hey guys i could use a little help here.. what speed do you troll lures like hot-n-tots  worm harneses or diving plugs....i know depth could make a difference but some general guidlines would really help...we trolled today in 14-20 foot near the causway hot-n-tots back 70ft and harness with a 1 ounce sinker back 100ft trolling at 1.7-2.0 mph we were clueless and just guessed any advice greatly appreciated... the only fish we did catch was while drifting we got 6 cats on and pink and silver harnesses and a perch and a crappie on minnows... fished from about 7:30 am till 2:30 pm then called it a day
dan

Well I have no idea on my speed around1.5 I'm guessing but I usually got my lines out bout twenty to forty feet tops how wernt you dragging bottom ? I hit bottom wit that short of line and I go ok I guess that bout Wat I know

I do alot of trolling with worm harnesses and have alot success using bottom bouncers. I tend to use 2 oz at pyme and 3 oz and 4 on erie. The best speed is between 0.75 and 1.25. The bottom bouncer needs to be in contact with the bottom but not dragging and no more than a 45 degree angle. As far as leads on your cranks I refer to my precision trolling book that has almost every make and model lure to scale and shows you the depth the lure will hit at certain speeds with 10lb mono or fireline 10lb. I am currently at military but when i get home i can give you the information out of my book if you want and it is very accurate. I can put the lure 1 ft to 2 ft above the eyes consitantly. With everything start a program that is very diverse and make adjustments to speed and color till you strike eye. Good luck I will be on the lake later this week. I hope i helped

I ran nothing but Hot n Tots for years17 -20 lb test,20 foot behind the boat,for speed,I hang the tot over the side and watched till I got the right wiggle,boated  tons of eyes  and slab crappie year after year. The heavy line was for the snags not the fish,also used a lure retriever.

This is good information for inexperienced anglers on Pyme. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

For 8-9FOW in Pymie: 1/2oz bottom bouncer with 4ft mono leader tied to a worm harness. Run it 25ft back and keep your speed between 1.1 and 1.5. For cranks, refer to Sgt Maj. He's got the ticket with that troller's bible.

I have found that harness like slower speeds 1 to 1.5, hot n tots like it a little faster 1.5 to 2.  If in running both I try and stay around 1.5.  I also use the rule with 2 oz of lead @ 1.5 mph I go around a 3:1 or a 4:1 line out to depth ration with the harnesses.  for the hot and tots I run em way back and like em bouncin the bottom. 

As you can see it takes time and patients to find these trolling techniques. Dont forget to try stuff out of the norm. I ran 2oz bottom bouncers with a plain hook and 4ftthe lead from bouncer to hook in 3ft of water. We limited out in 40minless at pyme this year. The only reason for this i was not paying attention to the depth of water and caught an eye when changing direction i was trolling at 1mph. If you catch one there is almost always more there. I love this forum it took me years of trial and error to get to this point but it would not have taken so long if i had people like you guys to keep me in the right direction. My friends give me a hard time about telling my fishing secrets my reply to that is it has not stopped me from catching fish. I'll get mine and feel good about it.

This is good information for inexperienced anglers on Pyme. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

+1
Completely agree. I just got a boat suitable for Pyme and would like to start attempting to troll for eyes but have very little knowledge of how to go about it. Thanks for sharing your experience gentlemen, it is appreciated!

Don't troll with live bait so can't help you there.   But for the tots and deep diving Rapalas I start at 2 mph and go up to 2.6 mph.  Never fish the north end just the Jimtown end so snags aren't a real problem with me. So I only use 10# line.  Do keep a good lure knocker in the boat with some good heavy duty line attached.   You'll get most of your lures back.
 
Just this morning I was trolling tots at another lake and the fish were just coming up and bumping the lure at 2 mph.    When I increased the speed to 2.4 I started catching fish.