Just Starting Trout and Salmon

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BlueDevil1442
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:28 am
Species: Bass, walleye, trout, pike

Just Starting Trout and Salmon

Post by BlueDevil1442 »

I found this forum this spring and love all the posts and advice. I hope some day that I can contribute too. I have been wanting to get into trout and salmon fishing. I mainly fish bass and northern pike in Lake Champlain and small lakes/ponds in Addison, Chittenden and Rutland Counties. Over this past year, I have been slowly purchasing a few things at a time when I get extra money from a side job and feel that I will be ready this spring for trout and salmon. I do have a few questions and looking for any advice.

I have a 2006 Lund 1775 Classic Sport with a 75 HP Mercury outboard motor. It also have a trolling motor on the front.

Here are the things that I have purchased, but not yet installed:

1 GARMIN–Striker Plus 5cv Fishfinder with CV20-TM Transducer
2 Lund downrigger bases
2 Big John Hand crank down riggers
2 down rigger balls
2 Scotty #1173 Power Grip Plus Line Release, 48-Inch Leader w/ Cable Snap
1 each Krazywolf Planer Board (P007),Includes Spring Flag System,Left&Right L10 xW3.5``,Pair,Yellow
2 7'-6" medium rods
2 Abu Garcia Ambassadeur LineCounter reels
assortment of spoons and swim baits

Here are my questions:

Will my 75 hp motor be too big to troll at 2-3 mph? I do not have anything to judge my boat speed until I install the gps. If not, will my trolling motor work?

What size main braided line should I get? I see recommendations from 15 lbs up to 30 lbs. I want the ability to switch from trout/salmon to bass in the same day. I will get both 15 lb and 8 lb flouro for leader. 15 for when trout/salmon and switch back to 8 when going for bass was my plan.

At what depth of water should I troll in early ice out and what depth to set the bait at?

Thanks for all your answers.
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Reelax
Site Admin
Posts: 5730
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:27 pm
Species: Salmon, steelhead, brown trout
Location: Fletcher, Vt

Re: Just Starting Trout and Salmon

Post by Reelax »

Welcome aboard!!!! Love to hear the cold water fish winning over warm water veterans. Remember the 1st time you have a 6+ lb Land Locked Atlantic Salmon bust the surface with a spectacular aerial show before you even know which rod it is on... May be the last time you dream of bass or pike...

Your 75Hp should troll fine with that boat. You can use any app on your phone that has gps to see speed before you setup the graph.

I would suggest changing prop pitch and diameter to get speed in window of down to 1.8 if possible. (Only if needed) That way you will be able to troll with the wind at 2.4 when needed. Prop is best, as it is permanent and best for motor as long as your in your WOT range when you prop it down for low troll speed. If you don’t wanna mess with the prop, you can use a bag to get slower. A troll control digital system will let your merc get down to 550 rpm with 10rpm push button digital set points. 30rpm in my boat =.1mph In most cases... that is a trollers dream. I can adjust Speed in hundredths of mph with this system

As far as braid weight. I got 50lbs on the divers cause you cant ever have enough overkill when running divers as long as you have a nice long 6ft flourocarbon leader I don’t think braid hurts much in LC for divers. Any nicks in mono and your diver is gone. You can have heavy wear with 50lb braid and still pull in a pig.

I’f your talking riggers or long lines I use 14lb seagar flourcarbon all the way to the leaders...I find the lack of stretch helps with hookups and also will not spook the hogs down there as much as mono...


All the stuff you bought is spot on.. your gonna have a great spring.. your 1st runs will be shallow so get ready to run inline boards or a big mast system..

New members like you are what keep this forum vibrant... Thanks for reaching out!!! I am certain you will get more input beyond the few points I made as this group is made up of folks who like to help..

Keep us posted!!

You are gonna have a BLAST!!!
Matt B
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BottomDollar
Posts: 601
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 9:09 pm
Species: cold water
Location: Burlington

Re: Just Starting Trout and Salmon

Post by BottomDollar »

Adding on to Reelex's great tackle suggestions, here are some electronics that will help you. Apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know.

If you have.a Minn Kota with iPilot then you've already got autopilot. Just use the main outboard to push you straight and the Minn Kota magnetic compass to steer you on a heading on a low speed setting. I've got a skeg extension on mine so it's like a big rudder up in the bow. This was one of my biggest issues starting out fishing solo, tending lines and the wind pushing you around with nobody steering. Now I can set lines and land fish while the boat steers itself. They're good for more than just warm water fishing. Spot lock is also great if you get into jigging lake trout.

If you have the opportunity to treat yourself, my suggestions would be at least one electric rigger, total game changer, and a fish hawk x4 so you know your speed at presentation depth. We have strong underwater currents on the lake and your surface speed is often very different than your cannonball speed.

Not sure if your sonar has GPS charts, but that's another essential tool. A lot of us just use a cheap tablet in a ram mount with the Navionics app. If you have an enclosure/bimini, keep it up all the time and you won't have screen glare issues. I have a very basic sonar, but even the most basic models can show you where bait and predators are in the water column. A big GPS chart screen will keep you on structure and your gear off the bottom.

VHF radio: get a fixed mount one with at least a 4' antenna, 8' is even better. The handhelds just don't have the range to be useful other than for emergency safety. 68 is the chatter channel, and 16 is what the Coast Guard monitors.

These are just suggestions. You can get away with nothing more than a paper chart and lead core, but data and knowledge of what's under your boat make things easier, more productive, and more fun IMO. Good luck and enjoy yourself.
Gecha (Gerry)
Posts: 4447
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:26 pm
Species: whatever crazy enough to bite

Re: Just Starting Trout and Salmon

Post by Gecha (Gerry) »

Welcome to the forum BlueDevil1442.
Your equipment is very adequate for salmon and trout fishing.
Reelax and BottomDollar advices are great. They are both productive fishermen. I know many other members also share their knowledge to make us all better anglers.
It's not really the equipment that catch fish, it's how you use them to spot fish, and your ability, determination, and experience to make them bite.
By no way I consider myself an expert. With time, patience, practice, testing, errors, frustration, and again more time on the water solo or with friends, watching, reading, learning from/with others, I learned a lot (or a bit). Some days are more productive having them to bite, but it's always a great time being on the water challenging them.
Good luck and stay safe.
Gecha (Gerry North of the Border)
BlueDevil1442
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:28 am
Species: Bass, walleye, trout, pike

Re: Just Starting Trout and Salmon

Post by BlueDevil1442 »

Thank you all for the valuable info.
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Detritus
Posts: 538
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:50 pm
Species: Anything we can catch
Location: Vergennes

Re: Just Starting Trout and Salmon

Post by Detritus »

Hi Blue Devil,

I tend to put too much information in my posts on this stuff, so I'll start by just giving something specific to try if you want. Then, I'll scratch the surface a little on a few other points.

Launch your boat at Converse Bay on Saturday morning if you can deal with the temperature and precipitation that is forecasted. Go out in the area between Thompsons Point, Garden Island, Split Rock Point, neighborhood. Maybe Whallon Bay. Use you're free spedometer app you downloaded on your phone to figure out your speed, 1.8-2.5 mph and keep that thing plugged into your DC Power outlet. Probably Idling in gear is going to be close to good for that boat. Fish in the same neighborhood as any other boats you see out there. I didn't see leadcore line or Dipsey Divers mentioned on your already purchased list, So, take two of your deepest diving stick baits you have, Send each one about 100' behind you, then attach your planer boards to each of those and put them out another 50 feet or so. Those baits will cover the first 10' of the water column or so, also way away from your riggers. Put a couple of spoons on your two rigger rods, send them back 20 or so feet, set one rigger at 20, and one at 30. Check your lines every 20-30 minutes, change colors if nothing has happened in an hour. But, you will catch fish. If you don't have riggers installed, just long line two rods straight off of the back with diving stick baits as well as the ones off of the sides.

  • If you can do it safely and somewhat comfortably, Do not wait until spring to get out there. Go fishing now. Like, Saturday.

Just to get out there and catch your first cold water species, I think calm days right now is a great time to go. For the last month or so, myself and my kids have been catching about 25-30 lbs of fish or more every trip out, averaging about 5 hours on the water. And we're pretty new at it compared to all of these guys. We probably won't see results like that again after ice out until probably Late April or May. Lots of slow days for us right after ice out.

Wear your Life Jacket at all times, Keep your canvas up if you have it, and get a little Mr. Buddy Heater to warm your hands up after messing with gear. Hand warmers at a minimum.

The last month or so, almost all of the boats I have encountered out there trolling are guys on this forum. They are all catching fish, and a lot of guys are sharing information either on here after the fact, or real time over the radio on 68. One easy thing to do, is when you see guys out there trolling right now, go to that area, and do what they're doing. You'll read or hear about speed, depth, and spoons on here, and approximate locations, not too specific, as to not over pressure the fish in that one spot.

I'd suggest using the spoons and stick baits in your collection until you are bored with catching fish, and then give the swimbaits a try. You don't read too many reports of these fish being caught on swimbaits. They're kind of like those 6" duck lures with the feet that spin to put it in a bass lure productivity perspective.

  • Target the low hanging fruit first.


The 6lb Salmon Reelax mentioned above is kind of a rare occurrance for new guys, but the lakers out there love to get caught. Espescially the little 3-4 lbers. Lots of action right now between 6-30 feet down. Fishing deeper takes more experience and finesse sometimes. Long manual rigger retrievals to try different lures, more chance to tangle on turns due to blowback, etc. Those scotty pinch pad releases you have I used to run, but switched to blacks and chamberlains a while back, because of pulling the lines out of the releases when putting tension on the rods after getting the lure to the desired depth, or, not having them release and dragging fish around all over the place, and not knowing it. All very maneagable stuff with time, but, that is what it takes is time.

Ill post again later about gear and stuff.
"Country Angler" - '93 Trophy 2002 - Cold water boat
"Strike Three" - '04 Triton SF21 - Warm water boat
"The Dumpster" - '90 Starcraft SF14 - Camping Boat

Jack
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