ribwart said:
Back trolling, (as I know it), involves using moderate depth diving plugs held against the current....Your boat is then slowly maneuvered downstream, allowing the plugs to slowly swim their way into the holding water you wish to work them. Ie: by holding the boat back with the oars, the plugs work against the current behind the boat a certain distance and dive to a specific depth based on the tuning of the "bills" and angle of the line to them. The oarsman can then meander the boat back and forth in such a way that the lines/plugs slowly drift downstream into holding water based on the position of the boat above them. The lines remain static, in rod holders allowing the current pressure on the bills to create tension causing the plugs to achieve their swimming action....Basically the only difference between backtrolling and say trolling on a lake or ocean is that with back trolling it's the water that's moving while the boat stays in one place, rather than the boat pulling the lines through the water. Hope that makes some kind of sense,
Rib
what he said....
We love the back troll here in Oregon. Back troll and pulling plugs are two different activities but same net effect.
Back troll is using kicker motor to hold in current while positioning Kwik-fish, Hot Shots, Spin-n-glows w/eggs, spinners, anything that you think will whack-em - once postioned you ever so slightly decrease power so as to move down river very slowly through your fav hole or slot.
Back Bounce is same only using a cannon-ball sinker on 12-36in dropper to get you offering in to the strike zone (see below diagram)/ Here the your line is let out until the cannon-ball touches bottom and the bottom can be touched with each successive small raise and lowering of your rod tip while you move slowly down river with the kicker controlling rate of decent.
Feet per minute is the rate of decent in either case
Pulling plugs is a discribed above but for primarily for Steelhead and out of drift boat using oar power to control decent - very effective but should be avoided in C& R fishery as fish tend to swallow plug deep.
Final variation is anchor fishing in river current (most popular on larger systems - Frasier, Columbia, etc...rivers) where one is anchored at the top of their fav hole or slot and eases back into the hole or slot a sardine wrapped kwik-fish or other suitable plug. Goes without saying you must have an outbound current to fish this method - we troll the incoming and anchor on the ebb flow when fishing this method in tide water. Start with smaller Kwikfish (K14) at early ebb and move to K15 or K16 in heavier ebb or river flows and back to K14 at bottom of ebb flow.
Put the pole in the holder, get out the cribbage board, and wait for the rod tip to burry into the water. Spring and Fall run Chinook love the Kwik fish in our area and they will about tear your rod out of the holder when hiting a Kwik-fish. The urge here is to grab the rod and swing for the fences on the hook set - but often one tears the plug out of their mouth before hooks find a home. Leave the rod in the holder until the fish is peeling line from the reel and then couple of short pops to set hook and away we go. Tuning you Kwik is imperative so that it dives absolutely strainght down. Any side movement favoring left or right on the dive and you might as well go home - only properly tune plugs will catch fish - we can dicsuss how in another post if anyone want to know how. Besure and re-tune plug after bait wrapping to again, ensure she dive only straight down - many beleive this is more important then color selection.
Below is a pic of fav rigging of a K15 sized Kwikfish as well pics of how we get the swivel on the Kwikfish. K15's and K13's I believe are the only sizes that have the eye that can be opened. Swivels on hooks are a must your fighting fish will leverage the Kwik body against the current during fight and pull the hooks out. Subsitute singles for trebles where regs dictate.
Popular Kwik colors are:
Chome
Fickle Pickle
Chartuse and chrome
Green and Chrome
Chome with pink dots
cheese measles
double trouble
I can post pics for those interested
See also the following link for movie demo'ing how the bait wrap your Kwikfish -
http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/movies/biglqwrap.mpg (11mb)
Backbonce/Anchor Setup - sub in plugs for spin-n-glow
