I love trolling for the rainbow trout with a downrigger. Its time consuming but well worth it when you get a hit. Up here in Penticton B.C. we have a large lake called Okanagan Lake thats about 60 miles long and supposedly we have a lake monster called the Ogopogo just like Loch Ness. National Geographic is supposed to come here in the summer to look for it just like Leonard Nemoy (Dr Spock) did a number of years back. Anyhow, we have Rainbows up to 35 pounds, Kokanee salmon, Lake trout that reach 50+ pounds and ling cod.

Gary

That would be cool!

 I don't troll much for trout but we do do a lot for "WALLEYE"

I believe we dont have walleye in western canada but more towards Saskatchewan and Alberta. Bass fishing is popular here along with steelhead

Gary

gary: what do you run behind the downriggers????  we have smaller lakes with rainbows in them and we use rapala's. we also use baby cowbells and a crawler harnes.. but the way we like to do it is to use a slip bobber and hang a lantern over the side of the boat and just relax.

 out in the big lake we just use the down riggers. you can troll for hours . that is the nice thing out there is you set them at 1 deapth and leave them when your catching fish.

what do you use for releases??? out in the big lake we use rubber bands. but when we go after them in the smaller lakes we use little algagator clips.

Hi mr mom,

My preference for downrigging lures is an Apex lure thats colored like a trout. Above that i run a small flasher/dodger. Last year we had a fishing derby that had about 300 people enter. It was a hidden weight tournament and what that is is that sealed in an envelope is the winning weight for the prizes. Theres 3 categories. 1 for trout, bass and kokanee salmon. Youre allowed to enter one of each species on each of the two days of the derby. The top prize for the trout was $5000.00 (can). One guy caught a 7 1/2 pound trout, another caught a 2 1/2 pound and i got a 5 pounder. Anyhow the hidden weight was 3 pounds so the guy that caught the 2 1/2 pounder won the $5000.00 because he was the closest to the hidden weight. I caught mine on a medium size Apex lure colored like a trout at 22 feet and the winning fish was caught on the exact same Apex but smaller. I use a scotty downrigger and they come with their own releases which are in a way like aligator clips but they have 3 release strenghs such as light, medium and hard. Plugs such as witch doctors and mac squids work well too. I swear by Apex and its the lure that takes up much of my tackle box. At the bottom youll see a web address that you can click on and it will take you to the radio station page that took pics of the derby. Youll see a date below my one that says May24/25th 2004

Gary

http://www.giantfm.ca/photos.htm - www.giantfm.ca/photos.htm

gary: out in the big lake i use j-11 rapala's in fl. green on flat lines they  look like smelt in the water. then on the downriggers i use northport nailers. fl. green with white backs. its funny how every year they use diffrent plugs for the salmon and trout. anything from tadpolys and fireplugs to what ever else.

 in the spring we dont use dodgers or flashers, to much to mess with. bit in the summer when you have to go out to 100 ft of water or more they use them...

 no ice on the big lake this year and if we get some warm rain we will be able to fish right off shore . the browns come in first the the salmon... we do most of our fishing anywhere from dragging the baits accross the sandbars to about 30 ft. of water. thats only about 100 yds off shore.

  but this weekend going to take the kids to the river. they are getting a few steelheads and the sucker should be starting to hit...

Hi mr mom

The carp wasnt mine. They also had a category for bottom fish such as carp, suckers and squaw fish, They give the prize which is usually a $1000.00 gift certificate to the person that has the most combined weight of bottom fish over the weekend. Its their way of ridding the lake of some of these fish as the lake gets overpopulated with them. They also tagged a carp with a $10.000.00 prize if someone caught it. Funny thing about that is that they tagged and released the carp 2 days before the tournament started so i doubt that the carp would be into a feeding mood after just being released into a new lake after its original capture. Ive never tried a rapala. For some reason i always associated them as a bass fishing lure but i guess im wrong if you use them for trolling. I fished steelheads a little over the years but never have caught one. Fishing for them is an art in itself. You have to be quiet and more or less stalk for them like hunting a deer. The method ive used for steelies is a long foam bobber with about 6 or 7ft of line to a hook with some orange or pink wool on the end and let it bottom bounce along the river. In some places youre lined up along 15 or twenty other anglers and you all have to cast in seqeunce with each other or you get into a tangled mess and ive just about seen fights break out on the rivers edge. I start my downrigging usually in May but june is better as they still seem to be a little sluggish when the waters cooler. I troll at 20 ft minimum and fish usually 50-60ft at the max. That pic of me you saw? I nailed him 20 minutes after i left shore and of course i had a sandwich in my mouth along with a coffee when he hit. So my question to you is, do you ever spray your lures with WD40 lubricant. They say it acts as a good attractant as it has fish oil in the ingredients. I used it that day but then again i catch just as much fish without using it.

Gary

gary: yep i have used wd 40 , but only when bass fishing. there is a little trick we use out in the big lake that works realy good. well there are a few we use out in the big lake.  1 is do you use a good graph??? when we were running paper graphs we could see the fish come up and take a look at the baits. we would sometime speed up or put the boat in neutral and they would hit.. the other is we would put dish soap on the lures!!!! it leaves a little bubble trail in the water...

 when we start out in the spring we run the downriggers about 20-25 foot behind the boat and 3 or 4 ft. down. run the lures in the prop wash. the kings and jacks think the lure got hit and jump at them. we run the rapala's on flat lines waaaaaaay back. we pick up alot of browns early in the mornings in the shallows.

 speed is another think. we try to troll at about 3 mph.

  its still alittle early here for fishing the lake, but the are going to start when we get some warm rain.  the steelhead are starting to make their run up river here. yes it is elbow to elbow in some parts, but we have our gun club and they have the best part of the river. and the fish are trying to get back into the spot where the club lets them out of the holding pond... going to try it tomarrow . the river is up but not to bad. alot of snow this year. they are saying the big lakes are up 12 inches from last year.

 the way we fish for steelheads are with 9 ft. rods with a flys and a drop sinker and drift them in the runs.

 as the summer gets going some of the guys run out 12 or 13 miles for the kings. that is to far out for me. i like to see the shore. lake michigan will turn on you fast , and i have seen it do it .

 Wow nice carp,

I was trying to enlarge your pic to see what it was. Did you know that in freshwater lakes in England that its catch and release (except salmon and trout) and if you kill a carp you get fined just like shooting a deer out of season. I was a serious carp fisherman in England and it was always a treat to catch one but ive caught so many over here that the novelty has worn off. I use a horton crossbow when i hunt during the bow part of the season as i never had the knack at shooting a compound bow. It takes lots of practice so the fish would be laughing at me  I dont have a graph, only an eagle fish finder. Doesnt the dish soap give of an icky taste in the water for the fish? I run my rig about 12 ft behind my rigger weight but i also heard that the gas in the water from the outboard motor tends to attract fish which to me seems kind of stange. I do know that some people use a thing called a black box that gives electric signals down the rigger cable to attract fish but you have to get the voltage just right or it will scare the fish.

Gary

gary: when you troll and say there are fish in front of the boat, they move out of the way when you go by. then after the boat goes by the come back in to the school hehind you. but if you think when the fish see the bait going along behind the boat and all of a sudden it looks like it is haveing trouble in the prop wash that is when they hit it. injurd fish !!!!

 the dish soap on the lures dont taste like what it would to you and me. i have done this out in the big lake and have also told the kids to do this when the bass wernt hitting, and it works.

 like i said when i was useing the paper graph you could see the fish come up to the downrigger weigh. the salmon would have a v shape and trout would have a u shape. and you put the boat in neutral or speed up you can see the weight change position.

 i also use a herby downrigger weight. its a 10# lead fish weight. i paint them up to look like trout.

 carp are fun to shoot with a bow !!!! my biggest 1 is 31 #'s when i hit it it was pulling the boat with me and my buddy in it. when you shoot at the fish you have to aim low. the water refex's the light , so when you see them they are lower than you think.

Hi mr mom,

Im going to try that dish soap this year. How much do i use on the lure? A thin coating or a blob on the end? My biggest carp was around 25 pounds but in England they get up to 45 pounds and the record over there when i was growing up was 65 pounds. Corn was the bait of choice but up here in B.C. corn is illegal as the smaller fish cant digest it and pass it through their systems. When ive trolled using anchovies, i go along and put the boat in nuetral to let the bait flutter and sink and 9 out of 10 times is when they hit just like you said about hitting injured fish. Jigging is the same thing. The way salmon hunt is that they fly into a school of bait fish and thrash around with their tails and bodies to stun the small fish or render them unconsious and then they go back in and go thru the pickings. So that would explain why we use the injured fish trolling techniques. How much is it for a graph?

Gary

gary: just sqirt some on the lure , then smear it with you fingers all over..

 graphs  the are as cheap as 100 bucks , but the better 1's are alot more.  i have an old eagle 9000. its ok but not as good as a paper graph. i dont know if anyone is makeing a paper graph anymore. eagle and lorance made some  and others. but the new kind are ok. paper is alot better for trolling. ive got an old ray jeffers i should put on , but the scale isnt right for what i need. most of my fishing is done in 30 ft or less. i liked the eagle mach 1 , it had a scale for 10 ft. and 20 ft. i have a buddy that has 1 and dosent use it anymore. i have been trying to get it from him for 3 years. the only problem is if it breaks and you send it back they will only give you creidt for a new digitail graph..

Been trolling for most fish the last 20 years.  For trout and salmon on the great lakes I've used charger spoons, Rapala (J-13 Kelva),fireplugs and other spoons and plugs. But I prefer my Flash Fly, about 30 inches behind a 00 dodges.  I use to run 4 downriggers and 2 flat lines with lead core.  Most of my fishing buddies are gone now, so I run on downrigger with two releases and one lead core and one looong flat line.

Boat is too damn big.  To tough to keep into the wind, watch the Sonar units and rod tips and get weeds off. 

This year will probably be a walleye year, got me a small trolling motor last week.  Can't wait to try it out.  My big boat is stored underground about a mile into a limestone mine.  I was just looking at the storage contract about 50 minutes ago........anxious.

Crappies start around western New York in about 2 weeks when the ice goes out.  I'll drive to Lake Chautauqua tomorrow morning and check the ice depth with my ice auger...suppose to rain all evening and tomorrow morning.  Ugh

BEAR

Sorry mom.  I was mixing my lakes.  I fish Lake Erie for salmon and 'bows.  And Lake Chautauqua for muskies.  Good bass and walleyes are in both.  And they are only about 12 miles apart, even though Chautauqua drains into the gulf of Mexico.  Chautauqua has lots of weeds.  Presque Isle Bay in Erie is a good weedy area, but Erie's main body is weedless as the wave action eats any vegetation up.

How do they and you tell 1000 yds (over half a mile???) do they have buoys?  I'm also curious how "they" have the right to keep you off a public lake????  Do FNG enforce it or does the Coast guard???

BEAR

bear: they have  buoys up. and the nuke gaurds are assholes !!! they see you out inside they call the coast gaurd.... but the funny thing is the nuke plant itself says they dont care if you fish out there. but it hasnt changed yet.  when the lake is still cold the warm water discharge it the place to be . the water is about 20 deg. warmer and the water boils where is comes out. the lake can be dead flat and then you hit the discharge hold on for a rocky ride.

 a funner thing is we get all these people from ill. that have home right on the lake. they take thier boat and leave them on the beach infront of their homes. they drive right through that zone and they get stopped. i think the fine is like 10,000 bucks and they say they will put anybody in jail for it. but i have seen some guys that have been escorted to the ramp and the coast gaurd wait till they pull their boat out.

mom,

I guess I'm getting old and living in the past.  I figured out what you are saying.  It is an anti-terrorist thing.  Guess they don't want any bombs in the water inlet.

I still live in a pre-911 world.  I really don't like all my rights being taken away with a nod to "it is for terrorists".  Hope we go back there soon.

BEAR

bear : i hear you  !!!! down where they built the nuke plant use to be 1 of the best spots for smelt. back when we were in school we use to down there after dark and dip all night long for those little fish. we filled the trunk on a 63 chevy 1 night. good eating.

 this place where the discharge is wouldnt freeze in the winter. people would drag thier boats out ove the ice and fish the open water. browns and steelheads would come to the warmer water for food. but not any more.

 there is state park land near the nuke plant propety and some kids tracked a deer on the the plants grounds and befor they knew it the had the gaurds pointing guns at them and telling them to leave and dont go any farther.

 but the funnest thing was just after 9-11 they stopped a black guy near the gate on the highway. the cops was going threw his car. the black guy had a dew rag on his head and everybody driving by thought he was a clayhead. the black guy didnt like it that everybody though he was 1 of them and took it of and started yelling at the cars he was a black man.

LOL

The terrorist didn't hutrt the USA on 911.  Our fear did it all.  We ruined out our economy and the best air traffic system in the world.

Crazy folks those americans

BEAR

I did quite a bit of trollig for trout on Lake Deifenbaker in Sask a few years ago. A couple of my favourite lures were Len Thompson yellow with red Fie of Diamonds , Mepps Scylops in various colours and the medium sized red and white Canadian Wiggler.For a couple of years we could pretty well count on 4 or 5 fish each in a 3 hour stretch. Catches were 3 to 8 lbs with occassional ones in the low teens.

The reason for such great fishing was a large fish farming operation which lost several hundred thousand fish of mixed size when spring ice break up ripped their pens open. Rumours have it there was a smaller but still significant loss this past fall. This lake is large at 760 Km of shoreline with a surface area of 430 sg. Km. and depth of 66m or over 200 feet in places. After the last big escape trout had scattered to all parts of the lake but natural reproduction is absent or very minimal .