Depth Control while trolling Spinnerbaits/Spinners

[perchy]

All,

Has anyone tried trolling with spinnerbaits or spinners?

I'm thinking ahead to mid-late summer once the hydrilla growth gets out of control since historically I've had a tough time dealing with crankbaits getting a ton of weeds on them. This year I'm planning on trolling some heavier spinnerbaits as an alternative. My only issue is depth control. Is there are certain weight that will ride lower in the water column? I normally troll lures that run 20 ft down at the WSSC.. I paddle at 2-3 MPH according to my iPhone app. Would a 3/4 oz spinnerbait on 10 lbs braid be sufficient to achieve these depths?

Thanks,
Perchy

[BassMoore]

3/4 will deff work for that depth

A good thing to try as well, is while trolling, stop or pause for a moment to slow the speed down to drop the bait lower, and as you paddle again it will bring it back up, just to change the eye level of the fish may attract them as well..


Trolling chatterbaits would work the same, i would recommend carolina rigging it with a 1 oz weight. bc the blade on the chatter will keep it a little higher.

[Turtle135]

Getting a spinnerbait down deep has almost as much to do with the blade configuration as the weight of the head. Big Colorado blades have a lot of "lift" and will keep even a 1 ounce spinnerbait higher in the water column than you think. You could take a heavier spinnerbait and put smaller blades on it to get it down there.

Checkout this video on slow rolling spinnerbaits (I think they filmed this at Piney Run).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKi79iNykgU

The advantage with "slow rolling" is you can drop it during the retrieve to make bottom contact or to "tick" the top of the weeds.

[DanMarino]

I use a 3/4 ounce bottom bouncer at Triadelphia all the time and it seems to be the perfect weight for my paddling speed. So when fish are hugging the bottom, I troll the bottom bouncer and a floating minnow lure on a 3 foot leader of monofilament.

I've also done a fair amount of trolling a small safety pin style spinner, like a beetle spin. When schools of crappie are suspending, a 1/8 ounce jig head on the spinner will get down about 8 feet or so.

I've never tried trolling a regular spinnerbait or a chatterbait.

[J.A. Veil]

I troll ultralight rods with 1/8-oz or 1/16-oz spinnerbaits from spring through fall in the Severn. They are very effective on white perch, and also catch a few stripers, bluefish, pickerel, and yellow perch. I don't think the lure goes very deep unless I stop paddling -- then it sinks to the bottom. In the latter case, I have caught 20" blue cats and channel cats on a 1/16-oz spinnerbait that sank to the bottom while I was unhooking another fish. Those gave an impressive fight on ultralight tackle.

[imagine29028]

Have to remember regular braid doesn't sink. If you wanna keep it lower in the column, you should use Florocarbon.

[dsiekman]

Last summer I tried trolling an inline spinner with a curly tail grub trailer. The action was awesome but it caused some wicked line twist. You may want to add a swivel.

[perchy]

Thanks for the help guys. I've picked up some split shots to add some more weight to my smaller spinnerbaits and also picked up some 3/4 oz ones.