All this talk about trolling has me wondering how often people actually troll up there. Some trips I don't even troll at all. What percentage of your fishing time is spent trolling? On average I doubt I even troll 3 % of my fishing time. Like I said the only reason I would troll is if fishing was bad and I was in desperate search mode, which isn't very often. Occasionally I troll for lakers and walleyes but I don't target these fish too often, too busy chasing smallies most of the time. One of these years I am going to spend more time looking for lakers if I can pull myself away from those smallies.

Same here Mike. Put me at 1-2%. If I do troll it will be on my way back to camp when I am through casting my arm off. ~JOE~

I do not use a depth finder when canoeing, so I will troll and/or drift until I find some interesting structure or catch a keeper fish. I will then stop and fish that area to determine if it is productive. Sometimes this takes 30 minutes, sometimes longer. When fish are shallow in early spring, I rarely troll since it results in multiple snags. If the fish are scattered, I might spend more time trolling a weed line or back and forth over submerged points. My guess is I spend 15-20% of my time trolling and/or drifting.

I troll about 5 hours each day, usually early morning and mid-day as I am targeting Quetico lake trout most of the time. I'd say I troll 50% of the time or more. Evenings are for walleyes.

When we move from one spot to another, we typically will troll. Not too often do we troll simply for trolling purposes. Just trying to maximize our opportunities to catch fish. You can't catch fish if you don't have your line in the water.

Almost always troll or drift when fishing Lakers. I will troll "new lakes" I have never fished until I find fish, which usually does not take a great deal of time, then will anchor or drift the area until the bite is gone.After that I will troll until the fish or the depth finder tell me to stop.

Put me also in the 1-2% group. This year I'm going to be uping the percentage. I'm going to Pine Lake and will be trolling about 4-5 hours.

My trolling time depends on lake and time of year. Most of my trips are about 50%.

I am a serious walleye fisherman. I usually Lindy rig or bottom bounce worm harnesses in search of concentrations of walleyes. Sometimes will troll a crank bait to find eyes.

Once I find em I usually will get my jigging pole out and vertically jig.

So when walleye fishing, I would say I am trolling 60% of the time.

When chasing smallmouth so ... I will use top water baits and Quetico Mikes proven method of Zulu and Zee too subsurface. Maybe a little wacky rigging SENKO's. So no trolling for smallies.

Old Salt has given me some trolling methods to fiish for lakers that I am going to try this year. Will also vertically jig for them as well. So I am not sure what percent of my time will be spent trolling for lakers since laker fishing is so new to me.

not much at all Mike...probably about the same amount as you.

Don't troll from spot to spot as we usually are moving too fast to the next spot to be trolling. We do drift fish/cast a lot which of course is entirely different then trolling.

Maybe 50% but varies quite a bit trip,to trip and per species.

T

Ah fishing.......I love it all! Spent most of yesterday getting ready to go offshore to the Dry Tortugas for a 4 day snapper/grouper trip in a few weeks, yea baby!

Trolling can be a very engaging method but is most effective when coupled with a depth finder. Time flies and I can do a 10 hour day checking out new water in the blink of an eye (or so it seems). There is something addictive about following that 28ft contour line with a big lure which runs 26ft. Or if I am early in the year my selection might only dive 12 and I follow a 15ft contour. Of course "follow" is relative term. You do your best and try and be efficient. Often it can be better to bounce bottom.

Spend a fair amount of time on a lake with precision trolling tactics and the knowledge gained is invaluable. I spent 9 days on the Quetico side of Basswood trying out a fully decked canoe/kayak hybrid. It had a foot controlled rudder and even though it was 18ft long I could pivot almost on a dime. Think I learned some things? When I get old and decrepit and can barely manage one portage I will have an ace in the hole. Not only do you find the productive reefs and bars and points but by spending time on them you start to learn them, what they really look like ("wow, I didn't know this reef was this big and that it topped out at 9ft"!).

Once I learn some water then the whole plethora of angling comes into play. Lets say I spent the majority of the day trolling but now its late afternoon and I have a nice gentle breeze which will blow me along a shoreline or the top of a reef. Time to cast!

My achilles heel is I'm all about discovery. I seldom keep going back to the same places over and over again until I really learn them. I usually seek out new water and new places to travel to............out comes the depth finder and in goes the rod into its holder. Dinner usually shows up within an hour or two.

But to answer the question ;-) It depends! If I find myself prime time for smallmouths then its all casting. For Lakers its all trolling (although a pal of mine went last october and caught 30 lakers in 30 casts anchored on a reef........(then promptly spent the next 4 days in camp windbound)........Walleyes is typically a trolling game but drifting also has its appeal. For pike I'm pretty much 50/50. If they are in the cabbage weeds or at the base of them (in deep water right where they start to thin out) then I will be casting.

On my last canoe trip I muskie fished. You can check out the trip in the trip report section (An Irregular trip). I would say it was 50/50. Whenever I could use the wind to an advantage I would drift and cast.

I probably troll about 40-50% of the time while paddling.

Pitching jigs, or vertical jigging most of the time for me.

I troll if we are passing through lakes on our day trips. But it's not relaxing enough for me :p