Alright. The initial trotlining report is in:

My brother and I could have gone with a 50ft or even a 100ft trot but being the fools we are we decided if we are going to try it we are going to balls in and got the 250ft line. It was much MUCH longer than we had anticipated.....We found out quick that it doesn't coil and uncoil like rope does because all the brass swivles and knots grab each other. We spent the first 15-20 min after opening the thing untangling it. Not being the type to learn from our mistakes we immediatly got the thing tangled again at the boat ramp and spent another 20 min untangling the mess. We finally came up with the idea of wrapping the line around two unused cleats on the side of the boat which worked out well for us.

We got lots of advice about different ways to attach the drops to the line and eventually decided on the biggest brass swivles we could find. I know a big fish might straigten it out or pop it but I don't have enough confidence in my manual dexterity yet risk something else. Keep in mind we got the thing tangled TWICE before it ever hit the darn water. I think they are either number 1 or 2. It takes a long time to tie 50 hooks to 50 swivles and the drop lines are coated in something kind of waxy which made my fingers black.

We found a likely looking spot on EM. Near the Shady Grove launch there is a creek ( second on the left ) That empties into the main lake and has lot of timber that is stuck in the sand and silt at the shallow mouth of the creek. We tied one end to some of this timber and ran the line parrallell to the creek in about 4 feet of water with a jug about every 50ft and the end anchored with two 15 pound weights. I was really happy with the way the snap swivles were working until I got to about the 30th one and couldn't feel my thumb anymore. It was a good thing my fingers were covered in the black stuff since it covered the bruise. I swore to my brother if he made me unhook them all at the end of the night then I would drown him in the lake and hide his body in the timber.

We then spent the next 6 hours in the rain without catching a fish.

Running the line in the morning was an experience. The first 8 hooks were stripped. I think this is in part becuase I used frozen shad because I couldn't catch enough when we started. Then...to my astonishment...there was an actual fish on the 9th hook. Granted it was only an 8 inch channel but it was a fish of the type I was trying to capture. My spirits lifted. A dozen hooks further down and we got excited. The line was jerking hard. It was like the kind of satisfaction you get during an easter egg hunt as a kid. Then we saw that it was a gar. A big gar. As we started to figure out how to unhook him he shook hard and we had a moment of panic as we watched all these hooks in the water jump around. He saved us the trouble of unhooking him by eating the hook and drop and swimming off.

In total for about $18 and 2 hours work we netted two gar, 3 undersized channels and a turtle. We did have one hook and drop that was covered in slime and the hook was bent which is enough to encourage us to try again. I have no idea how we would unhook and boat anything with that kind of power but I look forward to crossing that bridge when we come to it. The worst that could happen is getting pulled into my own trotline and drowning right ?

Qustion: in 4ft of water with on end of the line clearly up out of the water tied to a tree it was fairly easy to run the line. How the hell do you find, retrieve, and run a line that is in 10 ft of water with both end anchored underwater ????