Trolling advice

[Herky2002]

My son and I went out for a few hours this morning. Pretty chilly with the wind and no sun, but the steady bite on crawlers kept my son interested enough. He ended up with a typical Croix crawler mixed bag: walleye, sauger, smallie, bluegill, and lots of sheepers. I posted a pick below of his 16" walter (CPR).

We had no luck pulling cranks for walleyes, however. So I'm looking for some trolling advice, guys. First, how fast should I be trolling? Troll upstream, downstream, or both, and does the speed depend on which way we are going?

Also, we are pulling smaller cranks (8-12' running depth) about 100 ft behind the boat. How much snap on weight should be needed to get down to bottom in 20-25 fow? I've been using .75 oz clipped 30 ft in front of the crank, but I'm not sure that's enough weight or the right placement? I'm not getting hung up, but on the other hand, I never get leaves or anything on the lure, so I'm wondering if it's running too high off the bottom?

Thanks in advance for any tips from any trolling masters!

[2thepointsetters]

2.3 mph is good speed to start for walleye. Every 1 ounce of weight clipped 30 feet behind the the lure will get you 5 feet of depth. You want the lure about 2 feet off the bottom if fishing a rocky area if its mud put it about a foot off the bottom. This is just general info for what I start with on any body of water.

[FishonTom]

I troll with leaded line and let out 180 feet in 23-26 feet of water. I like the shad rap with about a 5 foot or more leader and this time of year 2.5 is a good speed. When the water warms up I vary my speed up to 4mph. Walleye are ambush feeders and you are not going to get ahead of them at that speed. Good luck!

[Herky2002]

Thanks, guys. Can't wait to get out there and to give trolling another try with these tips!