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With all the talk about the Smaller laker pups taking over the lake, Ive been wanting to target them and see about bringing home a limit.
Ive always been able to catch a couple here & there while koke fishing but never have been able to just catch a bunch of pups by themselves.
Figured that this year will be the season I focus on getting better at them & would like to hear what some of you guys do when you target them.
Also if anyone don't mind sharing known hotspots where pups like to hangout.
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I’m heading down to the gorge first of July and never caught a lake trout, I’d also love any info on what to use and how deep to fish.
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I do know they are usually chilling 10-20 feet deeper then kokanne when you find them. I jsut haven't been able to find the right groups of kokanne that have the pups hunting below.
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I’ve had pretty good success in the Red Cliff area trolling right along the cliffs and also the north end of Horseshoe Canyon. We usually troll using small spoons (glow seems to work really well) tipped with a small piece of sucker or chub meat. A lot of times we just troll with Kokanee gear also. Try to fish in about 90 to 120 feet of water and look for schools with fish that are suspended off the bottom 20-30 feet. You can also find schools and use 2-3” tube jigs tipped with meat to catch them. Hope this helps. Good luck!
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Jigging for small lake trout has always caught me more fish than any other way of fishing for them. One thing about Pups is they will show you exactly where they are on the sonar and will typically pile up from 40-80 feet on structure.
They act allot like Splake and Cutts. They like meat on the jig and they will typically take the jig on the fall or dead sticking right on the bottom or right next to cliff walls.
3 inch pearl tube jigs with 1/4 oz lead heads inside. I buy the bigger chubs and cut them into 1 inch chunks to tip the hook with. Sometime red sided shiners will work better than chub but it's soft and right after a hit you will need to reel up and check your bait. When hooking into the meat hook it on the end so the bait falls straight down instead of falling in circles. You will figure out what I mean.
Most important is to use a braid or super line with a 3-4 foot fluorocarbon leader, tie the line right to the jig. No swivels or clips. It's important because at that depth mono will stretch well beyond your hook setting ability and you will hook and lose fish one after the other from poor hook sets.
Technique:
Find fish piled up on structure.
Drop the jig right on top of them and watch the sonar and your jig falling. If you see fish rising up to see what it is, get ready. If the jig stops falling a fish has grabbed it and you want to set your bail, reel up slack fast, feel the weight of the fish by lifting slowly and if he is there set the hook. This all takes less than a second.
If the jig gets to the bottom reel up slack to the point the tip of your pole is 6 inches above the water and lift the jig 2-3 inches off the bottom. I like to wiggle the jig really quick and set it back down on the bottom. then lift and repeat.
If this doesn't work after a few minutes lift the rod to about 10 o'clock and drop it on a tight line. Like I said before the fish usually take the jig on the fall so if you get slack a fish has grabbed it. set the hook. Repeat this over and over and dead stick once in a while.
Sometimes dead sticking a jig is what the fish want. If a fish comes up and starts tapping on the jig slowly reel the jig up getting faster. This triggers a hit almost every time. If it doesn't grab the bait within the first ten feet stop and drop the bait to the bottom. Most the time the fish will take it on the fall so watch your line.
That's how I like to catch them.
Good luck on your catching.
fnf[cool]
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Thanks to the info!
Unfortunately I fish off a 30’ cruiser so jigging is near impossible lol
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Yeah that is awesome jigging info!
Sounds like you need to troll and sometimes it can be really good. Small lake trout can be just as finicky as their trophy counterparts, so if you're not catching them at one spot, try another. Red Cliffs in Sheep Creek Bay has already been mentioned, but if you're fishing further south, many of the steep or cliffy shorelines can be good, like the mouth of Carter Creek, mouth of N and S Skull Creek, east wall of Jarvies, just to name a few. If you're heading north, the Pipeline can be really good. There's some nice points on the west shore under the Pipe, but I've also done well on the eastside along the cliffs or near the mouth of Rawlins. Further north I've also done well at Wildhorse, Big Bend, and across from Buckboard on Breeze Hill. The nice thing about trolling up north, is you don't have as many downrigger hazards and you can more easily see the fish even if they're tight to the bottom. Down south, it can be tough to see the fish unless they're suspended off the bottom or in more open habitat away from steep structure like long points or humps. It's always nice to mark a large concentration though, and just continue to troll back and forth through them.
Having said that, if I'm not marking them, I'll will sometimes still troll close to shore and put my offering 50-70 ft down, in hopes of pulling them up off the bottom. Trolling speed can vary as well, but I usually start around 1.6-1.8 mph.
I prefer spoons or crankbaits, but have also done well with standard kokanee gear like dodgers with squids or spinners. If you see deeper fish while trolling for kokes, drop the rigger quick and a lot of times you'll pick up a laker. That's also a benefit of longer set back, so the lure has time to get down to depth as well. Some of my favorite spoons are the RMT Viper Serpent in Tequila Sunrise and Northland Forage Minnows in rainbow trout or firetiger. I've also done well with crankbaits like jointed Raps and Skatterraps in perch, rainbow trout, or silver. If they're visible on the graph and active, you probably have a variety of gear that will already work.
Hopefully some of that helps and good luck, Ryno
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Well this post has added to my shopping list for Sportsman / Cabelas. Dont tell Cookie, or I will have to buy her more shoes
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i have found catching pups requires the same technique as trophy's . i like to troll a j13 in silver and black . in 50 to 80 fow about 5 feet off the bottom . also a big pop gear with a 1/2 a night crawler will produce tons of pups .
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