{"id":46700,"date":"2016-06-15T12:51:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T12:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpms.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/old-lures-slow-trolls-attract-trio-of-big-fish\/"},"modified":"2016-06-15T12:51:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T12:51:20","slug":"old-lures-slow-trolls-attract-trio-of-big-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/old-lures-slow-trolls-attract-trio-of-big-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Old lures, slow trolls attract trio of big fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old lures, slow trolls attract trio of big fish<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

In the fishing tackle business, old lures often aren\u2019t replaced by better lures \u2014 just newer ones.<\/p>\n

As evidence, consider Gary Gehrman of Stillwater, whose favorite bait is a Whopper Stopper Hellcat \u2014 a crankbait that has been out of production for some years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI buy them on eBay,\u201d Gehrman said. \u201cI like them because the way I fish, I need a bait that will wobble at very slow speeds. And the Hellcat will wobble slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gehrman is a troller. More than that, he\u2019s a planer board troller, meaning he sends small boards, each outfitted with fins, to port, starboard and aft of his boat. Each board transports a fishing line and lure a good distance from his boat.<\/p>\n

The three lines are legal on many Wisconsin lakes he fishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a recent day, I was trolling on Lake Wapogasset when a cold front came through,\u201d Gehrman said. \u201cI had been on the water about a half-hour, when a 40-inch northern pike hit one of the Hellcats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gehrman, who was alone, boated and quickly released the fish, then resumed trolling. Fifteen minutes later, he thought another of the Hellcats \u2014 they were all colored chartreuse \u2014 was snagged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was caught on a log on the bottom,\u201d he said. \u201cIt turned out to be a 45-inch muskie. It took me quite a while to get it into the boat. But when I did, I hailed a nearby bass fisherman and asked if he would take a photo. He did. Then I revived the fish and released it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gehrman\u2019s trolling method is unique. He travels at less than 1 mile an hour, with a 1-ounce sinker attached to his 10-pound-test line about 6 feet from the lure. He wants the sinker to bounce on the bottom, with the slow-wobbling bait trailing behind a foot or so off the bottom.<\/p>\n

With the big northern and even bigger muskie to his credit, Gehrman would have been happy to call it a day. But before he could head to shore, another of his three trolling rods pulsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis third fish was also big, a 22-inch walleye, which I released because it was in the lake\u2019s protected slot,\u201d Gehrman said.<\/p>\n

The only damper on the day: The fisherman who took Gehrman\u2019s photo with the muskie wanted him to kill the big fish because he believed muskies feast on Wapogasset\u2019s bass and walleyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him I would never do that,\u201d Gehrman said. \u201cI released the muskie.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old lures, slow trolls attract trio of big fish In the fishing tackle business, old lures often aren\u2019t replaced by better lures \u2014 just newer ones. As evidence, consider Gary Gehrman of Stillwater, whose favorite bait is a Whopper Stopper Hellcat \u2014 a crankbait that has been out of production for some years. \u201cI buy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1140,1317,1141,1217,1318,1218],"class_list":["post-46700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-muskie","tag-muskiefirst","tag-musky","tag-northern-pike","tag-outdoorsfirst","tag-walleye","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"youtube_video":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/muskie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}