aero320
08-05-2013, 11:46 AM
I wanted to start this thread on trolling with snap weights. Essentially, a weight from 1/2oz. to 3oz. is attached to the line approximately 50 feet in front of the lure and causes lures to run deeper. They work for crank baits and jigs as well. Snap weights are very sensitive to boat speed, but now with the ability to set trolling motor speed (iPilot) to within 0.1 MPH you can troll lures at almost any depth. Simply adding a 1 oz. snap weight 20 feet in front of a diving crank bait makes it run 33% deeper.
I started using this system on Tims last year with a planer board setup (the kind the guys use on the Great Lakes) trolling for hybrids. Once you get the boat speed worked out with the correct amount of weight, they work as good as downriggers. This summer on JPP I was trolling with the snap weight rigs alongside downriggers and they produced just as many fish.
There is a booklet that is available titled "Precision Trolling" that the guys up north that troll use. It has "dive curves" for most of the popular crank baits. Testing was done with 10 pound mono and similar diameter Firewire. The dive curve is a plot of lure depth vs. amount of line out. You can select the depth you want the lure to run, and figure out how far to let the lure out. The book also has a table that shows snap weight effect vs. boat speed.
I started using this system on Tims last year with a planer board setup (the kind the guys use on the Great Lakes) trolling for hybrids. Once you get the boat speed worked out with the correct amount of weight, they work as good as downriggers. This summer on JPP I was trolling with the snap weight rigs alongside downriggers and they produced just as many fish.
There is a booklet that is available titled "Precision Trolling" that the guys up north that troll use. It has "dive curves" for most of the popular crank baits. Testing was done with 10 pound mono and similar diameter Firewire. The dive curve is a plot of lure depth vs. amount of line out. You can select the depth you want the lure to run, and figure out how far to let the lure out. The book also has a table that shows snap weight effect vs. boat speed.