Another day out at Omak Lake. Surface temp held at 61 degrees. Was an overcast day with the sun peaking through the clouds at times. Was a constant wind that gave a few white caps in the bigger areas of the lake but nothing too bad.

Well it was pretty much a repeat of the last time out at the lake. Had 12-16" fish hitting 4" spoons. Also same as last time the 16" was a fatty. Some healthy looking fish in there. Had some hits and misses. Lost what felt like a good fish, I'm guessing 3lbs but you never know. Sometimes those little guys have a lot of fight in them. Hook came out about 30 feet from the boat. I reeled in the line the told my Dad he needs to sharpen his hooks, tisk tisk.

So I'm thinking I need to rethink things, so any feedback is welcomed. Here's what I've been doing. Trolling 30ish feet from shore, lines back 100-125 feet. Downriggers typically set 15-25 feet. We're still learning some of the areas so we don't want to get hung up but we've been staying in roughly 25-30 feet of water. We did drop down to 50 a few times in some deeper areas where we spotted some fish but no biters. Trolling speeds vary on what lure we're running, typically slowest is 1.2, fastest is 2.2.

So my next thought is since we're always getting smaller fish. Is if we need to go out another 20 feet, and drop the downriggers another 20 feet or so. Any thoughts/feedback?

KIRK BYSHEIM

10/14/2011 9:27:00 AM

Hi mwdehaan,
I had one little tip I can share with you. I have only been to Omak one time , but I did reasonably well. I studied all the literature I could find on this lake , and read a lot about downrigger techniques and lures to use , but my old tried and true Grimes Lake technique outfished everything else we tried. Just flat lining my Stee-Lee spoons ( see my Grimes Lake report) was the hot ticket!!!! And just so you know our trip was October of last year, same time of year and water temp. I let out about 110 strips of line and troll just fast enough to see the throb of the spoon on the rod tip. Use the 1/4 oz size in hammered chrome , The Fish Will Slam It!!!!!! We got a few over twenty inches on this technique, and multiple areas of the lake produced fish.Please give this a try and let me know how it works out for you. You will be surprised how many fish are right on the surface and the size range of those fish is amazing!!!!

mwdehaan

10/14/2011 1:49:00 PM

Thanks Kirk, I'll give it a shot. Hopefully I'll have some news and a new report next week.

Lundegard

10/14/2011 7:57:00 PM

I know I mentioned long lining.....I read your report after this one. Still don't think you're letting out enough line. Another thing to maybe try - some jointed Rapalas in the J9 size, and run 'em fast. I'm talkin' 2.8 to 3.5. Cutthroats everywhere seem to love orange, brass, black, in any combination of those. And the J9's come in those colors. Also, above, Kirk talks about 110 strips of line...at roughly 2 feet per strip, that's 220 feet. Even at 1.5 feet per strip, that's still 165 feet.....50 feet more than you've been doing.

mwdehaan

10/14/2011 8:19:00 PM

Thanks Lundegard. Yea I tried going 200' out a few times but I guess I forgot to mention it. I'll try it more the next time I'm out and thanks for the mph suggestions. I've got some j9's but they're in rainbow pattern. Guess I'll have to look into the other colors but if I don't get them before the next trip I'll see how rainbow does. I've also got a ton of spoons, some of which look real similar to the stee-lee type so I'll try them as well. Hopefully the next report will be a 4 or 5 ;) Thanks again guys.

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