Looking for advice on gang trolls and willow leafs?

Talons, gang trolls worked really well for trout many years ago. I was just looking at them in wallys World the other day, and was wondering how well they would work pulling a spoon or anchovey for cohoe? Someone on here must of tried that already, lets hear from you...............BB

hey BB, I knew a guy who tried a willow leaf for salmon before and couldn't keep the grilse off the thing. It could have been that they were just thick in the area or the smaller presentation attracted the juvinile salmon.

I would recommend the gibbs 1" willow blades with the prism tape on it. use about a 12-24" leader and a wedding band with worm. for the wedding band try red/glow or red with the hook size 8 or smaller, the idea being to hide the hook in the bait as much as possible. for bait use worms or powerbait trout worms, powerbait worms and leaches. When the trout strikes let it eat the worm for a few seconds before you sweep and start to retrieve. If you live in the victoria area go down to island outfitters and ask someone there, they set me up and everything they gave me caught fish at Elk lake. I used to use gang trolls a lot but have switched to plugs and spoons, they seem to produce larger fish if not as many. Try using a #5 or 7 rapala floating or countdown in perch or rainbow trout pattern. I have also found that the x-rap works quite well, try olive green or white pearl.
Good luck!

I've used a two-blade troll in front of a delta rotating in-line flasher on both sides of the boat with a spoon five feet above that for Chinooks.

It works.

I also currently use a two-blade (willows + rudder) troll for trout. And I've used trolls for years as well.

Very effective.

However.......I never run the bait/lure close to the troll. IMO 18" to 24" is just way too short and spooks a lot of fish.

I go minimum 42 inches no matter what the bait. Often I'm up around 4ft. to 6ft.

The color red is over-rated for trout trolls. Try getting rid of the red and putting green or green and chartreuse on the blades ( I use willow blades about 2 to 2 1/2" long mostly). Also U/V tape works in conjunction with the green.

Brass/gold blades on dull overcast. Chrome/nickel if bright sunny.
50/50 Chrome/Brass if water murky and /or day is "iffy" sun/cloud.

Study the color of the water closely.

There are some big-water lakes where you need to use the absolute biggest gang -troll you can find.

I like running Apex trout Killers 1.5" or Flatfish in size f-5 to f-7.
I like to put the troll and lure at least 100 feet behind the boat.
For me, rowing outproduces an electric trolling motor.

Water temp and location depth of fish are critical.

I dont use gang trolls, double wedding bands and colorodo blades with a 6" leader with some worm, Tom Macs and apex work good too. I would fish off bottom most places thats where the chunks hang out

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