# Rookie at Piedmont



## Spillway (Nov 24, 2011)

Ok - I have wanted to Muskie fish (troll) for a long time and being retired I needed a boat anyhow and bought a bass boat with a 10HP motor. I bought some rods and reels and made some rod holders. I had plenty of walleye and bass lures to try. With all I hear about how hard it is to catch Musky I was really thinking I might atleast catch some walleye to eat but hoped to catch a Musky. This was my first time trolling other then Lake Erie. We went to Piedmont Lake to try DualFin planers on 4 rods.

We had about 30 yards between the 2 DualFin planers on the left and the 2 on the right. To be more specific we had 2 back about 40 yards and 2 about 30 yards. After boredom set in, I thought I may as well see if I could entice a hit by zigzagging the DualFin. We were getting pretty close to shore anyhow so I picked up a rod and gave it tug and flipped direction and then picked up the other and flipped it too. I'm holding two rods and wham the 1st rod nearly gets pulled out my hand and I feel a large fish...then nothing. I am trying to put the other rod in the rod holder and wham it nearly gets pulled out of my hand and then goes limp. The thing I forgot about using were wire leaders! The thought of 2 muskies with lures stuck in their mouths made me feel sick and really stupid and my buddy confirmed my stupidity several times so we quit trolling. The thing that bugs me is did zigzagging cause the hits or was it coincidence. I have the feeling it was a bit of both but can't wait to get out again with WIRE LEADERS! I will likely find more ways to screw up before I net one but I am hooked!

My buddy took a picture of the genius that forgot about wire leaders. 




I made some leaders???


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## promag (Aug 21, 2011)

I don't fish for musky very often but I would like to suggest that you use a different type of snap on your wire leaders. I'm not saying that they won't work or that they will fail but I've had that type of snap bend straight and loose fish. You can also consider a heavy spool of floro leader maybe 50-100 lb. I wish you the best and hope to hear you get um.

promag


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## Tinknocker1 (May 13, 2013)

your heading right out of Essex's bay pointed toward the marina we never started trolling till Jambo weekend then we trolled hot'n tots all week took a week off then trolled big stuff in the open lake till the first of Sept .we had some good times ! we caught 9 muskies on jambo weekend in Essex's on a little crome hot'n tot with a black back maybe with a little orange and a lot of teeth marks i bet i still have it !


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## turkeyt (Apr 13, 2006)

We don't use boards when we troll Piedmont because it is not an overly wide lake. I have only seen about 3 people with boards out in my last 8 trips and that was in the same day. Had to swing wide just to go around some of them. We use Down East rod holders because they adjust and I can get the angles that I want my rods to be in while trolling. We run 2 straight out the back and 1 each off the side. We use flurocarbon leaders with String Eze stay loc snaps and Spro ball bearing swivels. We use 20 to 30" leaders for trolling in the 80 to 100# weight. Most muskie shops carry the leaders or better yet it's cheaper to make your own. Also we use 80# braid with 30# mono backing on the reels. You can use wire leaders but I consider the wire to be stiff when you need all the action on your baits. When you get a bend in the wire it affects the action of your baits. You might want to put yourself a bar across the back of your boat to attach your rod holders on. That way you can reach your rods and don't have to crawl up on your back deck to get to them. This is just some info and not to be construed as the only way to troll. If any of this is helpful that's ok.


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## cmz13 (Apr 7, 2013)

For you liters, ull have beeter luck w different sizes...id use 14in for casting and 28in for trolling...id also use 50 lb braided line w 60 lb monofiliment liter.......I've been doing this and it works and holds well, havnt lost fish yet...hope this helps

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## Spillway (Nov 24, 2011)

turkeyt said:


> We don't use boards when we troll Piedmont because it is not an overly wide lake. I have only seen about 3 people with boards out in my last 8 trips and that was in the same day. Had to swing wide just to go around some of them. We use Down East rod holders because they adjust and I can get the angles that I want my rods to be in while trolling. We run 2 straight out the back and 1 each off the side.


DualFin planers don't run as wide as other planer boards. If they are obstructing another boats path or getting to close to shore I can give them a tug to flip them and they plane the other direction. When I get out again I will try doing a lot of zigzagging. This sideways action is what I think caused the hits, similar in function to doing a figure 8 if you were casting. 

When you give them a tug they speed up as they cut across the wake and then return to boat speed as they move out on the other side. I only troll at 1 MPH but they will go up to 3 or 4 MPH as they sweep across the wake. I actually only let them run sideways to the wake and then flip them back out to the side they were on to avoid tangling. However, I could use line counters to stagger the DualFins to allow full sweeps. I put the lures on 15' to 20' leaders and could space DualFins 30' apart.


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## turkeyt (Apr 13, 2006)

1 MPH but they will go up to 3 or 4 MPH as they sweep across the wake.[/QUOTE said:


> When you are trolling anytime at the 1 mph speed, if you contact a muskie, you will have a hard time keeping a hook set at that speed. We usually troll all the time at a constant 3.5 to 4.5 mph I lost one at 2.5 mph a couple weeks ago when I slowed on a turn to make a run down a shoreline.


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## Spillway (Nov 24, 2011)

turkeyt, I agree with what you are saying but the way they hit when I flipped direction, setting the hook was not a problem. I think they inhaled the lure and that is why they cut the line so quickly. Heck if I had wire leaders it would have been a double header and some serious fun / panic. 

Musky will often follow a straight troll for a long distance but not hit. It makes sense that you should get more hits by changing speed and direction and covering more area with the DualFin.


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