By Pro Guide Ron Fulk

Summer is a great time to troll for suspended muskies. One of the most important factors of trolling lures is knowing the depth they are running. All lures have a max depth they will run, without adding weight. Keep adding line and crankbaits will keep diving until they reach the maximum depth, then beyond that point it doesn’t matter how much line you add it will not go any deeper, it may even come up some. The max depth is determined by line diameter, the thinner the line the deeper the max depth will be.

You don’t always have to run your cranks at their maximum depth, if your targeted species is suspended at ten feet, it doesn’t make much sense to run your lures at fourteen ft. If you shorten the amount of line that you have out, you can restrict the depth your lures will run.

There are two ways to measure your line out, one is with line counter reels, and the other is to count the passes on your level wind reels. That is the part that moves back and fourth on the reel to distribute the line evenly on the spool. For example, you want to target the ten ft range, find a flat area of the lake, where you can get your boat in ten ft of water for a distance, let out line counting the number of passes (or feet) until you make bottom contact, from then on with that amount of that particular line, your lure will always run ten ft deep. If you change your line diameter you will have to recalibrate the line distance, Now you are ready to move out over deeper water knowing your lure is at the desired depth range, looking for suspended muskies.

Tite lines,
Ron Fulk
Licensed Guide
www.midwestmuskies.com
847-697-1951