Trolling is one of the most effective ways to cover a lot of water and find aggressive, feeding fish. But with thousands of options on the market, choosing the right lure can be a challenge.
That’s why we’ve put together this list of the 10 best trolling lures, based on our own experience and feedback from other fishermen. Whether you’re targeting wahoo offshore or walleye in a freshwater lake, these lures are proven to get the job done.
What Is Trolling?
Trolling is a method of
The Four Main Types of Trolling Lures
- Skirted Lures (e.g., “Tuna Feathers” or Marlin Lures): These are the classic offshore saltwater trolling lures. They consist of a weighted head (bullet, plunger, slant-face) and a soft plastic or feathered skirt. They are designed to be pulled at high speeds, creating a bubble trail and disturbance that attracts pelagic predators.
- Diving Plugs (Crankbaits): These hard-bodied lures have a plastic lip that causes them to dive to a specific depth in the water column. They are excellent for precisely targeting fish you see on your sonar.
- Spoons: These curved metal lures wobble and flutter, creating an intense flash that imitates a wounded bait fish. They are a deadly option for a wide range of species.
- Soft Plastics: Large soft plastic lures, often rigged on heavy jig heads or as trailers on dredges, can be very effective, especially when trolled at slower speeds.
10 Best Trolling Lures for 2023 Reviewed
1. Eat My Tackle Bullet Head Lure
Best Overall Offshore Lure
This heavy, 1.5-pound bullet head lure is designed for high-speed trolling. It’s pre-rigged with a 400-lb cable leader and two stainless 10/0 hooks, ready to battle the biggest offshore predators. If you’re looking to pull in a monster wahoo or tuna, this is your lure.
2. MagBay High-Speed Wahoo Lures
Best Wahoo Trolling Lures
This two-pack of affordable wahoo trolling lures from MagBay comes in the bright purple and red colors that drive wahoo crazy. These twelve-inch skirted lures are secured with a tough, seven-strand wire leader.
3. Nomad Design DTX Minnow
Best Minnow Trolling Lure
The Nomad DTX Minnow is a beefy and durable deep-diving plug that is a favorite for catching yellowtail, bonito, and tuna. Its Autotune design ensures it runs straight and true at a variety of speeds.
4. Rapala X-Rap Magnum Fishing Lures
Best Rapala Trolling Lure
This is one of our favorites to use down in Baja. It doesn’t take much time before you’ll be hooking up with bonito and yellowtail left and right.
We like the bonito color and some of the mackerels. It’s hard to beat a Rapala, and everyone should have a few in their arsenal on any trip.
5. Bay State Tackle Trolling Tube
Best Striped Bass Trolling Lure
This simple yet incredibly effective lure imitates a large ocean sandworm, a favorite food of big striped bass. Rigged on a wire line or with a heavy inline weight, the trolling tube has accounted for countless trophy stripers.
Freshwater Trolling Lures
6. Luhr-Jensen Ford Fender Lake Trolls
Best Lake Trout Trolling Lure
The “Ford Fender” is a classic for a reason. This isn’t a lure itself, but a large, multi-bladed attractor that you run in front of your actual lure or bait. The intense flash draws in curious lake trout from a great distance.
7. Hot Spot Apex Salmon Killer
Best Salmon Trolling Lure
The Apex is a simple, banana-shaped plastic lure that has a unique rolling, kicking action that salmon find irresistible. It’s one of the most popular lures for salmon trolling on the West Coast.
8. Rapala Down Deep Husky Jerk
Best Walleye Trolling Lure
The Rapala Down Deep Husky Jerk is a classic deep-diving minnow plug. It’s designed to reach depths approaching 20 feet, getting it down into the strike zone of suspended, deep-water walleye.
9. Rapala Shad Rap 07
Best Bass Trolling Lure
The Shad Rap is an all-around solid casting and trolling lure that perfectly imitates a school of shad. Trolling this classic balsa wood bait is a deadly technique for catching bass.
10. Rapala DT Dives-To Series Crankbait
Best All-Around Freshwater Trolling Lure
The Rapala DT series is a versatile balsa wood crankbait. The best part is in the name: a “DT-10” dives to 10 feet, a “DT-16” dives to 16 feet, and so on. This takes the guesswork out of depth control.
A Note on Trolling Rigs & Natural Baits
While artificial lures are convenient, trolling with natural bait is often the most effective method.
- Ballyhoo Rigs: For offshore species like mahi mahi and blue marlin, a skirted lure rigged over a natural ballyhoo is the gold standard.
- Live Bait Trolling: Slow-trolling live bait like mullet or mackerel on a stinger rig is deadly for kingfish and other coastal predators.
Trolling is a method of
Trolling offers the best results in areas where there is not much possibility of becoming snagged on debris.
Different-sized weights are used depending on the type of
In some cases, if the bait or trolling lure is heavy enough, no weight at all is required. In saltwater situations, more weight may be required to keep the bait or trolling lure from riding on top of the water. This is true in the case of pulling a troll line behind a boat.
The speed at which a line is trolled is also dependent on the type of
Many saltwater fish respond better to a faster troll, whereas freshwater fish respond to a slower troll, such as from a stationary position with a slow to medium retrieval.
How to Troll for Fish
Trolling is most often associated with saltwater
Fish species with high predatory drive will often respond to a trolled lure better than stationary or bottom
Having more than one line in the water at the same time will drastically increase your hook-up odds. Depending on the size boat, for example, you can easily troll three to five lines.
Sonar or “fish finder” equipment greatly increases your success rate because it is crucial to know the depth of the fish you are trolling for.
Fish rarely swim to or change depths suddenly. For this reason, if you have the general location of where they are, you can set your trolling depths accordingly.
Once the location, lure, and a number of lines have been decided, rods are cast and set up in the back of the boat.
Trolling Speeds
The speed at which trolling lines are set varies, though many anglers agree that one to two miles per hour is a good starting point
When trolling, it’s important to change speeds if success is not immediately found. Putting the boat in and out of gear to allow lures to settle lower in the water column is an incredibly successful technique.
The faster the boat is going, the higher weighted lures will sit in the water column. Alternatively, when the boat’s movement is slower, lures will sit closer to the bottom of the water column.
Visibility or water clarity also plays a factor in deciding how fast to troll. If the water clarity is not very clear, it is harder for fish to see the lure going by at a higher speed.
When trolling freshwater and smaller bodies of water, trolling is most often done from the bank or in a boat, with the lure being pulled by retrieval of the line by the reel.
Bass
The speed and technique vary depending on the lure being used, which varies greatly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Trolling speed depends on your target species and lure choice. For wahoo, high speeds in excess of 10 knots are common. For most other saltwater species, 4-7 knots is typical. For freshwater species like walleye and trout, a much slower speed of 1-3 mph is standard.
You can control the depth of your lures using several methods:
Diving Plugs: The lip on the lure determines the depth.
Downriggers: These devices use a heavy cannonball weight to take your lure to a precise depth.
Planing Devices: Plugs like a Z-Wing or planer board will take your lure down and out to the side of the boat.
Inline Weights: A simple torpedo sinker attached in front of your lure.
Most can, but lures designed specifically for trolling will run truer at higher speeds without spinning out.
Insider Advice
Trolling for tuna or big muskellunge is one of the most exciting adventures an angler can experience. If you are not accustomed to trolling, we highly recommend it. Most species of fish can be trolled. No matter what your fish of choice is, in most cases, trolling will produce results.
![5 Best Beginner Fly Fishing Rods [2025 Buyer’s Guide]](https://castandspear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/best-fly-fishing-rods-for-beginners.webp)
