Trolling plugs in shallow water

[reel-em-in]

Looking for opinions / techniques. I've been trolling the flats a few times this year with x-raps and crystal minnows. When in the shallow water 3-5 feet I'm constantly getting grass on my lures. I know others have success with these lures in these conditions. Are you constantly reeling in and pulling the grass off or do you just let the lure make its way though the grass with some extra baggage? Obviously the grass on the lure affects the action but is there still enough to cause a strike?

[fishinggod]

although i haven't done this for stripers as i don't fish up north on the flats, from past experience fishing the sacramento delta for stripers with plugs in grassy areas.... i either use a treble hook that has weed guards or i swap the trebles out with oversized frog two prong hooks so that when you reel em in the each prong rides up the side of the lure. worked well for me out there in the West. it might work for ya up there.

[Egriger]

My xrap 12's are running around 6-7ft deep at 2.5 to 3.00 mph.

Crystals run 2-3 ft deep at the same speed.

Both casted-medium cast?(if that is a thing). I started casting out to the side so i could see a general distance.


at 3 to 5 feet you'll be dragging bottom-there is no hope in avoiding debris or grass or even a clam!

[reel-em-in]

My xrap 12's are running around 6-7ft deep at 2.5 to 3.00 mph.

Crystals run 2-3 ft deep at the same speed.

Both casted-medium cast?(if that is a thing). I started casting out to the side so i could see a general distance.


at 3 to 5 feet you'll be dragging bottom-there is no hope in avoiding debris or grass or even a clam!

That's what I'm experiencing. So I guess the bass don't care about that since people catch them this way?

[Mark]

Obviously the grass on the lure affects the action but is there still enough to cause a strike?

Although I occasionally troll plugs I mostly use jigs with trailing plastics or bucktails.

My experience is that any debris on the lure is major disincentive for a fish to strike. In fact if I travel some distance without a strike in areas I know are holding fish, I will pull my lures and check them for the extra baggage you speak of. I cannot recall catching a striper with a fouled lure. I think it's very important to keep lures clean.

[Egriger]

Maybe Yak Fish will chime in. He runs similar baits in shallow depths!

[reel-em-in]

Maybe Yak Fish will chime in. He runs similar baits in shallow depths!

Yeah I'd love to hear his thoughts on this!

Although I occasionally troll plugs I mostly use jigs with trailing plastics or bucktails.

My experience is that any debris on the lure is major disincentive for a fish to strike. In fact if I travel some distance without a strike in areas I know are holding fish, I will pull my lures and check them for the extra baggage you speak of. I cannot recall catching a striper with a fouled lure. I think it's very important to keep lures clean.

Mark. That is my experience too. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how to present these lures at these depths! Thanks for your thoughts.

[J.A. Veil]

I hesitated replying to this thread which specified trolling plugs -- I do not troll plugs myself. Whether in shallow or deep water, I troll lead heads (jigheads or bucktails) tipped with soft plastics. Much of my trolling is done in the shallow depth range you mention (3-5 ft). I vary the weight of the lead head, the speed at which I troll, and even the angle of the rod in relationship to the water surface in order to avoid hitting bottom with the lures.

As others have correctly noted, once a lure gets a piece of grass, a leaf, or other debris on it, it will not swim in a realistic manner and does not look like a good meal to a predator. I frequently wind in my lines to check for clean lures and to make sure the plastic is riding correctly on the lead head.

Admittedly I do not use crankbaits or other plugs when trolling, so perhaps I am biased. They are effective in many situations -- I don't like treble hooks or lures that contain multiple hooks. If you are concerned about picking up debris, having 6 hook points (2 trebles) on the lure increases your odds of catching debris vs. having a single hook point from a lead head.

Consider single-hooked lures when working in shallow water and save the multiple-hooked lures for deeper water. Or use non-diving crankbaits if you want to use plugs in the shallows.

[jmt1980]

although i haven't done this for stripers as i don't fish up north on the flats, from past experience fishing the sacramento delta for stripers with plugs in grassy areas.... i either use a treble hook that has weed guards or i swap the trebles out with oversized frog two prong hooks so that when you reel em in the each prong rides up the side of the lure. worked well for me out there in the West. it might work for ya up there.

Love the frog hook idea!

[Romo]

I see a lot of guys using trolling setups where their rods are parallel to the water and this will make the plugs run deeper. I'd also recommend just trolling one rod and holding it so you can feel it swimming and you will know if it's digging bottom or catching debris. When I am trolling shallows like that I am constantly lifting and lowering my rod tip to account for the changes in depth. Also consider that those plugs really were not designed to run in 3-5 FOW. You could try trolling redfins or something designed to swim higher in the water column or soft plastics like John suggests.

[Yak Fish]

Yeah I'd love to hear his thoughts on this!

Mark. That is my experience too. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how to present these lures at these depths! Thanks for your thoughts.

Fine Fine....I'll chime in. I have the answer for ya, but I was waiting for the community to speak their piece. :-) As one of our former snaggedline members found out, the big fish like the plugs best. He switched up for the big girls after struggling to catch anything on paddle tails and jig heads, but is switching back for the schoolies. So, there's big incentive for using the right lures.

As far as avoiding debris, you can't, but there's hope. Many of you know that I like to troll my rods parallel to the water with lures running a single cast length. When I come up on a shallow, I rotate the rods upright, making the lures run much shallower so they don't pick up grasses on the bottom. That'll keep you from hanging up, but at some point the grasses get too thick to troll effectively. I also like those rods in front of me as well so I can monitor the rod tips for misbehaving lures that are fouled. If they pick up grass, you need to clean them off. I hope that helps guys.

[reel-em-in]

Fine Fine....I'll chime in. I have the answer for ya, but I was waiting for the community to speak their piece. :-) As one of our former snaggedline members found out, the big fish like the plugs best. He switched up for the big girls after struggling to catch anything on paddle tails and jig heads, but is switching back for the schoolies. So, there's big incentive for using the right lures.

As far as avoiding debris, you can't, but there's hope. Many of you know that I like to troll my rods parallel to the water with lures running a single cast length. When I come up on a shallow, I rotate the rods upright, making the lures run much shallower so they don't pick up grasses on the bottom. That'll keep you from hanging up, but at some point the grasses get too thick to troll effectively. I also like those rods in front of me as well so I can monitor the rod tips for misbehaving lures that are fouled. If they pick up grass, you need to clean them off. I hope that helps guys.

Thanks for the thoughts. I always troll in your "shallow water configuation". Keeping my rods upright and in front of me allows me to paddle correctly without having to worry about banging my rod with my paddle. So what I'm hearing from you and John and Mark and everyone else is keep doing what I'm doing with my plugs or switch to paddletail (which I do on occasion). Thanks again to all for confirming what I was thinking. I guess this is another situation where peddles help (being able to continue to move forward while clearing grass off of a lure). Though it's a handicap I'm willing to accept, I love paddling too much.