Trolling for bass

I used to troll for them a lot on the Willamette when I did the AOTY. I used a line counter reel and the crank baits I used would give the depth at 100 feet of line. Ie 20 foot dive at 100 feet. I would troll between 15 to twenty feet and the crank would skip across the rocks nicely.  I have caught several trolling at about 3 mph when i was going from spot to spot.  But mostly I would troll below 2 mph.

From one of Next Adventure's bass tournaments. Good times. Ignore my annoying commentary.

Nice double Craig. I've had some luck trolling. Usually a Rapala BXJM09 jointed minnow Yellow Perch 75 ft back. On this morning I also cast topwater frog, wake bait and Zara Spook over and along weed edge. Frog got some looks but no hooks. The bass, trolling the Rapala 1mph along the rocky shoreline in 20ft of water, the 2 Pike, same speed trolling close to the docks.

I've never trolled for bass, i'm more of a trout guy.  But, i've had fantastic luck with these.  Maybe everyone uses them, and i'm the last person to figure it out, but I love them.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001YS6STE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I tie on a wedding ring with a worm (or the tail half of a gulp minnow/grub), run 20 pulls/40 feet of line out, clip this on with a 1-1 1/2 oz cannonball, then another 10-20 pulls/20-40 feet of line more for depth.  This usually gets me around 8 feet deep at 1-2mph with a lot of line between me, my weight, and the lure.  I'll troll this in 10-15 feet of water looking for the edge of underwater weeds, or first thing in the morning, wherever there's a drop off from shallow to deep.  If they're being finicky, start zig-zagging to change up your speed and presentation, or reel back in and drop it back out.  That downward fluttering as the lure drops is killer..  Once you get a fish on, just reel it back in until the weight is about 2 feet from from your rod tip, pop the clip off, and finish reeling.  I think the best thing about this set-up is that the noise from you going by doesn't spook them (your lure is 60 odd feet behind you), and the weight doesn't spook them either.  Plus, no tying long ass leaders like a carolina rig.