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Well, I spent the morning out trolling for trout. I went to Deer Creek reservoir here in Utah. We caught bows ranging from 12-17 inches and browns up to 19 inches. Lots of fish, but nothing big at all. The one brown my grandpa caught was nice and I got a pic of my grandpa with it before releasing it. It is on film however, so it won't be developed for a while. I left my camera phone in the truck, so no pics. It was a nice day, and one more reason for me to make myself get a real digital camera!
Anyways, the best rigs for the fish... For the bows it was all about pop geer and worm. I hate pulling the things in, but what do you do? Luckily smaller geer worked almost as good as the big stuff. For the browns the best rigs were Rocky Mountain Tackle spinners with dakota blades. We added a little piece of worm and the browns loved it. We put them behind dodgers.
Overall, a good numbers day! Lots of fun!
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Thanks for the report. Sounds like a good day on the pond.
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Never used spinners and live bait behind dodgers before, bkidder..
hmmm...this pretty common out your way?
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its very common for kokanee salmon fishing. i also do it for bows, cutthroat, and browns. this may not be the most common for trout, but it sure has produced for me. when i fish spinners, like wedding rings or RMT glow spinners i almost always use a dodger. i run them about 20 inches behind the dodger and its works great.
here is a link showing some of the dodgers i use. i use other brands too, but these are my go-to's
[url "http://www.rockymountaintackle.com/prod_dodgers.php"]http://www.rockymountaintackle.com/prod_dodgers.php[/url]
here is a link showing the spinners i trail behind the dodgers. i generally try to keep the colors matching, but it isnt entirely necessary i suppose. check out the UV squids while youre on that page too. those things are amazing at times.
[url "http://www.rockymountaintackle.com/prod_spinner.php"]http://www.rockymountaintackle.com/prod_spinner.php[/url]
i also use these spinners behind pop geer occasionally. there are a lot of companies that make beaded spinners, but i use RMT because they use radical glow beads. these beads hold a charge better than any ive seen. i have a bunch of home made spinners, and they work great... but, they dont hold a glow charge as long.
as far as live bait goes, i use nightcrawlers on these spinners and on hoochies pretty regularly. i also use them on just a hook at times (behind pop geer or a dodger). sometimes i just use a good scent as that little added attractor. pro cures super gels are terrific, and they make a scent for almost any species.
let me know if you have any more questions on this stuff. trolling for trout and kokanee is my passion and i have managed to become pretty consistent over the last 10 years.
thanks for the question, bkidder
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Used dodgers today for the first time on E.C. and i am completely sold. SOOOOOO much better than dragging blades.[cool]
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yep, dodgers are the best! its great to be able to feel every head shake! how did you do up there? what were the hot lures/colors?
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Very good considering the w blew all day. Some nice fish. Flouro orange and silver dodgers and pink wedding rings for me and rapalas for Flycasting. Got a few on p.b. too.
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well, its interesting thats for sure!
1st off - I've never used any meat trolling Lake Michigan .. never really considered it or been the need to, I guess.
I usually only drag flys behind 'em with an occasional light spoon and I really don't do it much since I prefer to go with as less hardware as possible in the water. They do perform well at times for me though.
Use flashers on occasion too.. just don't mention J-Plugs and we'll be fine .. [  ]
I guess I just can't get past draggin' live bait out on Michigan.. that would definately make some heads turn!!
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try putting a piece of a nightcrawler on that fly sometime! there are times when it makes a world of a difference!
i agree that dragging hardware is not as much fun... thats why i use those narrow, small dodgers. they really dont create much additional drag at all. now, the bigger dodgers... i dont use them much at all! for the same reason, i try not to use many flashers.
so, you dont use any bait while trolling? you should try a little chunk of minnow sometime... works great on macs, browns, and about any other predator. also, using scents from pro cure can help too.
but, from the looks of your report... you have got things pretty well figured out! let me know if you want to try a few "new" ideas and i'll give you a few very specific rigs to try out!
take care, bkidder
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Nope. Never used meat for trolling Salmon or Tout on Lake Michigan.. Walleyes are a different story in Green Bay and Sturgeon Bay but, out of Sheboygan and Port Washington I've never used any meat for Salmon or Trout.
I'm always up for trying new things - a guy can never have too many techniques in his bag of tricks.
I'm not saying I have things "figured out" on Michigan but I can honestly say I've never drawn a skunk. There have been some tough days out there - no doubt about it. Days that make you wonder if you're even in the right boat.. or even the right lake [pirate]
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yep, had my share of tough days too. i guess thats just fishing!
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yea. somedays you're the dog ... some you're the hydrant
so what kind of new rigs are you thinking about -I'm game!
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How about this... I'll start a new thread where we can all list our favorite rigs. I'll try to include pics of gear if I can. I'm sure there are plenty of things that are standard in your neck of the woods, that might be "new" here. So, hopefully we can get a lot of people to chime in! Sometimes giving the fish something new that they haven't seen can be the difference between a successful day, and a skunk!
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When your trolling with a flasher, how do you prevent line twist? I've tried everything to stop it, even very expensive super slick ball bearing swivels. I still ended up putting a twist in my line after only a couple of hour trolling. Any help you might share would be appreciated.
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Flashers, like Hot Spots or Abe and Al's should rotate in full circles. You're right, this can cause line twist sometimes. If you have tried high quality swivels and they didn't work I'd try a different flasher. What brand of flasher are you running?
Now, if you want to try dodgers (which look similar, but are actually very different) they don't rotate in full circles. They just rock back and forth and cause no line twist at all. I use more dodgers than flashers. I really like Crystal Basin's 3 inch dodgers, and Rocky Mt Tackles dodgers are great too.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. I wish I could give you a better answer about the line twist, but honestly if you're using high quality swivels... you shouldn't be getting excessive line twist.
Sorry I don't have better answers on this!
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Line twist with flashers is a problem I have also. I hope one of the Great Lakes guys who uses them alot can help. I found that the braided line doesn't twist. I was also told to run an extra barrel swivel 3 feet above the flasher. I hope someone out there has an answer.
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I, m new to this board--anyone have any great tips for trolling or jigging Fish lake Utah in october ?
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I've tried a bunch of different things in the past rudders, double bearing swivels, 2-4'lengths of heavy mono/fluoro with bearing swivels ahead of the hardware... line twist can drive you nuts! Even had mag spoons run my line like a pretzel. Sometimes things work - sometimes they don't. But what I'll resort to first is running a short length of heavy fluorocarbon with SPRO bearing swivels ahead of the hardware. Take a look into 45-65lb Seaguar premium leader material and the Spro bearing swivels in #2 or #3.
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