Tube-N-Worm vs. all else?
 

Happy Father's day folks!

Question?
What is your favorite "go to" lure in the kayak?
and
What is the technique you use, trolling or cast and retrieve?

For me with the Hobie, I am hands free to t-n-w with a little twitch on the rod to produce the best fishing results while trolling.

I can't get past t-n-w to try anything else.

Would really like to learn to fish something else.

I've tried other stuff, but haven't had much luck with it. A guy I fish with seems to have luck trolling white sluggos, but I haven't tried them yet.

Tube and worm after the sun comes up for a while. That and verticle jigging tins and rubber. The first few hours are all about the top. My go to are the Salty Bugger white needles. Worked with a twitch.

Why change tactics if your slaying on the TnW?? I slay em on red T-man tubes and pearl sluggos
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Yeah the tube and worm is just made for the kayak IMO. I have done some plugging and jigging from the kayak and it does work, but its just kind of unnatural for me to cast sitting down so I stick with trolling....

For the uninitiated, please describe how to troll with a t-n-w? Can you do this with spinning gear? Can you troll with rod holders imbedded in the hull behind the seat?

Low and slow is the way to go! I like putting about a two ounce egg sinker weight about a couple of feet
in front of mine to keep it down there, then release it so it's close to bottom about 50-100 feet back.
The nice thing about 'yak trolling is that, in fact, the speed which corresponds to a nice leisurely paddle
is the one you want. You can troll for a half hour or more at a time without getting tired.

(Heavy) spinning gear will work (30 lb test works well), but I like to use a conventional reel and a heavy
boat rod (off my Dad's old Grady White) for my trolling; let's you get in even the biggest stripers and
blues. I have a T shaped wood rod holder with an old surf tube attached by a swivel at the bottom and a small
rope tied through a screw eye on the T cross bar on top; by pulling the rope up, I can troll straight back,
and by letting it go and pushing the rod back with my elbow, I can flop it sideways, a huge help in getting
it out to change worms or fight a fish.

Wow, low and slow? I don't really use any lead when I troll, but should start using it. Everytime that the tube hits something I tend to reel in and check the worm or sea grass. I'm usually in 3 - 10 feet of water and over a lot of boulders, so I never thought of using a weight, except for a few of those deeper holes that we know about. Good idea to try it and thanks for the advice.

Keel weights are the way to go. I use the ones that allow you to change the weight of the egg sinker.

No weight needed in that water. I use weights when the water is 10-20 feet deep. 20 and deeper, I don't bother trolling because for me
It's too hard to keep my tube town. (from my hobie)
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And, whenever you bump a rock with the rig, are you unsure if the worm is still on , or if the rig is fouled? How do you stay in the water with confidence?

Throw a good Ball Bearing Swivel on your line to attach to. Helps keep the line twist to a minimum.

i don't trol T&W from a yak.. but I've used them plenty....if I need to go deep.... I prefer lead core... much more depth control..

from the kayak in water under 15 feet, usually a half ounce of weight is all that is needed to stay down there, the tubes I use already have that built in so I don't add anymore. A spinner blade works well to detect hangups and weed build ups because the when its spinning, the rod tip will vibrate a little so you can keep your eye on it while you are trolling and if you don't like the "feel" you can bring it in to check it.

I always had my best results slow trolling with eels or drifting with eels. TnW cathces lots of fish but can be a PITA with the numbers of small fish it catches and the tendancy for porgies and other small fish to strip the worm off of the rig. Fishing at night I would sometimes use a strip of eel on a black TnW tube and do well.

Dan,
I thought you were the master of the T&W what's with all the questions? Just kidding of course. There are other things that work of course. The T&W can be a PIA at times. When its weedy or as JLH mentioned with porgies, etc are plentiful it can be a lot of work and expensive with the price of worms these days. The next time you catch a porgy try livelining one of the little sob's. When its weedy in the AM and at sunset I like trolling a metal lip plug and Mombos in shad color. When there are snappers around they can work great. I have gotten some scary sized bluefish on the Mombos in the fall. Make sure to beef up the hooks and split rings and pinch down the barbs. Two trebles can be scary with a 15 pounder thrashing around. After dark a black Bomber can be deadly as are eels slow trolled or cast into structure.

Oh yes, that spinner blade. I saw those displayed at the Hartford show a couple of years back, good idea.
Thank you again folks.

How ya doing 'J' - just like you told me at the club.

Thanks Charlie. Waiting for some clear weather to get back out. Way too many thunder storms in the last 2 weeks.