Articles : An Off-Shore Approach

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An Off-Shore Approach at Inland Lake Trolling
By: Steven James Rusteberg
Published : (Musky Hunter August/September 2005 p.56 - 61)

Many years ago I made my first trip to Lake St. Clair on a short expedition to experience what I had heard to be “The Mecca of Muskie Trolling”. I traveled with the usual equipment such as big water boat, muskie lures, in-line trolling boards, net, rods, and reels. Little did I know how this individual trip would revolutionize how I looked at trolling muskies.

Yea, I had trolled for muskies before. I was actually fairly successful at it, sometimes. I often turned my nose up at a troller, thinking they were fisherman of “no talent”. After all, throwing a lure behind a boat, and trolling a gas motor in a straight line doesn’t require a college degree. I considered trolling “a lazy mans way to fish”. This was of course, before I knew what skill it took to master “the art of trolling”. I shortly learned that it was a very valuable technique in my muskie fishing arsenal. My first visit to Lake St.Clair would only strengthen my skills. I studied “off-shore” trolling techniques that the Lake St. Clair and other “big water” muskie anglers were using. This would create a whole new way of looking at trolling for me. On first appearance, Lake St. Clair looked like the ocean, or at least Lake Michigan in my home city. It was big, it was blue, and I couldn’t see across it. It was a little intimidating to me to say the least, but I soon learned to love this water and the techniques used to catch muskie out upon that big blue open water.

I did more observing on that trip than I had ever done before. The boats I saw trolling this Great Lakes waterway were huge. They were certainly not the scale of inland water boats I had been used to seeing on many Illinois and Wisconsin lakes. Many of these boats looked familiar to me only in my Lake Michigan outings. The boats I saw seemed to be the size of ocean liners. Equipment such as Big John trolling masts were being used with custom wooden planer boards attached to them. Almost all trolling boards were very large in size, some over six feet, and would even make the biggest of oak trees envious of their size. Several were running as many as six or eight lines, which rivaled the two or four, I felt comfortable trolling. Tangling lines was my biggest concern. Keeping four lures apart from each other, let alone eight, was a cumbersome task. These bigger off-shore systems seemed to be a simple solution. Off-shore trolling clips, which allowed the angler to fight the fish unimcombered by “in-line boards”, were the norm, not the exception, on this huge body of water. I was still using the “old school”, “walleye”, in-line trolling boards back then. These were never designed for the torque of a heavy muskie lure in the water.

I took this trip as a learning experience and noted what I had seen on a piece of paper, as not to forget anything I had witnessed. There was no question in my mind that if I were to come back to this body of water I would have to make another investment in the tackle for the job. This was “big water trolling”! This was nothing I had experienced in the past. In-fact, it was nothing I had even seen of before.

I soon went out and made an investment in hardware. I bought fiberglass trolling rods, Diawa line-counter reels, a trolling mast, big thirty-six inch off-shore boards, trolling clips, and downriggers. I was ready for my next encounter with big water or little water, whichever came first. Little did I know what I had gotten myself into? I would never again use my “walleye trolling boards” to fish for muskie, and I would never again snub up my nose at the troller.

My next trip was to Lake Shelbyville, Illinois and I decided to try out my new equipment down there. Lake Shelbyville was a lake I knew well, even back then. It seemed a little small for these “off-shore trolling techniques”, but I persuaded myself to work out the “bugs” in my new trolling system.

I hooked my off-shore mast to my off-shore boards and couldn’t believe what kind of looks I was getting from the local boaters and anglers. It seemed ridiculous, but I needed to test everything out. I clipped a Bucher Depthraider onto a rod and let some line back until the line counter on my reel showed fifty-five feet. I then hooked the line to an offshore release (an OR19 trolling clip) and sent it down the string attached to my off-shore board. By this time, the looks were getting weirder and boaters started to gather and stare. Many boated beside me with inquisitive looks on their faces. Some tried to figure out just what my contraption was.

To my surprise, one gentleman yelled out with a southern accent, “Using those for some kind of new sport? Are those some sort of weird water skis?” He then chuckled under his breath, as he knew the water was too cold to even swim in, let alone water ski.

I replied with no hesitation, “Yes, I was using a new approach… I was going off-shore fishing on this inland lake with my water skis attached to my line. I was hoping that big fish could then pull me across the lake on the skies like some bad episode of Gilligan’s Island. ”

The gentleman smiled wide, let out a small giggle, and mumbled something that resembled “morrronnnn” underneath his breath. I smiled back. Obviously, we had both remembered that same classic episode.

I went on about my business of setting up the system. Not more that ten minutes had passed and the first clip popped! A forty-two inch muskie wallowed on the surface behind my crazy looking trolling mast. Suddenly I didn’t feel so ridiculous looking any more. I hooked, and boated, several muskies that day. Needless to say some unusual looks still continue today. I have learned to fish much more effectively. I was one of the first to develop this technique on Lake Shelbyville, and now eleven years later, I see more and more off-shore techniques being used on many of the inland lakes I fish. Now, somehow, I don’t look as ridiculous looking as I used to, because more and more anglers have converted from an inland lake muskie (walleye) trolling system to off-shore fishing technique. Yea, I am not the only goofy looking boat out there anymore.

This off-shore trolling mast approach on inland lakes works! I cover water much more effectively, and can have a considerably larger spread between my lines. I now “sift” the water looking for active fish. I fight fish unencumbered by anything but a fish on my line, unlike the cumbersome in-line trolling boards where as an angler might fight a board as well as a fish. My large “muskie boards” allow me to get further away from the boat on a windy day without drag from heavy, high torque, muskie lures. Most importantly, I have much better chance of fighting and netting a muskie without a mess of tangled boards and lines when things get crazy.

I have taken my off-shore approach one step further, being one of the first anglers on Lake Shelbyville to run downriggers on this inland waterway. Why I had ignored this off-shore technique before I can not tell you. Now I can run a spoon or a crankbait right through the giant shad baitfish schools. I can watch the downrigger ball on my depthfinder and put the baits right in the muskies face despite how shallow or deep they are holding. The technique is sure to be used wherever I can run safely, unencumbered form getting the downrigger ball from hanging up on a tree or bottom obstruction.

I have begun to run more spoons for muskie. In my opinion this is a lost art. Many muskie fishermen don’t have a muskie spoon in their giant assortment of lures and tackle. It seems that the modern muskie angler uses a wide assortment of crank baits, jerk baits, surface baits, bucktails, and spinnerbaits, but there are no spoons to be found in thousands of dollars worth of tackle. This is contrary to only fifty years ago. Trust me, a spoon can be your best friend under cold front conditions, casting or trolling it.

Remember when purchasing downrigger balls to stay within the twelve or fourteen pound range. Muskie lures have a large amount of pull when in the water. Choosing a heavy ball will give you more accurate depth control. A smaller ball can trail too far behind at quicker speeds, giving you less depth accuracy. A heavy ball gives you the advantage of staying more vertical and putting the lure right in the face of the fish. When you have fourteen feet of wire out on your downrigger and a heavy ball, even at higher speeds the system stays more vertical below the boat. This will allow you to be more assured that your lure and ball are fairly close to staying at the fourteen foot level. My point is don’t choose a downrigger ball you end up “trolling” along with your lure. Heavier balls are more accurate, epically at higher rates of speed. You can check the accuracy of your ball by simply turning up the sensitivity on your depthfinder. Look at where your ball is running on your electronics. This will define the accuracy of your ball and bait for you. No guessing is necessary.

I also find the downriggers useful in shallow water techniques, as well as in their intended deeper water. On inland lakes, with heavy weed growth and even more and more boating pressure, chopped up weeds such as Milfoil float on the surface. Putting your lures on a down-rigger ball, regardless of depth you are fishing reduces the amount of times you have weeds on your lure. The cable stops the free floating vegetation from traveling down your line and fouling your bait. You can now run a lure as shallow as two feet below the surface on a downrigger ball and avoid troublesome free floating vegetation. This maximizes your lures time in the water without the problem of drifting clumped weed fouling your bait. Downriggers just aren’t for deep water anymore!

I have learned a lot of muskie fishing techniques in my twenty-two years of being in this sport. I have used my trips and experiences to become smarter and more effective in what little time I have to fish in life. Learning all you can, and sometimes using what you have learned (even if it is against the grain of normal), many times can produce unexpected results. This off-shore technique on inland lakes has put more fish in my boat over the last eleven years than I could have ever imagined. Get yourself an off-shore mast, some trolling boards, and a set of downriggers and set yourself up for some unexpected results.