Most of you that know me, know why I troll for Smallies. Those of you that don't, here's the reason. I have painful arthritis in my hands and elbows. It makes a problem to cast even the smallest bait for any length of time. I love to fish too much to give in. So I started dragging crank baits with the bowmount with some success, then to the kicker motor much like fishing for walleye, then we found the faster the troll the action was better. I use the 90 Hp Johnson at idle which translates into a 2.5 to 3 mph troll. I found at these speeds I cover water and pick up active fish even on bad boat traffic days. Today we used the same method, using a two inch red fat bodied bait. I ran the edges of about 20 feet we caught several smallies in the 11 inch size and 1 tiger in the 44 inch size all on the same bait.
Try something different. I have gone to the super lines because the diameter is so small it doesn't cause the bait to come to the surface at the fast troll speeds.
This was the first tiger I brought to the boat this year.
Bill

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