Northwest Fishing Reports

Last time I was out, I noticed most of the trout, where I go, are at 20' and below. There still
some in the 8' to 15' range. I'm not a fan of down riggers, although I did mount one in my
boat recently. Just wondering some tricks people use to get deep. I troll alot slower, and some
times back wards, to go even slower. I noticed if you only let out 35 to 40 feet of line, your
lure goes much deeper, the more line you let out, after that it starts to rise. I experimented
with this the last 2 years. It doesnt take as much weight to do this, but the bites are fast & hard
and you loose your bait in a hurry. Plus they fight really hard, when there is only that amount
of line out, recomend setting your drag light, but put your finger on the spool to set the hook.
That is if you decide to try this. I think I'll add a small snubber, and see if that will aid in the hook ups.
I dont like having more than 5/8 oz weight on, and usually only use 3/8 oz for
trolling this time of the year. But what I mentioned above, you only need 1/4 oz. You know I
was just thinking of weighted fly line, like leaded line, but you can get it with the weight in
different locations. Not to sure how much weight is in the line, but it would have a smaller
profile than a big 5/8 to 1 oz lead weight. I think I'll have to look into that now. Attach it to
your main line, then add 15' of flouracarbon. Or just use your fly pole if you got one. But if
you used spider wire or simular line, as a main line, it would go even deeper. Any other ideals
out there???????????????????????????????
fishinwithg

Leaded line...I don't know why you wouldn't be a fan of DR's, for summer trout its great. for lake fishing you can use some really light DR balls and clips so its easy for a fish to pop the line out of the release and you don't have to wind up a 10 lb ball like you would for salmon....4 lbs should do the trick...

Just go with 1.5 to 2 oz's and you should be set....

When I want to go deep I troll slower and use my leaded line. Like you said using too much weight can be a bad thing. If you are using say a triple teaser, you will really hamper the lures action, but with leaded line you wont hamper the lures action. The line that I use for leader on my leaded line is 4 - 6 lb flouro. You really get bossed around by the fish, but when Im using my lead its mostly for the big boys and there VERY smart. Just take your time and youll be ok. I bring my leaded line pole with me every time I m in the boat. I only use it a fraction of the time but sometimes its the only thing that will work. The leaded line is kind of expensive but Iv had the same stuff on now for around 3 years. It also takes all the guess work of the depth where you are catching fish once you find where there at

I fish Roosevelt with my brother a LOT and we don't fish for trout below 15 feet. The fish we mark in the 20 foot and below mark are usually inactive. We've tried fishing down deep where we are marking fish and putting every lure we have in front of their faces with no luck. The reason you're not marking fish in the top 10 feet or so of water is that as your boat trolls by the fish spook to the sides and then as you travel farther they settle back in to the area that you just came trough. We have used both leaded line and down riggers. We've found that down riggers can give you precise depth. We usually start out fishing something like 7 and 10 feet. Sometimes we'll fish down to 14 or 15 feet. I know it seems silly to use down riggers to go down 7 feet but it works and you don't have the added weight of sinkers or leaded line, which makes catching the fish much more fun. We just fished Roosevelt two weeks ago and I caught a 23" 4.5 lb. landlocked chinook. at 10 feet with a pink wedding ring. Hope this helps a little. Good luck.
<>< Dave

I find it really hard to believe that you guys CAN'T catch fish below 20 feet....

When the water warms up and the thermocline drops down in the water column, the fish will be down deeper, sometimes right on the bottom, and they will still hit....

Maybe your right. I just know in our short 8 year fishing experience on Roosevelt we have yet to catch fish below 15 or 20 feet. We're just starting to get alright at trolling Roosevelt but we've had pretty good luck and it's always been in the top 15 feet. Another thing is that during the hot summer months we stop fishing around noon or so to do some swimming and relaxing then hit it again when it cools down. That may have something to do with it. This rainbow was caught in summer with one and a half colors of leaded line on one of my flies.

I've noticed the same for Rufus Woods. Fishing is very slow when fishing the bottom but the rewards are huge. However, fishing the surface down to 25' gets you 2-3# kokes and 3-4# bows.

Well, I went to the tackle shop, and bought some of that line, I was talking about.
Its made by Cortland, called shooting head, in the fly fishing area. 30 feet of line is 3/4 oz.
I think it will be less noticeable than 3/4 oz lead weight. I fish a lot in clear lakes. Tyed on to
braided line, that should go pretty deep. The only bad thing I see about this, is the knot,
hanging up the line a little when letting out line, until your past the knot. I will add to this
post once I try it. Hopefully next weekend.

dbrowning wrote:Maybe your right. I just know in our short 8 year fishing experience on Roosevelt we have yet to catch fish below 15 or 20 feet. We're just starting to get alright at trolling Roosevelt but we've had pretty good luck and it's always been in the top 15 feet. Another thing is that during the hot summer months we stop fishing around noon or so to do some swimming and relaxing then hit it again when it cools down. That may have something to do with it. This rainbow was caught in summer with one and a half colors of leaded line on one of my flies.

Like I've always said the fishing and fish is different at each lake...But yes, in the spring, and fall too, when the water temps are in the 50-65, the fish will be up in the top half of the water column, which is usually the most productive time of the year...Going slow and deep can still be productive, not as much as in the spring, but it should still get you into some fish...

PS: those are some really nice fish you got there....

Right on Palmer!
I've caught most of my fish at Rufus in about 60 to 70 feet of water. Little guy's on the top. Now if I could only get some of those hunch back tripps........ yummmmmmm. Biggest so far is six +. I want a big one.....

If you want big fish, go deeper then the small ones.. Bottom or sometimes just below them is where the big ones seem to be for me....

GeryG wrote:Well, I went to the tackle shop, and bought some of that line, I was talking about.
Its made by Cortland, called shooting head, in the fly fishing area. 30 feet of line is 3/4 oz.
I think it will be less noticeable than 3/4 oz lead weight. I fish a lot in clear lakes. Tyed on to
braided line, that should go pretty deep. The only bad thing I see about this, is the knot,
hanging up the line a little when letting out line, until your past the knot. I will add to this
post once I try it. Hopefully next weekend.

Follow up,
The 30 ft of this leaded line takes up a lot of space on the spool. I couldnt use my bass
level wind reel, that I like to use for trolling. It would work good on a small penn level
wind, mine is broken. So I put it on a bait casting reel, works ok. Goes pretty deep. Took
it out yesterday, and of course, the fish were in 6-10 ft of water, now, sense the weather
cooled the water down. I did get 2 bites, and switched to my normal, not so deep set up,
so I could catch more fish, lost count after15. I think this set up will work good, with some
fine tuning.