TROLLING LINES

The primary principle for trout fishing in lakes is, “ trout are selective to the depth at which they are searching for food.”

The lines you choose to employ have a great bearing on placing your tackle at the correct depth. The ultimate tool for depth determination is the downrigger. It works well at all depths and it can be very precise in placing your tackle in the strike zone. When the fish are feeding in the top 50 feet of the water column many other line combinations can be quite effective.

JAY FAIR’S Trolling Line:

This line was designed on Eagle Lake, a high desert lake in Northeastern California. There are three basins to Eagle. The southern basin is deep and provides temperature refuge for trout in the extreme temperatures of summer and winter for the trout a well as the tui chub baitfish. The two northern basins of the lake are large shallow bodies of water that are prolific sources of food in these alkaline waters. It is for these shallows that Jay Fair developed his trolling lines and the system to fish them.

When trolling in water 15 feet or less the noise of your boat motor will drive the trout away from the track of the boat. This precludes short-line trolling. To be effective your presentation must be well over 100 feet behind the boat. Jay trolls in “S” turns rather than in a straight line. As the boat travels in a curve, the lines behind the boat cut the curve short and leave the track of the boat. The flies go through water that the boat has not directly disturbed. Also when you have lines out both sides of the boat the lines on the outside of the curve speed up, rising in the water column and conversely the inside lines slow and fall deeper. The effect is to have flies changing depth, changing speed and gradually changing direction.

Jay’s lines are an adaptation of a sink tip fly line, built to be fished on a conventional reel. The first part of the system is to put no-stretch Dacron backing on the reel. The second part is to add 100 feet of floating/running flyline to the reel. This is followed by 16 feet of 18 pound lead-core (the sink tip) and finally 15 feet of 8 pound test, abrasion resistant Stren for the leader.

Many experienced trollers initially question using floating line for a trolling system. The reasons for using it make a lot of sense. The fish at Eagle Lake are structure oriented. They are inside tule patches or feeding near rocky points. The bright colored floating line gives a visual reference point enabling you to steer your boat to have your flies swim close to the fish holding structure without driving directly over the location. Lead-core, monofilament or downriggered lines are difficult to steer next to structure 100+ feet behind your boat. Secondly when the boat is travelling in “S” turns the lines will also track behind the boat in curves. When a fish strikes it has to pull some of the bows out of the line before you feel it in your rod. The bows in the floating (visible) fly line can be seen to straighten before you feel the tug of the fish. This gives you a quicker reaction time, responding to the trout.

The third advantage of a floating fly-line is the weight of the line when imparting action to the fly. Fly casting as well as Jay’s trolling technique need the weight of the line to be felt and moved properly. The best demonstration of Jay Fair’s trolling system and fly motion is in his one hour fly trolling video filmed on Eagle Lake.

BRAIDED TROLLING LINES:

The two prominent advantages to braided lines are the small diameter and the lack of stretch compared to monofilament.

In a long line trolling scenario, the line where the line goes from your rod tip diagonally down to your lure, the water flowing around your line creates lift, the greater the line diameter the greater the lift. From the above table: 1000 inches (28 yards or 83 feet) of line in the water will create 5 square inches of lifting surface for COROMAN Braid, 11 square inches for CLIMAX O-X Tippet, and 15 square inches for monofilaments. You can achieve greater depth with our LEAD CORE HEADS and other systems with the thinner diameter braided line.

In a downrigger scenario, the line from your rod down to the release will have less “bow” hence less slack when a fish strikes and the line releases.

LEAD CORE HEADS:

Whether trolling with mono or braid in a long line situation, you can add weight to your tackle by adding sections of lead core line. The simplest way to change out the sections is by using the loop to loop connection technique. This will allow for quick changes of lead core lengths if the fish change depths. The advantage to this system is that it can be retrieved through the guides and onto the reel. It is symmetric unlike many sinker systems that can spin your line. Our LEAD CORE HEAD Kit comes with 30 feet of lead core that we recommend be cut into 2.5’, 7’ and 20.5’ lengths. In this configuration each piece is approximately 3 times longer than the next shorter piece. Depending on speed, backing line diameter and lure characteristics the 2.5’ piece will run just below the surface. The 7.0’ piece will run at 4’ to 7’ down and the 20.5 pieces can go as deep as15 feet. For a number of reasons including stealth and economy I troll with an electric motor. With the electric, I will turn off the motor allowing the boat to drift to a stop or much slower speed to allow the LEAD HEADS to take the fly deeper. Resuming speed will cause the fly to rise in the water column. Changing depth, speed and/or direction will often produce fish when a single speed depth and direction are being ignored.