If you troll alone with spin tackle you can get more enjoyment with your Muskie fishing and pick up more Muskie by going to a medium action rod 7 or 7½ feet long and drop to 10 to twelve pound test line. The best quality reel in heavy fresh water of light salt water action will fill the bill. When I guided I gave my fishing parties a medium action 7½ foot rod with a light action salt water spinning reel loaded with twelve pound test line. Never lost a Muskie to the outfit...only fishermen mistakes in not reeling when a Muskie charged toward the boat. Some guides use braided lines and flat line troll where the can be continuously trolling without bringing in the lures. Sort of like a boat ride where it's luck in the fishermen catching a Muskie rather than skill. Their theory being the more miles they cover the more fishing the fisherman is getting. I found the Great Lakes trollers covered twenty miles heading from one area to another making big circles. The St. Lawrence River Muskie guides pick areas that produce regularly and work each area for a spell then head to another area. The reason being that each area he covers has, over the years, produced Muskie. The individual fisherman that trolls alone soon reduces the weight of his tackle to meet his needs and skills. He soon realizes he is over equipped and starts experimenting in light weight outfits. Since only one out of ten thousand Muskie fishermen will ever use the fly on Muskie, you find the ones that do stay to heavier weight outfits. Rods 8 to 8½ foot are the rule with weight forward lines and a fifteen pound tippet. I found that a 9 or 9½ foot rod medium weight fast taper fly rod offered greater fishing ease and fought down the hooked Muskie faster. I stayed at the twelve and ten pound tippet and have on
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