Why troll for bass?

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Trolling.. meh.. I would simply target tog or ling, sea bass, horn dogs,, whatever.

Up here in the Finger Lakes, if someone asks you to go fishing, they are asking you to go trolling.. Thats all anyone does.. A few guys around here jig for lakers and walleyes, but that might be 5%... Trolling 100 feet down for fish that are usually less than 5 pounds from a boat that must remain moving at 3 knots?.. Not much fun really. They use 8 foot "noodle rods" and a reel the size of a Daiwa 27 or 47 H.. Riggers, or "wire dipseys". Lots of very old methods as well still very common. "Pulling copper", Using a hundred or so feet of copper wound on a giant spool, pulling a spoon on a leader by hand, no rod ,right off bottom.. Guys catch a lot of lakers like that, but ugh.... Also Seth Green "meat rigs" are still widely used. You use a tuna size rod with roller guides and conventional reel with a THREE POUND sinker, heavier than many of the fish you will catch, heavy braided or wire line, and 4 or 5 leaders about 10- 15 feet long spaced 15- 20 feet apart, and using a bunch of swivels and quick snap leaders.. You cover the water column from say 25 feet to well over 100 feet. If your fish hits the bottom leader, you reel up, unsnap and stow the top 4 leaders, take your fish off and re attach all 5 of them in order as you slowly lower the neat rig back down from a moving boat... yuck..... Its an abomination, but it catches a LOT of fish.. Me? Personally,I will pass, and go fish for sunnies and perch with worm and bobber..,,
THATS why I still drive down to NJ salt water to do much of my fishing... The LAST thing I would want to do is troll for stripers. If they won't hit bait, jigs, plastics, topwaters, etc on any given day, I would leave them be until they are in the mood. bob

There would be many times you would go home with nothing if you don't troll. There are no ling or sea bass in Raritan Bay and no one is going to make tha run.