Trolling is boring? Not if you’re doing it right. Not if you’re trolling Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core line to put your baits right in the face of the biggest, baddest deep-suspending lunkers in the lake. “A lot of guys get bored trolling, but if that’s the case, you’re really not staying engaged in the whole process,” says In-Depth Outdoors TV host and Rapala pro-staffer James Holst. And you’re definitely not using the right line.
Holst knows from experience. While filming two shows last season, he perfected his Sufix 832 Advance Lead Core trolling techniques to catch and boat big walleyes and gargantuan lake trout.
“We were very confident that the new Sufix 832 Lead Core was going to give us the depth that we needed to present [our baits] to deep-suspending fish,” Holst says. “It’s a lot thinner,more sensitive and it dives a lot deeper with the same amount of line out… You get 30 percent more dive depth and its 70 percent stronger.
“Let me tell you, it was a great move,” Holst says. “I have never, in my life, caught more big fish in less time.”
While trolling big spoons on Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core last fall on Lake Superior, Holst and fellow Rapala Pro-Staffer Grant Sorensen hooked four big, deep-dwelling lake trout almost simultaneously and were able to land all four. Watch the video below, starting at the 11:00 mark. One weighed almost 35 pounds.
Less than an hour later, they did it again! This time, hooking five lakers almost simultaneously and landing four. One from that school weighed about 35 pounds too. Watch the video above, starting at the 21:09 mark.
Both Holst and Sorensen broke their personal-best lake trout records in the morning, then shattered their new records in the afternoon.
“That was one of the most chaotic, energetic and overwhelming days of fishing that I’ve ever had,” Holst acknowledges. “I’ve never had that many big fish brought in the back of the boat, or had that much fun fishing what some would consider a non-traditional species.”
But if you’re not willing to try new products like Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core, Holst says, “you just don’t get into opportunities like this.” And he’s “absolutely convinced” the line made possible the amazing bite. In addition to the Sufix 832 Advanced, Holst’s lake trout set-up comprises multiple rods, big spoons, planer boards and snap sinkers.
Get the lead out for walleyes too
Holst’s 832 Advanced Lead Core trolling tactics work on walleyes too.
“Very early in the season – May and June – many of our walleyes will be caught in shallow water,” Holst begins. “Then once those fish leave the shallows, many anglers will start to struggle. Their success rate – their catch rate – starts to drop off fairly quickly. It doesn’t need to be that way.”
Fishing and filming in early July 2012 with fellow Rapala and In-Depth Outdoors pro-staffer Will Roseberg, Holst trolled Rapala Tail Dancers and Storm Thundersticks over deep, structureless Mille Lacs Lake basins to boat good numbers of 24- to 27-inch suspending walleyes in tough conditions. Watch the video below.
“In mid-summer, [especially] if you don’t get any wind, you’re just not going to catch very many fish unless you troll like this,” Holst says.
Holst spools his walleye rods with Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core in the heat of the summer, when ‘eyes suspend over deep, structureless basins, chasing baitfish. He fishes the big Rapala and Storm crankbaits on the lead core, using planer boards and snap weights. He ties 30 feet of Sufix fluorocarbon between the lead core and the lures.
“The pattern is very easy to put together once you understand that very often, walleyes will leave the shallows and go out over soft-bottom basin areas to chase baitfish that have moved to these soft-bottom areas to feed on bug hatches,” Holst explains.
And that’s true on fisheries across the Upper Midwest, Holst notes.
“This is a universal technique,” he says. “This is not just a Mille Lacs technique. This is a Winnie, Lake of the Woods, Mille Lacs, Lake Pepin, Great Lakes technique.
“Anywhere you go – small body of water, big body of water – you’re going to have a significant chunk of the summer where the fish are going to come off structure and get out over deeper water and chase baitfish.”
But remember, “deep,” is relative.
“It doesn’t have to be as deep as it is here [on Mille Lacs],” Holst says. “I fish a lot of lakes where the deepest water might be 24, 25 feet deep. That’s deep enough.”
The pattern’s payoff is often fewer numbers, but bigger fish.
“When you’re on a suspended-walleye bite, what you’re going to see is a very large average size of the fish,” Holst says.
So spool on some Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core and try this pattern on the best walleye lake near you. You’ll be glad you did.
“Lead Core – don’t be afraid of it,” Holst implores. “It is such a tremendous tool… If you’re able to add this basic approach to your arsenal of tactics that you use throughout the course of the year to target walleyes, you’re going to much more successful.”
Holst’s Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core trolling pattern “really kicks into high gear” in the second or third week in June, he says. “And it lasts all summer long, until the water temperatures start to drop again in the fall.”
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