Trolling From a Yak?

Seeing some of the trolling posts made me wonder how it's done.  Is this limited to the realm of peddlers or are paddlers also trolling?

If you can propel a kayak forward, you can troll.   
Rod holders are wonderful things.

Im pretty sure I " spot"ed a guy that catches from trolling a paddle crafts

When trolling from a kayak, I like to mount my rod in front of me in a rod holder so I can easily monitor its tip for strikes.  If you troll with your rod behind you in a rod holder, you'll get a sore neck from looking back at it, and you'll miss a lot of strikes.  If you have a paddle kayak, you need to figure out a place to mount your rod holder where the holder, rod, and line won't interfere with your paddle stroke, but you don't need to slide forward in your seat and reach past your toes to grab your rod out of its rod holder.  While I prefer 6.5 foot rods for kayak angling, when trolling from a paddle kayak I need to use a longer rod to keep from snagging my fishing line with my paddle.

There are a number of different ways to troll from a kayak: Long line trolling near the surface, using leaded line, using cannonball sinkers on a dropper or banana sinkers, using diving devices, and (my personal favorite) downrigger trolling.

A fish finder is very helpful when trolling, because it shows you whether you are passing over fish, and the depth at which they are located.  A fish finder with GPS is even more helpful, because it allows you to go back precisely to fish you see on your fish finder, and it allows you to do figure 8 and cloverleaf patterns through the area to pin down the location of a school of fish.

I'm using a pole long enough and the holder placed forward enough to keep the pole and line out of my paddle zone.  I'm setting up a downrigger on a trident 13 and while that will be a bit more interesting, it should work out fine.  Downrigger mounted behind me. Cannon ball in the water with about a 4 foot release line.  Will string out 10-20 feet of bit line (long enough I can drop some without fouling the downrigger).  Reach back for the line release with a homemade fish unhooker and pin in to the fishing line.  (Pole will be facing forward in the holder in front of me)  paddle a bit and get some speed.  With the drag set light, rotate so i can drop the downrigger 25 feet.  Paddle again, drop another 30-50 feet and continue to depth.  slowly remove the belly of the line..

It won't be perfect and more clearly complicated than a walk-around boat, but that's the challenge. Works well in fresh water and will be testing it soon in the salt.  Might even try dragging a fly in shallow water for sea run cuts this weekend on the hood canal south of the bridge.

Would be interested to hear how others troll with downriggers. 
PS- you have to want to paddle/peddle;-)

Seeing some of the trolling posts made me wonder how it's done.  Is this limited to the realm of peddlers or are paddlers also trolling?

Seriously?  How do people think kayak anglers caught salmon before pedal drives were available?   

If you can walk and unwrap a piece of gum at the same time, you can probably troll a paddle kayak. 

Sheesh! 

-Mark-

Would be interested to hear how others troll with downriggers. 

I’ve mounted a Scotty Laketroller downrigger on my 13’ Trident, and a Scotty Depthmaster downrigger and a Cannon Lake-Troll downrigger on my 13’ Revolution.  My favorite downrigger setup is definitely the Cannon Lake-Troll.  For a description of how I mounted it on my Revolution, and why I mounted it that way, see http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=12575.msg138905#msg138905 .  For a description of how I mounted a Scotty Laketroller on my Trident, see http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=11486.msg128141#msg128141 . 

Two suggestions for mounting a Scotty Laketroller on a paddle kayak: First, if you mount it next to your thigh, where it will be easy to operate, you can stop the cable reel by leaning your thigh against it.  This allows you to paddle forward while gradually lowering your downrigger weight by releasing pressure with your thigh.  Second, you don’t need to mount a Laketroller pointing straight up.  Particularly on a Trident, consider installing a Scotty flush mount on the side of the kayak next to the top of the gunwale, so the downrigger will be sticking up at about a 45 degree angle.  This will lower the profile of the downrigger and keep it out of your paddle stroke, and you should still be able to use your thigh to control the descent of your downrigger weight.  I haven’t done this myself, but a friend has, and it seems to work well.  Use a standard flush mount, not a locking flush mount, because the tube and locking mechanism on the locking flush mounts are not sealed, and water could leak into your kayak through a locking flush mount.

I’ve done a lot of downrigger trolling from a paddle kayak, but it’s definitely easier to downrigger troll in a pedal kayak, and you can mount a bigger and more effective downrigger on a pedal kayak, because you don’t need to worry about interfering with your paddle stroke as much.

Here’s a couple pictures of my Cannon Lake-Troller in action:

Pmmpete,

I appreciate the answer to the question and the suggestions. I'm trying a rear mounted scotty on my trident to try to be clear of the paddle area and while I've only tested it in fresh water I hope to handle a 10-lb ball in the Puget Sound tides. 
How heavy a weight are you using and I'm assuming you're not in a heavy current.
If you have time to drop a picture of the mount on the Trident I'd sure appreciate it.

Hope you didn't get snowed in last night.

John

Pmmpete,

I appreciate the answer to the question and the suggestions. I'm trying a rear mounted scotty on my trident to try to be clear of the paddle area and while I've only tested it in fresh water I hope to handle a 10-lb ball in the Puget Sound tides. 
How heavy a weight are you using and I'm assuming you're not in a heavy current.
If you have time to drop a picture of the mount on the Trident I'd sure appreciate it.

Hope you didn't get snowed in last night.

John

Dragging around a 10lb ball at depth sounds like a nightmare to me. Speaking from someone who has done a decent amount of downrigger trolling from my pedal kayak I can say that a 4lb ball is fun enough to keep pulled around on a fairly calm lake, I can't imagine pulling 10lbs at depth in the sound.

Matt,
Hence my last sentence in the post, the equivalent of "You gotta want it!"

I'm trying a rear mounted scotty on my trident to try to be clear of the paddle area and while I've only tested it in fresh water I hope to handle a 10-lb ball in the Puget Sound tides. 
How heavy a weight are you using and I'm assuming you're not in a heavy current.

Dragging around a 10lb ball at depth sounds like a nightmare to me. Speaking from someone who has done a decent amount of downrigger trolling from my pedal kayak I can say that a 4lb ball is fun enough to keep pulled around on a fairly calm lake, I can't imagine pulling 10lbs at depth in the sound.

I use an 8 pound weight with my Cannon Lake-Troll.  I routinely troll down to about 180 feet, and chugging around at typical trolling speeds of 1 to 1.5 mph with the weight at that depth is easy in a pedal kayak. The drag of the lure can be more significant than any additional drag created by a heavy weight.  For example, Flatfish and Kwickfish lures have a lot of drag, so I switch to lures with less drag when trolling deep.

Ocean or lake currents don't make it any more effort to downrigger troll for suspended fish, because both you and the fish are moving with the water.  However, if you're trolling anywhere near the bottom, ocean currents and river currents make it much riskier to downrigger troll, because if you snag your weight on the bottom, the downrigger cable could flip your kayak very quickly.  I avoid downrigger trolling anywhere near the bottom in current.  In a lake with no current, snagging your weight on the bottom isn't a problem, as your kayak just grinds to a halt and turns a bit.  I rarely catch my weight on the bottom, although I spend a lot of time trolling very close to the bottom for lake trout.

If you are in a river which has a 4 mph current, and you are trying to use a downrigger to get your lure down to fish which are stationary with respect to the bottom, you need to paddle or pedal upstream at 4 mph in order to stay stationary with respect to the bottom, which is a lot of work, and can be risky.

Trident 13, what kind of downrigger are you using?  The smaller downriggers like the Scotty Laketroller are only rated to handle a 4 pound weight.

Dang Pete, those are some nice trout!

-Mark-

Dang Pete, those are some nice trout!

-Mark-

In the last three weeks the lake trout I've caught while downrigger trolling included a 29.5", a 30", a 30.5", and a 31.5" lake trout. The third picture above is a 17.5" kokanee I caught in the same time period.

That's some impressive fishing.  How do the Lake Trout eat?

-Mark-

How do the Lake Trout eat?
-Mark-

Lake trout from the lakes where I fish taste a lot like salmon.  They're tasty cooked, and tasty smoked.  Lake trout from Lindbergh Lake are particularly tasty, and have dark orange colored flesh.

But how lake trout taste depends on what they are eating.  In lakes where they eat a lot of kokanee, they can be very oily.