Fish-Hawk.Net

Ok,
So I am going trolling for bows tomorrow. A buddy is taking me out to a small lake in the Calabogie region... I will go out and get some full-sinking line, because from what I hear they are down at about 20 feet deep.

Question 1: What leader/tippet size and length should I use?

Question 2: What should I troll (flies)? I figure Woolly buggers (black/olive/rust) and Miss Simpsons. Other ideas?

Question 3: What am I doing, I'm a bass fisher... any advise?

Hi Hookup,

On a full sink line you'll want to use a short leader. I just use 4' of 3x fluorocarbon. If you use a long leader you'll end up with a belly in the line / leader and end up missing strikes.

You've got the right idea for flies. Buggers are a great searching patterns. Olive crystal buggers, black peacock buggers, and rusty brown crystal buggers have been best for me this season.

My only other advice is to get a thermometer and some string. Mark the string at 5ft intervals. Use thermometer to find the thermocline. The optimal temperature for a rainbow trout is 55C but they'll be comfortable in water up to 65C. Once you find the right temperature, troll your flies at that depth. You'll want to troll slowly. One thing I like to do when trolling is to troll in a zig-zag pattern. This will put extra movement on the fly and will also cover different depths as you make the turns.

Cheers,

Salar.

Hookup,

In addition to Salar's comments, you will find that the bows (the majority of the time) will "tap" your fly. Typically it's a light "tap-tap". As such you always have to be ready to set the hook. I find that if you hold your line with your non-casting hand you can sweep up with your rod while hauling line.

If for some reason you're not ready when the fish bites I find that giving the fly some subtle action with light tugs on your line sometimes entices another bite, which hopefully you're ready for.

If you haven't purchased your line yet I would recommend the SA Uniform Sink. A number of us spooled it up this season and have been very happy with the way it performs.

Cheers,
Todd

Small streamers are the ticket and patterns suggested above work really well. I'd include Grey Ghost, Hammill's Killer, Hornberg, and conehead marabou Muddler Minnow. Tying 2 flies in tandem about 20" apart can increase your success.

Thanks to all. I've tied a bunch of buggers and Miss Simpsons from sizes 4 to 10 with many variations of color in the suggested ranges...

As it turns out, the "new plan" is Bing's. To be there at about 12:noon till sundown in a canoe.

Not sure if that will still be the plan tomorrow at 10am..... nice for decisive fishing partners, but still, it should be fun times.

I'll bring a camera and report when I get back...

Hey I was at the Bing yesterday!

Terrific fishing, the fish are not very deep despite the time of year. I forgot AGAIN to bring a thermometer with me, but the water felt relatively warm for trout by touch. However i was only gauging temperature from my arms length but even so.


Anyway, there were trout jumping out of the water all day, which was interesting, but we caught most of them about 10 to 15 feet under the surface on olive body, black tail and hackle wooly buggers. Best thing to do is troll all of your line out. Go pretty slow, if there's wind, just use the wind. Going to fast will bring your fly up to shallow to the small fish, so going about wind drift speed will keep it in the perfect zone. Troll and make little noise and you will catch fish. We managed to catch 9 trout in 5 hours, but most came off the hook after about 20 seconds into the fight (barbless hooks, the fish ran right at the boat and the hook popped out!).

Oh well, it was still fun, the fish we got were around the 15 inch range, which fought and jumped like crazy!

Arrived at 12:30 and was on the troll by 1pm. Took a break from 4-5pm and was packed and loaded by 6:30pm.

I got 4 bows (my first ever!) Full Sink line, slow, slow, slow troll. The biggest was 17inc and the smallest was 14.

So, who's got some good trout bbq recipes?

Congrats on the bows. Nice to get them on the fly, especially this time of year. It's been a great year for trout fishing because of all the rain. Any pictures?

I am lame. I forgot the camera, fishnet, and cooler. The guy I went with had a cooler and fishing net, but no camera either...

Now, in my fridge are the larger of the four bows, gutt'ed and be-headed... i could post photos of those, but somehow, it isn't the same....

I was surprised at how hard they took and how well they fought, espcially when they saw the canoe. I'd go again, but i'm not sure it's "my thing". Casting is what I really like and just trolling around, creepingly slowly, dragging a bugger on sinking line, well that's almost not fishing, almost...

Casting for rising fish, that would be totally up my alley... or stream fishing for them... but I've never been one for trolling... probably explains my lack of success with walleye (i hate live-bait jigging also)...

Still, I'd go again. The fights were quite fun, and to see such nice looking fish was a treat. I'll have to check out some other lakes around the cottage area for rainbows, now that I know one method that seems to produce...

Hookup,

The bows at the bing are an exception to the rule in that they do hit hard there. As for casting, in the fall when the water cools you can basically cruise along the shore casting into the wood and retrieving, rather than troll.

Very cool. I'd be up for a trip out to the Bing later in the fall to try for some top-water/non-trolling trout.

Hookup,

Well you did pick up a tube did you not? If so you can fish a number of the Calabogie lakes for ree.

I know, I fail.. I did / do have a tube... I'm going to try those lakes.. i really will... lol...