I've tried trolling open water last year with little success. I'm sure guys have there own little spots. I'm just wondering if the East side is considered better than the West or the South? Last year I was out in open water around 7 and 8 mile with only a few caught. I marked lots of bait pods and fish, just not many takers. I was just wondering if one area on the lake seemed to be better than other areas. There is a lot of 36 fow out there, and am just wondering if certain ends of the lake were known better for trolling.
Thanks

Come on guys, 260 people read this and none of you have any insight on open water trolling? I'm just looking for a few helpful hints.
If you arn't willing to say what side of the lake usually is better, do you have any general tips to share? Are you looking for fish suspended at a certain depth, or what really works?
I use boards and try to use my line counters to get my bait down to the depths I see most of the suspended fish, and I primarily run taildancers.

i've had some great days trolling deep divers, i try to say within 1/2 mile of any of the flats, most of the time i've fished out of the west or north. i use 3 1/2 colors with 10 ft of mono trolling no. 9 shad raps, or 150 ft of super line trolling deep diving taildancers, with and without boards, flat calm days seem to be better. those fish are suspended watch your graph and adjust. i also try to stay around 2 mph. again you need to adjust if you are seeing fish and are not getting hits. good luck.

I am far from a expert but we had some luck last year the end of Sept. We fished the north west side not on any of the flats but within a 1/2 mile of them. We found the fish suspended about 4' off bottom or the same depth of the closest flat but far off the structure. We were using 14 lbs gama mono with boards and the best bait we found was a reef runner in blue and chrome. I want to say we were fishing about 20' down in 24' to 26' of water but I can't remember for sure its been awhile. Our best luck was the middle of the day with the sun shinning we had pretty good waves everyday we fished. We were trolling 2.0 mph to 2.6 mph
Good luck and I hope that helps.

How do you know how deep your crank is running??

it all depends on lure, line, speed , and how much line is out. best way to find out is fing an area that has a long slow drop off and troll into it until you drag bottem. or buy the book.( there is a book out there that has that info in it. i'm not sure of the name.)

I do a lot of pulling cranks. The best way to figure out most of these questions is to get out there and experiment. First off I wouldn't do anything without getting my hands on the "bible" (trolling book). This book is filled with good information and has most of the baits you will be using. Then from there it is a matter of experimenting. I have fished the mud a lot and seen fish come up for a bait 10-12ft. Don't be afraid to pull up off the bottom and try different styles of baits. My personal favorite for Mille Lacs is a deep diving smithwick, blue and chrome always works well out there. Good luck

Precision Trolling is the book. It's now waterproof which is awesome. That will help you out tremendously.

What trolling speed do you try to maintain when pulling cranks?

i troll once the riggin' bite quits like NOW!!! on the flats and the basin of the lake... you usually know when to trol now because the riggin bit usualy quits, and you need to suspend those lure, you can pull your lindy up about 6 cranks, bobber fish about 6 feet up on a good school of fish, all of those work real good during the day and morning in the summer.. towards the fall fish pnic because things change so quickly and the gorge themselves at any depths on this lake where ever they are but trolling is lethal in the fall, and so is jiggin suckers, or big chubs real real slow and really put it on the noses..... you just have to find fish to catch fish and write down and record days on the water to discover patterns..... everything in life is a pattern...just like fish we have patterns too

What speed seems to work the best? With my outboard, the slowest I can go is 2.8 mph. Does anybody have any ideas to slow it down? Thanks Scott

You can troll using a drift sock. My boat will only troll down to 3.0 without it and I either back troll with a sock or forward and I can slow things down. Speed is all subject, my best walleye was caught at 3.2 but most are the 1.5 to 2.5 but once again it depends on how aggressive the fish are at the time.

Drift sock maybe? That's just a guess though.

Woohoo! I was right.

I have been trolling with my big motor in forward & my transom mounted minnkota 101 going backwards like backtrolling. Electric counter acts big motor, I adjust speed with the electric. Some times with the electric down I can slow down enough without any power to the electric. At trolling speeds I dont think I'm doing any damage to the electric(I hope). On a dead calm day I can slow 150 4stk Yamaha from 2.8 to 2.0mph running the electric at 3-4. With 36 volts I can run electric all day.