The Importance Of “Trolling”
Back in the early days, Buck promoted trolling as being your “teacher.” But trolling quickly developed a negative connotation, at least in many bass fishing circles.
What he was really talking about though was covering water to eliminate unproductive areas, and to locate higher percentage structural features to fish more thoroughly.
Nowadays, you might refer to the same process as “idling“ or “graphing.” It’s not unusual to hear professional bass anglers mention spending nearly all their time in practice before an event doing nothing but. Today’s pros lean heavily on their electronics to accomplish this - Buck relied on his Spoonplugs. It’s the same concept in action, before today’s modern technology existed.
Buck Sez: “The trolling, if done correctly, is your ‘teacher’ when on the water. It is the thing that will tie all the loose ends together such as structure, movements of fish, weather and water conditions, depth and speed control, mapping, and interpretation. The trolling will tell you when, where, what, why and how to cast. If you pass up the trolling process, it is doubtful you will ever become a great fisherman.
But, after a couple years, you may be able to talk for an hour on ‘how to fish a plastic lizard.’”
