Any Trotliners out there?

Horney toad

I like to set a few lines in spring and fall when I visit in West Va. I fish a small river prob only 60' wide. I catch mainly good eatin size 5 to 10 pound channel cats. Every once in a while I get a carp or snapping turtle, a rock bass. Once I got a 45" Muskie, that was some good eating. I bait with nightcrawlers or creek chubs.

kumate

Sounds like yuo're doing it right,if the other fish bother you try some fresh shrimp,Try to post some pics if you can,to an old grampa fishin pics are better than porn

BOBBYWINS

Used to set lines on the San Gabriel river.

Drop hooks mostly.Caught many a channel cat(up to 6-7lbs.) and the
occasional snake or gar.

At least once a year,it seemed we'd find that one
hole with that 50-60 lb. yellow cat.[:0]

AAAAHH!
Them were the days!

BW

kumate

Bobbywins,was that the south san gabriel,used to fih it when I was a kid in the hill country

Horney toad

I'm headed to West Va over Labor day to try my luck, hope I get a few! I caught a few flathead catfish last year, they were good eatin too.

BOBBYWINS

kumate,
I'm actually farther down river,well after the North and South come together,East of Hiway 95 about where Granger Lake is now.

Used to have access to about 5 miles of river bottom,but,over the years,land has changed hands and access is now almost non-existant.[V]

Not to mention that the lake covers over half of the places I could get into.[:(]

BW

kumate

I gotcha.used to fish under a bridge on 183 myself,sure ain't the way it was before the boom hit Austin is it.

KrisW

we use real cheap hot dogs soaked in big red on occasion. or cut shad. usually shad or nightcrawlers.

bigbill0910

I had a lot of fun running trot lines a few years ago.(30) I caught a lot of little fiddler channel cats (10 to 20 inches) and when I would get a 6 or 8 pound flathead I thought I was Bill Dance.

Horney toad

The river was muddy and I only had a couple of nights to fish. Did catch a 5 pound channel cat. Good eatin, wish I had more!

quickmajik

A heavy hook with chicken livers wrapped in thread makes good bait. you dont loose your bait because its wraped tight to the hook and livers are good and smelly. Good luck.

You can also use beef, pork, turkey, or deer livers if you choose to do so. The freezer time does not seem to matter once they are thawed.

MMOMEQ-55

We always use shad for bait on our lines. We also put in limb lines with chuncks of cheese. We catch flatheads mostly and a couple of blues from time to time. If wwe are lucky we will catch a cutter.

Pbshot

There's a great company out there that makes trotlines with a clip to the main line so when you roll up to it all you have to do is unclip the line dangling. Really, has become a lifesaver if a good fish is on, so as to keep myself and the boat away from the main line and any other hooks and brush from tangling me or the line up.
We'll also set limb lines, run jugs and bank poles sometimes. Bait can become a personal issue with many catfishermen, but usu. smellier the better. Used and heard of everything from homemade dough baits, livers, hotdogs, catalpa worms, nightcrawlers, shad, bream, crawfish, shrimp, entrails, you name it. Know a bucket of fermented soybeans chums
em in good. Usu. the rule is channels and blues prefer dead baits and flatheads only take live bait.

Pbshot

A couple of my good techniques I mostly reserve for tight-lining from the bank or sandbars. A hypo-dermic insulin needle will make a nightcrawler blow up huge.
Also this is gonna sound weird but usu. do this when cast netting for bait, if not in fast moving water. Take a pr. of woman's hose, take a single and dump in something for wt. like rocks, add some dry catfood or dogfood and if you choose wet cat food(cheaper better)and bread if desire, usu freeze mine to last longer, and tie end in a knot. Can then freeze and store in ziplocks or use fresh. Toss wherever plan to cast for bait. Friends have said they've heard of tying off to the end of a trotline to make a chum slick, but I have no first hand experience.

KrisW

you can get the ready made lines at academy, walmart, etc. real handy quick and easy. you can take pantyhose and put the liver in a piece of them tied up and put that on the hook too.

bigbill0910

Pbshot, you are making me homesick. To me, the best time of my life!

k_townman

Those kind of rigs are a no no in Utah. [:(]

11echo

I'm originally from Washington State and trout lines were illegal! So when I moved to Texas and learned trout-lines were ok I became an avid fan! About 2 yr.s into learning the tricks my brother, myself, and some friends went on an all nighter at locals lake for my brother's birthday. We went out and strung some lines out right after school and went out about 7pm after stocking up with all-night goodies. We didn't do to well until the guys down the shore shared there secret bait ...live minnows! We drug out an old seine net and baited up. Inside 15 minutes we were catching large white crappie! That went on till about 3 am ...end up with about 35 of them, all good sized! And talk about good eating!!! .That was 40 years ago, and my brother and I remember and talk about that event very fondly to this day!

bigbill0910

We also used a spring loaded set called a "Yo-Yo". Tie it on a tree limb, pull out the line that you wanted and set a little catch "like setting a mouse trap". Bait the hook and go about setting another one. Time you set them all out, and had a couple of ice cold Falstaffs you could go "run" them. If the fish were biting, you could stay there and fish. Caught a ton of big ole Crappie, we called them white perch, And fiddler catfish. Everybody else was chasing girls. Why didn't somebody tell me about that?

KrisW

we used yo yos for bream. lol they are illegal

bigbill0910

It is possible they are illegal some places but they weren't a few years ago. Never heard of anyone using them for bream although I have caught a lot of different fish on them including bream. All that night time fishing is FUN!!

KrisW

a buddy of mine had some on his pier in his pond. at least we called them yoyos.

Beeramid

Yo-yo's are great! You can set them when the crappie are slow, and come back and check them later. There have been times when we ran yoyo's and by the time we baited the last one we had to start over pickin up fish.

GuvamintCheese

I see you even like to troll while you fish jeff. [:X]