I hear the trolling speeds should be slow, how slow? The lake is clear and deep. There are Kokanee in there also.

mboren,
Not true. At least not all the time. In cold water, after "ice out" trolling speeds should be slow, between 1 to 1 1/2 mph. As the water warms into the 50-60s its time to speed up!
When slow trolling, use lures that have lots of action at slow speeds, such as" Phoebe's" ,"flatfish" ,"cleoe's etc. As the water warms, ajust lures to match speed. Speeds of 1 1/2 to 3 mph are the norm, but you have to find the speed the fish want!
In clear water, I like to run lines at least 100 feet behind the boat, 150-200 feet is even better but you may loose the "feel" of the lures action and have to check lures more often for weeds etc.
I like to start out trolling slow, watching the fishfinder, I'll know when I'm over fish. If they don't "take" I'll quickly speed up for about 10 yards or so , then drop the speed down quickly, any following fish will will take your lure at this time. They just don't want it to get away! Sometimes I'l do this 2 or 3 times in a row to get them to strike.
Another thing that has worked for me is sharp "S" turns, speeding up on the turn then slowing up, comming out of the turn. I'l do 2-3 "S" turns in a row then straiten out again. Some times. when turning around to head in the opposite direction I'll make a high speed wide turn, then slow down again after the turn and any fish following will hit it then!
The equipment I like to use is 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 foot med action fiber glass rods. 10 lb mono. You will get more hook-ups with the glass rods then with graphite as the lures will not pull out as offten! If using grahpite rods and braided line, however, Ill' keep my drag loose and set the hook while holding the spool tight until the fish is "on" then ajust the drag! I hope this was of some help, let me know?

Joe

Thanks bulltrout. I will give that a try next time i'm out.

your welcome. let me know how you make out
Joe

I am by no means an expert at trolling but I will second what bulltrout said about making s turns. I have had a few experiences when the fish were not cooperating until some tight turns were made. The trout would always strike the lure on the outside of the turn when it was traveling faster. Turn the other way to let the guy on the other side of the boat catch a couple.
Brian

My experience has been that lake rainbows seem to like faster baits in the 2-3 mph range, and are generally in the top 10% of the water column. Tom

Posted By bulltrout on 09 Jun 2010 10:14 AM
I went out yesterday. We were fishing for walleyes. The eyes didn't want to play! We switched to trolling for trout. Got into them right away, trolling with flicker shads. shad raps and deep divers, they wanted "blue", tomorrow who knows? 120-140 feet behind the boat @ 2.2 mph. All the trout were 3-5 lbs. We got our limit of 5 each, then went back to walleye fishing, not a hit on the eyes! All things were just right for the trout, water temp 58-60 degrees , clear skys, light wind. The thing that made a difference was, we did move out of very clear water and headed south about 8 miles into slightly stainded water! turned out to be a fair day but I sure would have liked to get into the eyes! They haven't turned on yet because of the weather.
              Almost forgot!  The fish caught, were between 10 and 20 feet deep,  over 60 feet of water.

Joe

I'm on call this weekend and Monday I have a doctors appointment so I'm not going to make it out this weekend but net weekend I'm on call again but Monday I will make it out. Thanks for the updates.

nice going bulltrout on yer catch.

mboren,as bulltrout said earlier about trolling speeds, amount of line out and the turns are correct and work almost everytime. i would like to add------ learn how to use planner boards when the fish are up very high in the water.

i have found out that even thou the basics are much the same, but each and every lake is different. the lake i grow up on in mi. had rainbows, browns,lakers and alantic salmon[sp]. this lake was 5 miles long--north to south--1 mile wide--east to west-- the deepest part is 110ft, average death is 70ft..
in the spring--ice out-- trolling as bull said-- starting slow-- when ya had a hood-up ya didn't know what ya got. as the water warmed up started fishing deeper. as the thermalcline started to set-up-- on average about 32ft down in this lake-- you run your baits around that depth, just above, at and just under for the most action.
in mid august thru sept. when the bite seems to slow down a bit i found a little trick that worked for me. i would take a cleo and a nite crawler and jig it straight up and down-- adjust size to drift conditions. more then once i limited out doing this when the trollers only got a couple bites between them all.

good luck this year everyone

TROUT AN SALM++STEELIES ARE EXCELLENT. IF I GET A LARGE ONE,I HAVE A FEW GRUNT'S and groans !! Due to the fact that I'am oxygen deprndent at flow level 3''' ...........Nharm no foul no pity , on the bank in a chair . in a buddies fin craft 0r my round belly boat .. IT'S JUST THIS WAY FISF ON GOTTA BRING IT IN.. SO LET ME DO IT MY WAY AN BACK OFF ..FOR I'am fishin.. WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Good morening all, I am really Jonesin this year to get the boat out, as there was NO ICE fishing at all for me. Down here in Lake Erie I will typically troll 2 to 2.6 zig zagging in and around fish. I prefer the Orange and Copper and Blue and Silver spoons, but have caught trout with many different lures. Probably the main reason for these speeds as while limiting out on Steelhead it is not unusual to get a limit or two of nice eyes as well. To make it a nice rounded day of fishing pop out and find the jumbo perch in the afternoon. LOL

Mr. Bill being a Northern Michigan guy myself I have to guess, those spiecies and inland lake? I don't think it is Leelanau, that I am pretty sure is more like 7 or 9 miles long, probably not Crystal that I am pretty sure it gets wider and deeper so my best guess would probably be Elk? All are beautiful lakes with great fishing. Fished all of them growing up. 

Good Luck all and please stay safe and help others in distress.