By Mike King

Anglers have been reading about trophy trout caught on mini jigs over the years. Now it is your turn to catch your own trophy trout and it is easy just by trolling mini jigs. All you need is one trolling outfit, a fish finder for depth and mini jigs (tube jigs lures). You do not have to run out and buy high-end ultra light gear for this style of mini jig fishing. Light saltwater tackle will do the trick. If you don’t have any of the gear, you can find tackle at a very low cost from tackle shops in your area.

Stay with their low-end gear to start out trolling lead core line. Later after a season of trolling lead core line with mini jigs upgrade your tackle if you wish by then you will understand lead core trolling.

The mini jigs real name is tube jigs. Many companies manufacture tube jigs, and they come in many sizes and colors. The trick using tube jigs is to make sure they swim straight before trolling the jig. If the jig is not swimming right, you may have to lift one skirt leg over the hook till you get the right balance on the tube jig to swim right.

I am using Okuma Reel CL-200L Level wine 5.1:1 and CE-C 862 8’½ Okuma Rod for this method of fishing. The length of the rod is perfect for kayak fishing because of the long leaders used in trolling. It will give you better control fighting and handling of fish around your kayak. The reel is perfect for holding 100 yards of 15# lead core trolling line. I use is 8# mono line; because 6# is just to light for this setup. In testing the two lines, I have better control with the 8# test using the lead core line and I’m able to set the drag easier for the 8# test line. The 6# mono line was just to light and the fish would break off. Go with the 8# test, you will be happy you did.

To have the best chance to be successful at trolling lead core line is using a fish depth finder. This is necessary because you need to know how deep you are at all times. The rule of thumb with lead core line is every 10 yards is a different color of lead core line and there are 10 colors in a 100yard spool. Your trolling depth will be 5 feet for every 10 yards you let out of lead core line. This is the reason for the fish depth finder so you can get your lure down to the right depth and keep it in the strike zone of the fish.

To start out trolling turn on your depth finder, start paddling to get speed and then start letting line out. Once you get speed up, I found it’s best to let out one color by holding the rod with both hands because the mini jig is weightless and you have to feed out the line. However, once you get line drag from the water, the line starts coming out easy. Just feed it out line with one hand as the rod sits in the rod holder. Use your depth finder and let out colors to reach the depth you wish to troll.

The reason for the level wine reel is as the bottom starts getting shallower and if the tip of the rod is bouncing your dragging on the bottom. You can reel in with one hand and not have to worry that the line is going on even on the reel (this is the reason for a level wine reel) and until the rod tip stops bouncing off the bottom.

Just troll very slowly in your kayak and wait for your rod clicker to start screaming and you will catch more trophy fish and place in the money in Freshwater trout fishing tournaments you enter.