A “G-Force” Trolling Program

Rather than turning at the inside corner, Samson trolls straight over the top of the spot for another 120 feet or so—the distance his lines trail behind the boat. This assures that his crankbaits swim through the key spot.

“Using the chart-plotter feature in tandem with the digital sonar on my Lowrance LCX-113C HD,” Samson says, “it’s easy to follow a contour on most mapped lakes. The slick part is that I can make adjustments to boat speed and direction before the contour even changes, because I see my boat icon on the background of the lake map relative to structure. I can anticipate how to run through inside turns, because I can see them coming.”

As you master the ability to place lures into those tight spots along a contour, once again the next step is to inject jolts of speed into the mix. As lures reach the key zone, kick up the throttle from 2 to 4 mph—not a gradual acceleration, but a jolt of speed. Depending on the angle of the drop-off, the boat should now lie on top of the shallow flat, lures jetting through the good water. Immediately shift into neutral, turning hard to face the bow back toward the edge of the contour. Using a chart plotter, this maneuver is easy because you already know where the boat is positioned relative to the structure.

If you’ve done the first part of the move properly, lures should be slowly wobbling within the inside corner. It’s often a good idea to pause here for a few seconds if the boat’s in a good position. Now immediately crank the throttle back up to 3 mph or faster. This is the moment when strikes usually occur.

Continue at this frenzied speed for another few seconds. Immediately throttle back to regular forward speed. Maintain this constant speed until just before the boat reaches the next key spot, such as the tip of the next point. Repeat the turbo-to-neutral hover, then slip into blast-off mode on this spot, too.

“On points, keep trolling well beyond the point out over deeper water,” Samson says. “Bigger fish often hold in the open water just out past the tip.

“If I’ve hooked a few walleyes on a given trolling pass—particularly if they struck in the same general area—I might not troll any farther but instead quickly retrieve my lines, motor back upwind from the spot, and start again. I often troll crankbaits and consistently catch fish from small spots that seem better suited to jigging or rigging. I’m convinced these fish often react only to erratic crankbait trolling moves. These are fish jiggers, and riggers just don’t trigger.”

Turbo Tackle

Getting any lure—crankbait, spoon, or spinner rig—to really pop requires low-stretch line. The speed boost must be delivered directly to the bait without being absorbed into the line or rod, so low-stretch microlines such as Berkley FireLine 10/4 or Power Pro 15/4 make lures zip during speed surges. On the terminal end of my micro line I often use a 4- to 6-foot leader of monofilament such as 10-pound Berkley Trilene XT just ahead of my lures. This adds a measure of “give” at the terminal end when a fish actually takes. But it doesn’t negate the effect of speed burst.