Heading to Rough

[jlblak02]

Think I am going to head to rough tomorrow morning. Anyboy want to throw out some helpful information? All is appreciated.

[KYCatfish]

That makes 2 of us. I just got invited to camp there Saturday and Sunday. This will be my first time on a boat on Rough. We plan to troll for hybrids and I'm new to trolling as it is. Any pointers? Can I run 4 lines off an 1860 w/o planer boards and downriggers? One off each side and 2 off the rear? Or will 4 be a headache?

I'm looking forward to it.

If you see a Fisher/Tracker Grizzly 1860 with a big ol' boy with a goatee, that's me. You'll probably see a little red-headed, freckle-faced boy with me as well. Can't go fishing without my little man.

[zx150]

I will be there at day light.

[stripernut]

That makes 2 of us. I just got invited to camp there Saturday and Sunday. This will be my first time on a boat on Rough. We plan to troll for hybrids and I'm new to trolling as it is. Any pointers? Can I run 4 lines off an 1860 w/o planer boards and downriggers? One off each side and 2 off the rear? Or will 4 be a headache?

I'm looking forward to it.

If you see a Fisher/Tracker Grizzly 1860 with a big ol' boy with a goatee, that's me. You'll probably see a little red-headed, freckle-faced boy with me as well. Can't go fishing without my little man.

you can troll 4 easy, the 2 outside rods should be shorter distance from the boat with deeper running lures, the 2 rods out the back should be farther distance from the boat with shallower running lures. this way when you make sharp turns the long lines will "ride" above the shallow/deep lines and wont foul.
example;
chrome or pearl bomber or bandit crankbaits 75 feet back out each side.
shallow running ghost x-rap or black/silver ac shiner minimum 100 ft back out the back of the boat.

p.s. if you see that all the hits are coming from the deeper baits then you might want to change the shallow runners to deeper cranks, however just reduce to one rod straight out the back. its tough to fight more than 3 striped side fish at once anyway

[KYCatfish]

you can troll 4 easy, the 2 outside rods should be shorter distance from the boat with deeper running lures, the 2 rods out the back should be farther distance from the boat with shallower running lures. this way when you make sharp turns the long lines will "ride" above the shallow/deep lines and wont foul.
example;
chrome or pearl bomber or bandit crankbaits 75 feet back out each side.
shallow running ghost x-rap or black/silver ac shiner minimum 100 ft back out the back of the boat.

p.s. if you see that all the hits are coming from the deeper baits then you might want to change the shallow runners to deeper cranks, however just reduce to one rod straight out the back. its tough to fight more than 3 striped side fish at once anyway

Hey man...really appreciate the advice. I had the distance part made up in my mind but didn't consider depth. For some reason, it seems that running deeper out the back would work better but really...what do I know about it?

thanx again.

[KYCatfish]

I got to the cabin at 10 last night and we were on the water before 7 this morning. It was sprinkling..no big deal. Then the angels turned on the faucet. A VERY COLD, VERY HARD downpour hit us like a wall. I couldn't even see where I was going. That rain was stinging like a fire hose on us. Did I mention COLD.....brrrrr.

Went back to the cabin for a few hours and it cleared up into a beautiful day ......swam and tubed and cliff/rock jumped (my 7 yr old boy jumped off a 15 foot rock with no pause)...no more fishing ...although the rock jumping was fun.

This was my first time on Rough. A couple question: What kind of baits do you troll for hybrids when not using a downrigger? I was using cranks and rattle trap and rooster tail. BTW: In an hour on the water, we only hooked one. We were trying to get to Laurel branch and got caught in the rain.

Second question: How do you fish that lake on a weekend? I could not believe how many pontoons I saw. Only a few jet skis, a few fishing boats, but many, many, pontoons. Traffic was very close and seemingly dangerous.

[catchandfillet]

Think I am going to head to rough tomorrow morning. Anyboy want to throw out some helpful information? All is appreciated.

Zara Spook in the morning