Post
by rseas » Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:54 pm
Congratulations, excellent choice and sounds like you already have a great catch.
Lake Cavanaugh is a fun fishery in May. Rainbow, cutts and kokanee will all be active. The lake has a few monster rainbow, lots of skinny to nice cutthroat and a fair population of kokanee. Along with the usual 10-13" kokanee there may be some very nice size kokanee available this year.
Cavanaugh is typically a trolling show but every year some nice rainbows are caught off the docks using dough-baits or inflated nightcrawlers. A typical rig would be 6-8# mainline, a small egg sinker, swivel and then 2-4 feet of 2-4# leader. Basically grab a lawn chair, cast out and pick up the slack, crack open your favorite and wait for the big one while you enjoy the suroundings.
As previously mentioned; in my usually wrong opinion, the real Cavanaugh fishery is a trolling show. There are two distinctly different troll fisheries. One is for rainbow on the flats at the east end of the lake and the other is the deeper water fishery for cutthroat and kokanee.
When trolling the flats (east end or otherwise) I use a light, slow action rod and approximately 2" stick baits (Rapala type shallow running minnow baits). Basically tie the bait on the main line using an open loop knot and your ready to go. The fishery is simple, cast or run out 30-45 feet of line and slow troll. You'll be fishing in 4-10 or 12 feet of water and no one place is better than another. When you do find a fish keep working the area.
A personal note: I believe the rainbow fishery is a bit unique and there are some real bruisers swimming around. Although legal to harvest you may want to consider releasing the larger fish.
The other fishery, my favorite is more along the lines of a traditional kokanee fishery but you will be catching both cutthroat and kokanee. As with any kokanee fishery bring lots of gear and cycle through things until you have them figured out. Early season you can flat line or run a lead-line rig but by the end of June it will be a downrigger show. Flashers tend to out fish swing blades or gang trolls but when kokanee fishing there is no one guaranteed approach to success. As a casual observation; the quality of the Cavanaugh kokanee seems to be a bit better than some of the lower lakes. Firmer meat and no parasites is the norm.
I have pictures of some of our Cavanaugh fish but put this together on my phone and can't attach them. Read the different Cavanaugh reports for more information and pictures.
Now should I pass out relationship/marital advice? Probably not but again congratulations. Sounds like you have a good thing going; fishing, beer and a partner that enjoys both!
![[thumbsup]](./images/smilies/msp_thumbsup.gif "ThumbsUp"){kind=small}
Anyways, was just curious what peoples experiences were on this lake and if the typical worm, powerbait, spinner/spoon type gear would work fine here.
