Trolling is a great tactic that works in small lakes, rivers and on big water alike. Good trolling areas tend to be large flats of uniform depth. Trolling works over weed beds, rock flats and shines for combing large areas for suspended fish of any color.
On today’s highlight destination we’re going to look at some of the Midwest’s top trolling spots:
Green Bay (WI)
First up is Green Bay, Wisconsin!
Throughout the summer months the upper bay in and around Larson’s Reef, Green Island, Monument Shoal and the Strawberry Islands gathers large schools of suspended walleye. Crankbaits like Reef Runners, Rapala Deep Diving Husky Jerk and Bagley Rumble B’s are tried and true trolling baits. The key is to get the baits at the right depth level.
Most hardcore troller’s use boards and multiple lines to comb large areas looking for bait and roaming walleye.
Inline trolling weights and crawler harnesses is another system that comes into play. Most big water walleye trollers tend to prefer large spinner blades in sizes 4, 5 and 6. Green Bay is one of the best big walleye fisheries in North America.
Lake Michigan
The next hot trolling bite that is really starting to heat up is salmon and trout in Lake Michigan. Ports all along eastern Wisconsin and western Michigan are trolling dodger and fly combos, spoons and meat rigs for king salmon, coho, steelhead and lake trout. In recent years with clearing waters, long-lining copper line and Dipsy Divers have become far more popular amongst salmon fishermen throughout the Great Lakes. This is great freezer filling operation. Grilled and smoked salmon make for great eating after the trip.
Deep Coldwater Lakes
The last trolling bite that you may want to keep an eye out for is the open water walleye bite that occurs in many deepwater lakes throughout the region that have coldwater forage like cisco and tullibee. It’s an interesting program where you flatline troll minnow lures high over deep water. The key is to find schools of baitfish. This bite tends to be best at low light when tullibee move shallow following plankton.
This is not a numbers game but the fish are BIG.
