Trolling question

[Nuts4Fishin]

Ok trollers, help clear something up here in the office for me. Let's say the area I want to troll for walleyes in has depth changes going from 30-20-25-15-30 feet up and down, up and down, you get the idea. Buddy says in this situation he is able to use a bottom bouncer with about a 2 foot leader and any crankbait he wants-shallow shads or husky jerks-without a problem, just lets out a lot of line. Claims that the bottom bouncer will run on the bottom, the bait will rise above the bottom (2ft) and you can go up and down underwater hills all you want. He says the buoyancy factored in will only allow them to run at a certain depth. As long as you are fishing in deeper water with a bottom bouncer than the crank is supposed to dive, the crank will essentially try to rise. My question was that by taking them, the lure, to the bottom with the bottom bouncer, won't they want to go the 5-7 feet or whatever they're suppose to dive below that? Is he right and does it work this way?

[TroutAngler]

Not if the leader is only 2 feet long. The crank can't get down anyfarther. Remember, the lure goes down 5-7 feet over the entire length of line you have out. If you only have two feet of line out from the bouncer, it doesn't have the chance to swim deeper.

[Nuts4Fishin]

So are you saying that it would be a good set-up if I was trying to get a lure to run a couple fee off the bottom? Or are you saying the lure would attempt to run two feet below the bottom bouncer and dig into the ground?

[LABS4ME]

buy the book precision trolling... it covers just about any scenario and any crankbait you have as far as trolling goes. Mine's in my boat at the cabin or I'd look it up for you.

If I remember right, when using a bottom bouncer and a crank, you need to use a floating crank... I may be wrong as maybe the 2' leader would have some factor in it... but the few times I've needed to use this set-up, I've rigged it with a floater with a 5-6' leader.

Good Luck!

Ken

[CatManLee]

If you have a bottom bouncer with a long enough leader and a "lure" that is made to run 4ft under the surface, it will try to run under the bottom bouncer, unless you are going really slow. If you don't want it to dive, use a floater with no lip. I use this set up and it seems to work well.

Good luck.

[PerchJerker]

You could try posting this in the walleye forum too.....

Quote:

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He says the buoyancy factored in will only allow them to run at a certain depth. As long as you are fishing in deeper water with a bottom bouncer than the crank is supposed to dive, the crank will essentially try to rise

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Nope, not a chance. Floating baits will float, sinking baits will sink, and suspending or neutrally buoyant baits will stay where they are. Cranks will not rise unless they're floaters and you're not pulling them fast enough.

If your buddy still doesn't believe you, tell him to try his bottom bouncer trick with a shad rap and see if that tries to rise to its factored in buoyancy

In my opinion a 3-way rig is a better option than a bottom bouncer. It lets you adjust the lengths of the droppers to the weight and the bait, and you can run the bait farther away from the weight without running it into the bottom. And you can go with heavier weights - no need to let out lots of line like your buddy does, try to keep your line at a 45 degree angle (less snags that way).

The other guys are right, if you go with more line the bait will run deeper and into the bottom.

[Desperate Fisherman]

With that much line out in the shallow sections his bottom bouncer is laying on it's side. Much beyond that 45 degree angle and they just flop over and pull sidways.

[Nuts4Fishin]

Thanks guys-we'll take this info to the lake this weekend and see who's right.