that being an issue and will need to do some research on how to avoid it.  I will be Reporting back but that will not happen till after the last weekend in April 2023 because NH fishing laws around designated trout ponds are nasty but not for bad reasons. There's also ice forming on our lakes now so it's hopefully going to be Pike fishing through the ice in a few more weeks. Thanks for confirming I knew I'd get good answers here. Tight lines! 

[Kirtley Howe]

I would not use Fluorocarbon. I think you would want a line that stretches some, to absorb shock to prevent breakoffs. I would also use a moderate action rod rather than a fast action...it is much easier to "load the rod" against the downrigger clip with a slower action rod. I use a 7' 6" Black Beauty rod as my primary downrigger rod. Fishing from a canoe or Kayak you may want to go with a shorter rod for convenience's sake.

[The Dread Pirate Fisherman]

9 minutes ago, Kirt Howe said:

I would not use Fluorocarbon. I think you would want a line that stretches some, to absorb shock to prevent breakoffs. I would also use a moderate action rod rather than a fast action...it is much easier to "load the rod" against the downrigger clip with a slower action rod. I use a 7' 6" Black Beauty rod as my primary downrigger rod. Fishing from a canoe or Kayak you may want to go with a shorter rod for convenience's sake.

Thanks, I do not want to lose lures and spend all my time re rigging but from what I've gathered so far the majority of videos I've watched say to use floro because of its invisibility. I will be more than happy to use mono because it is far more user friendly than floro. that being said what kind of mono do you use? 

[Kirtley Howe]

1 hour ago, The Dread Pirate Fisherman said:

Thanks, I do not want to lose lures and spend all my time re rigging but from what I've gathered so far the majority of videos I've watched say to use floro because of its invisibility. I will be more than happy to use mono because it is far more user friendly than floro. that being said what kind of mono do you use? 

I don't think line visibility is a concern when trolling, and I much prefer the characteristics of mono. I use Trilene XT in 10# test for Rainbows and Landlocked Salmon. I move up to 12# or 15# if I think I may encounter Lake Trout I never target them, but in Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake where I am most likely to fish, they are sometimes an unintended catch. I like the knot strength of XT better than XL. My fallback mono is Vicious as I can often find that on sale in my area. Some people swear by Big Game mono, but I don't like the way it handles. In all likely hood any major brand of mono should work fine.

[The Dread Pirate Fisherman]

On 12/14/2022 at 9:16 PM, Kirt Howe said:

I don't think line visibility is a concern when trolling, and I much prefer the characteristics of mono. I use Trilene XT in 10# test for Rainbows and Landlocked Salmon. I move up to 12# or 15# if I think I may encounter Lake Trout I never target them, but in Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake where I am most likely to fish, they are sometimes an unintended catch. I like the knot strength of XT better than XL. My fallback mono is Vicious as I can often find that on sale in my area. Some people swear by Big Game mono, but I don't like the way it handles. In all likely hood any major brand of mono should work fine.

You've just made my fishing life 100x's easier because I have a big spool of the Trilene XT in 10#