Schooling Lake Trout

I just got back from a three day camping trip:
5 miles around Lake A, then a 4 mile paddle,
wade and drag up a channel to the outlet at
Lake B. I won't say exactly where it is, because despite
its remote location, this fairly well-known spot is already
a but over crowded--seems like a half a dozen hikers make the
6 mile trail hike each day.

The primary attraction here are spawning
Brown trout in the channel, which all seem to be between
16 and 24 inches long. Three and a half pounders are
fairly common. Every once a while a four pounder.
But never any bigger than that. They'll occasionally
eat a soft hackle wet fly, or bang a streamer, but egg
flies are by far the most effective. I put a tin split shot
on the leader about 16" up from the fly.

The reason I'm writing this post is to tell a Lake Trout story,
however.
They too spawn in the fall, and they tend to school up
in pods near outlets and inlets. This particular lake is famous
for the occasional 25 pound laker. We didn't see any like that.
But we saw lots of smaller ones podded up in groups of 50 or so,
holding in fairly shallow water near the bank.

One fisherman after another, during the three days we spent
camping out there, stripped every imaginable streamer over those
fish and never got a bite. "How fussy those lakers were" turned out
to be a common streamside converstation.

But it ain't necessarily so. If you rig up a 7 weight rod with a
loooong
leader and put an egg fly on the end, with a pea-sized tin split
shot 16" up the leader, you can catch one every cast. What just
about everybody was missing was the depth of the water. This high
altitude water was so crystal clear you could see the pattern on the
back of a lost Thomas Cyclone spoon at four feet down. These fish
were schooling in 5-6 feet of water, and the streamer strippers were
pulling their flies along 24" down at most.

With a pea-size (tin) split shot you duck as you cast, pull the line
tight and then count to 20 or so. And then slowly overhand twist the
line through the school. I didn't get a hookup every cast, but I did
get a bump every time. I gave up on the lakers and went back
to the brown trout, after releasing maybe a dozen lakers in two dozen
casts. We konked a few on the way out. They're tasty fish.

Sometimes the right rig and the right technique makes the difference
between total frustration and too easy.

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:41:44 -0000, salmobytes
wrote:

Sometimes the right rig and the right technique makes the difference
between total frustration and too easy.

Yeah, especially on spawning fish. Therein lies the origin of the
term "Shooting fish in a barrel."

Dave

On Oct 18, 9:36 am, Dave LaCourse wrote:
On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:41:44 -0000, salmobytes

wrote:
Sometimes the right rig and the right technique makes the difference
between total frustration and too easy.

Yeah, especially on spawning fish. Therein lies the origin of the
term "Shooting fish in a barrel."

Dave

Fair enough. But everybody else was shooting into that
barrel and missing.

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:50:31 -0000, salmobytes
wrote:

But everybody else was shooting into that
barrel and missing.

Right, Sandy. You da man!

On Oct 18, 8:41 am, salmobytes wrote:
I just got back from a three day camping trip:
5 miles around Lake A, then a 4 mile paddle,
wade and drag up a channel to the outlet at
Lake B. I won't say exactly where it is, because despite
its remote location, this fairly well-known spot is already
a but over crowded--seems like a half a dozen hikers make the
6 mile trail hike each day.

The primary attraction here are spawning
Brown trout in the channel, which all seem to be between
16 and 24 inches long. Three and a half pounders are
fairly common. Every once a while a four pounder.
But never any bigger than that. They'll occasionally
eat a soft hackle wet fly, or bang a streamer, but egg
flies are by far the most effective. I put a tin split shot
on the leader about 16" up from the fly.

The reason I'm writing this post is to tell a Lake Trout story,
however.
They too spawn in the fall, and they tend to school up
in pods near outlets and inlets. This particular lake is famous
for the occasional 25 pound laker. We didn't see any like that.
But we saw lots of smaller ones podded up in groups of 50 or so,
holding in fairly shallow water near the bank.

One fisherman after another, during the three days we spent
camping out there, stripped every imaginable streamer over those
fish and never got a bite. "How fussy those lakers were" turned out
to be a common streamside converstation.

But it ain't necessarily so. If you rig up a 7 weight rod with a
loooong
leader and put an egg fly on the end, with a pea-sized tin split
shot 16" up the leader, you can catch one every cast. What just
about everybody was missing was the depth of the water. This high
altitude water was so crystal clear you could see the pattern on the
back of a lost Thomas Cyclone spoon at four feet down. These fish
were schooling in 5-6 feet of water, and the streamer strippers were
pulling their flies along 24" down at most.

With a pea-size (tin) split shot you duck as you cast, pull the line
tight and then count to 20 or so. And then slowly overhand twist the
line through the school. I didn't get a hookup every cast, but I did
get a bump every time. I gave up on the lakers and went back
to the brown trout, after releasing maybe a dozen lakers in two dozen
casts. We konked a few on the way out. They're tasty fish.

Sometimes the right rig and the right technique makes the difference
between total frustration and too easy.

Great post. Any pics of the trip?

Bone

REpics of the trip:

****e. I bought a 15 dollar waterproof bag for the camera.
Planned to take photos (and konk lake trout) on the way out.
But the morning we left, as we got up, the wind was gusting
horizontal snow so hard it stung.

We waded down through the channel to the lake. Tried to
paddle. Almost flipped several times and got blown backwards.
So we roped the canoe off fore and aft and waded half the perimeter
of the lake. Made a mad dash across the narrowest part of the lake
when a lull in the wind came up, and almost became fish bait.
A big gust came at us from the south, making a black stripe
across the lake, like a typhoon coming in. We had enough
sense to turn head first into hte wind and paddle like madmen
until that gust was over. Turned 90 degrees and paddled toward
teh ramp. Repeated that exercise for a half a dozen gusts going
across. Cheated death one more time.

Two guys drowned (in a canoe) up there this summer, and that was
in August. They probably stayed sideways to the wind, and got
flipped.
Even when its 90 degrees air temperature, that water is still 45
degrees. Gives you about a half an hour, and then you're fish bait.

On Oct 20, 11:38 am, salmobytes wrote:
REpics of the trip:

****e. I bought a 15 dollar waterproof bag for the camera.
Planned to take photos (and konk lake trout) on the way out.
But the morning we left, as we got up, the wind was gusting
horizontal snow so hard it stung.

We waded down through the channel to the lake. Tried to
paddle. Almost flipped several times and got blown backwards.
So we roped the canoe off fore and aft and waded half the perimeter
of the lake. Made a mad dash across the narrowest part of the lake
when a lull in the wind came up, and almost became fish bait.
A big gust came at us from the south, making a black stripe
across the lake, like a typhoon coming in. We had enough
sense to turn head first into hte wind and paddle like madmen
until that gust was over. Turned 90 degrees and paddled toward
teh ramp. Repeated that exercise for a half a dozen gusts going
across. Cheated death one more time.

Two guys drowned (in a canoe) up there this summer, and that was
in August. They probably stayed sideways to the wind, and got
flipped.
Even when its 90 degrees air temperature, that water is still 45
degrees. Gives you about a half an hour, and then you're fish bait.

Crazy story! Too bad on the pics, would love to see some.

I dunno about the half hour...you might survive that long but you're
in trouble after about a minute!

Bone

salmobytes wrote:


Ignore Dave, unfortunately it seems he's turning into a sour old man.

Great report. Cool experience. I've only taken one laker on a fly and it
was a fluke. I had backpacked into a lake and was fishing a Humpy near
the outlet. I was catching lots of Brookies about 10 to 12" when I saw
what looked like a submarine slowly appear out of the depths. For some
crazy reason the laker came up out of over 20' of water to suck in my
little Humpy. I probably would have gone 8 to 10 pounds. Not too big for
a laker but my biggest fly caught fish at the time and very cool on a dry.

I'm pretty sure I know the spot. How do you get the timing down for
hitting the run? Is there local info on this?


Willi

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:20:33 -0600, Willi
wrote:

Ignore Dave, unfortunately it seems he's turning into a sour old man.

Sour old men no longer fish the spawn. Shooting fish in a barrel is
not a sport; dragging a lure through a spawn is also not a sport.
But, as usual, ymmv. Whatever makes you feel good, right?

Dave the Sour Old Man

Dave LaCourse wrote:
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:20:33 -0600, Willi
wrote:


Ignore Dave, unfortunately it seems he's turning into a sour old man.


Sour old men no longer fish the spawn. Shooting fish in a barrel is
not a sport; dragging a lure through a spawn is also not a sport.
But, as usual, ymmv. Whatever makes you feel good, right?

Dave the Sour Old Man




Dave,

I might be mistaken but I'm just commenting on what I'm seeing in your
posts. It seems to me that all you've recently had to contribute on
these newsgroups has been derogatory remarks toward one person or
another. I'm sure you feel there are good reasons for them, but go back
and read your last 100 posts and see how many fit into that category.

Your posts weren't always like that.

Willi