Trout downrigging lures

[Jale]

As mentioned in a previous thread I plan on doing more lake/speckle trout fishing this spring/summer.

I have a good selection of williams wablers, that I use casting for pike and they also double as my main lake trout trolling lure.

Are there any must have lures/styles that i should have in my tackle box.


What are you guys favourite lures/spoons for pulling behind a downrigger?
Any favourite colours?

I wil mainly be fishing Charleston, Big Rideau and some smaller lakes in the Plevna area.

Would like to stock up this winter so I have all my bases covered this summer.

[Scum Frog]

For Lakers, as well as spoons, we have had good luck trolling jointed rapalas behind the downriggers. J11 in either Silver or Blue seem to work well for us.

[Muddy Tires]

Big swimbaits work for me....





Using the downrigger saves your arms. The bottom lure requires Superman sized arms to hold the rod for any length of time.

Good luck...

[Mike the 'Tender]

Jale, I've found flatfish extremely useful fishing for 'bows. Granted, I didn't downrig them, but I think they would make the transition easily. I haven't been able to find them in Canada lately, the only place my dad and I buy them from now is the Yakima bait company website. We've used everything from X4's which are 2 1/2" in length, up to U20's which are 3 1/4", but we were fishing for small bows, only up to 4 lbs or so. Fishing for bows in the upwards of 15 pounds, I'd say you could go as large as the T55 or T60, which come in at 5 1/2" and 6".

As for colours, I've found that Frog (FR), Firetiger(FRT), Glitter Watermelon (GWTM) and Yellow with Red and Black spots (YRBS) works for me. The brackets are for the colour codes the company uses. I'll be supplying the link for their colour schemes. Steelheaders in Toronto swear by running the Skunk (SK) colour. I've also caught bass on the Frog colour, and apparently pike like 'em too.

When you're trolling, the slower, the better. These baits have a very strong action, one that is exteremly noticeable while trolling without downrigging. If you're not careful, I can see them pulling out of a line release.

I've caught over a hundred rainbows (and a quite a few bass) with these lures, and I hope you find them as useful as I do. Canadian Wigglers and Beanos look the same, but don't have as large of a lip to them and therefore don't have quite the same wide wobble that the Flatfish have.

Now here are the links:

http://www.yakimabait.com/products.phtml?id=13
http://www.yakimabait.com/images/colorc ... TFISH.html
http://www.yakimabait.com/images/colorc ... FISH2.html

Good luck and I hope those help!

[banjo]

Although I've never used downriggers, some of my most successful lures for lakers using steel line are ; Sutton Frisby spoon in silver & copper, Mepps Syclops in the rainbow or silver/chartreuse colour http://www.mepps.ca/syclops.htm, little cleo's, and of course williams. If possible I try and tip the lure with a minnow tail... it never seems to hurt. Just recently I've tried using the spoon as an attractor/ flasher and rigging a dead minnow about 18" behind. That works too.

[Wall-I-Guy]

I have had great success with Jointed Rapalas in Chartreuse specifically As well, I'd strongly recommend West River Suttons. No trout box should be without them

[RJ]

West Rivers....and Williams Wablers...

RJ

[big-o]

Only ever gone for Lakers once....but Topwater and I did manage to get a few...we were using NK silver with a green tape...i think this is also Markus favorite lure...i bought a few spoons over the winter ...in all sizes shapes and colors, trial and error time

[jsdx]

Big Rideau lakers love silver spoons. Sutton copper/silver. Flashking (narrow spoon) with blue tape also good.. troll very slow. Small rapala behind downrigger also works great. Black and silver.

In the past we used dead minnows (we use pre-bottled ones from canadian tire) behind a 2 ft gang-troll ala the traditional laker way and it worked but I found that you can also use a small spoon behind the gang troll and it works well too.

I like the williams wabler in silver in lots of places like Algonquin but I've not caught many with the williams in Big Rideau.

[Muskiemagnet]

What the heck is a West River....???????

I heard trout hate Suttons..???

[Dartee]

I use Williams Whitefish, 3" Dartee's (with blue), Suttons and Cleos. Most colours are usually, Silver, Copper/Silver or Silver with Blue. I have found Silver/Blue to be the most productive.
I have tried rapalas but with little success.

Near the end of the season I ran across a "Humpy" spoon (silver/brass with blue) and it worked really well. I should have bought 2 since I had a breakoff due to net handling .
I now have a white one with blue which seems to work also, but still looking to find the blue one again.

[Wall-I-Guy]

For Splake, the gang trolls worked well for me on Dog Lake with a Sunfish tail Haven't had much success with it anywhere else...go figure

[Northern King]

I fish Charleston for Lakers alot in the summer. I found that williams wablers, northern kings, kwikfish, flasher king spoons and almost anything with silver and blue/green colour works really well. The kwikfish work really well in the early season. The williams darty and wablers work well all the time as well. I have caught some on brighter spoons such as red devils and monkey puke orange northern kings.

[Manny]

One lure that is reeking havoc in Québec for lakers is the Magog Smelt streamer in the tandem version, fished behind a small gang-troll on the downrigger. The stores just can't keep them in stock. They are tied to imitate a smelt obviously which is a favorite laker treat.

Have only used it once and it yielded more then half the days result which is not bad considering that it took a while before setting it out.
http://www.percysflies.com/page/LCOWS/P ... eamer/1605

Another popular rig for us is the large williams+ a lead of line+ a minnow rig. Must keep the hook attached on the williams since, often, the lakers will have to choose between both.

One more thing, is the lake you are fishing is polluted with perch, lakers will use them as forage so a perch or firetiger rap will be effective.

[Coop]

I used to guide alot for both species jale, I'll list some of the lures and techniques that I used in various places and hopefully some of the info helps.

For Lake Trout on Great Bear Lake I'd troll Lucky Strike Half Waves, Flatfish/Kwikfish and large rapalas (both jointed and not).Colours such as white, pearl and pink always seemed to be top producers.

I'd also cast husky jerks and large Fin-S-Fish or Mogumbo Grubs to shore and pull them across rocky ledges or outcroppings.

On northern Ontario and Quebec lakes I'd flatline troll Williams whitefish and wobblers and bomber long A's with amazing success in the spring. On these lakes I never found the need for a down rigger in the summer, instead I would troll a luhr Jensen powerdive minnow or a mann's depth+ series minnowbait in the morning and evening. These baits go 20-30 deep. This technique still produces good numbers in the lakes that I fish up in the Haliburton area.

As for specks, in the spring I cast small suspending jerkbaits and Fin-s-Fish to shoreline structure (along with fly fishing). Another great spring technique (and don't laugh) is using topwater baits like original rapala minnoiws or tiny torpedos and hit a surface bite just as the night is falling. This produced some of mine and my guests' biggest brookies.

In the summer I'd mostly flyfish, jig small plastics or flatline troll a cleo.

Bait size depends on what size of fish you are going for and water clarity. I do tend downsize a bit in gin clear waters. Another thing to remember is that Lakers and Speckles are not Trout but are Char. I find most species of char to be more aggressive than their trout cousins and have no apprehensions with hitting bigger baits.

One last thing, many char attack with a disable and return technique. if you feel a sharp pull or bump but don't hook up, slowly lower your rod tip towards the lure. The Laker, speckle or splake might have hit the lure and is coming back for the kill. By paying attention to this habit you'll increase your hookups by at least double.

Hope some of that info helped, good luck.