Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing Reports => Members' Fishing Reports => Topic started by: wildmanyeah on April 12, 2017, 11:14:28 AM
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Arrived at the lake around noon. 3 people were taking there boats out of the water who spent the morning fishing. Did not seem like they had much success. Our goal was to try out a dual rod holder that mounts to the scotty downrigger base that we plan to use while out in the ocean. Worked great is a nice clean setup!
Again the surface water temperature was cold. This time the water temperature was 5-7c and the thermocline ranged from 20-30 feet depending on location in the lake. Lots of debris past the narrows probably from the windstorm a few days early so we fished elsewhere.
We fished from the narrows south on the west side of the lake for two hours, marked some fish on the sounder but had no luck. Tried frog flat fish, apex, dick nite, pink hoochie and others all with no success. fished from surface down to 50 feet.
picked up and motored to the hatchery, marked what look like kokanee schools from 100 to 150 deep. Put the rigger down to 130 feet deep and on the last past hit a stump and lost all the gear and saved the ball. Not sure why the sumps looked like school suspended above the bottom. Still "stumped" on that one! No luck so headed in
No signs of fish jumping or surfacing so the lake is still cold. Looks like the late will probably heat up a month late! just in time for the watersports to take over the lake. Was a hot clear day! saw a few falcons or eagles making a nest! saw some geese flying just over the lake! was great!
Hopping to get out on the salt this sunday!
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Thanks for the update.
Why do you think the thermocline was at 20-30 feet?
If the thermocline were at 30 feet there would be no fish below 30 feet due to low oxygen so why would you run your rigger at 50 to 130 feet?
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My guess is giving it a shot after a tough days' fishing, you tend to go outside of the box. They have had not been reading the thermocline accurately, and he said he thought he marked some schools down deep.
I'm finally going to have a Down Imaging sounder on that lake this year, looking forward to marking different areas and differentiate between the wood work down there and the schools of kokes.
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Thanks for the update.
Why do you think the thermocline was at 20-30 feet?
If the thermocline were at 30 feet there would be no fish below 30 feet due to low oxygen so why would you run your rigger at 50 to 130 feet?
That's not necessarily true for a big lake like alouette lake. You can clearly see where the thermocline is on the sounder and no doubt it was between 20-30 feet. At far as low oxygen levels below the thermocline it depends on the lake or body of water. Alouette lake gets thoroughly mixed all year by gold creek and the dam. ITs rare for lakes not to get thoughly mixed and create a dead layer. http://www.lakeaccess.org/ecology/lakeecologyprim4.html
I wish i had a prob that could of checked the departure below the line to really tell if it was 4C or warmer.
Here is another report on a different fourm from march http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/index.php?threads/alouette-lake.63395/
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That's not necessarily true for a big lake like alouette lake. You can clearly see where the thermocline is on the sounder and no doubt it was between 20-30 feet. At far as low oxygen levels below the thermocline it depends on the lake or body of water. Alouette lake gets thoroughly mixed all year by gold creek and the dam. ITs rare for lakes not to get thoughly mixed and create a dead layer. http://www.lakeaccess.org/ecology/lakeecologyprim4.html
I wish i had a prob that could of checked the departure below the line to really tell if it was 4C or warmer.
Here is another report on a different fourm from march http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/index.php?threads/alouette-lake.63395/
It is certainly not rare for lakes to create a dead layer. Almost every lake in the interior has a thermocline where fish stack up. It's why gang-trolling down the middle of the lake works.
The definition of a thermocline is stratification due to temperature difference. If Gold Creek is oxygenating the lower part of the lake then it would also prevent stratification.
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It is certainly not rare for lakes to create a dead layer. Almost every lake in the interior has a thermocline where fish stack up. It's why gang-trolling down the middle of the lake works.
The definition of a thermocline is stratification due to temperature difference. If Gold Creek is oxygenating the lower part of the lake then it would also prevent stratification.
ill take some picture of the sounder next time you seem much my knowledgeable about the current conditions. Got any reports?
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I've found Alouette lake to be no way near as good as it was 4 years ago or so, I have been fishing Stave lake instead and had great success, with bull trout up to 10lbs and catching cut throat and Kokanee as well, give it a try if you can, it's a bit of a boat ride to get out to the fishing grounds.
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I've found Alouette lake to be no way near as good as it was 4 years ago or so, I have been fishing Stave lake instead and had great success, with bull trout up to 10lbs and catching cut throat and Kokanee as well, give it a try if you can, it's a bit of a boat ride to get out to the fishing grounds.
What part of the lake do u fish?
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Talked to a fellow fisherman who fished Alouette last week. He caught about an 8 lb laker, 4 kokanee and a rainbow about 2 lbs. Trolling willow leaf and worms primarily. The laker puked up a kokanee about 8 inches in length. He was surprised at hooking the laker on worms.
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I fish the west side of the stave lake, as soon as you get out of the channel, fish the the west side there's a few bays befor the pump house, and even the pump house can be good,Lyman plugs work great, lead line with 20ft of leader, don't be scared to use big plugs.
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Tryed to post a pic
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Thought I read somewhere that there are a lot fewer kokanee in Alouette this year.
Something to do with an escape channel for Sockeye allowing the kokanee that would normally stay in the lake to leave.
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Talked to a fellow fisherman who fished Alouette last week. He caught about an 8 lb laker, 4 kokanee and a rainbow about 2 lbs. Trolling willow leaf and worms primarily. The laker puked up a kokanee about 8 inches in length. He was surprised at hooking the laker on worms.
Lake trout or bull trout??? Any pictures?
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It is certainly not rare for lakes to create a dead layer. Almost every lake in the interior has a thermocline where fish stack up. It's why gang-trolling down the middle of the lake works.
The definition of a thermocline is stratification due to temperature difference. If Gold Creek is oxygenating the lower part of the lake then it would also prevent stratification.
from Wiki: A thermocline (sometimes metalimnion in lakes) is a thin but distinct layer in a large body of fluid (e.g. water, such as an ocean or lake, or air, such as an atmosphere) in which temperature changes more rapidly with depth than it does in the layers above or below.
I've experienced thermoclines directly by diving into some of those interior lakes in summer. At about 6 feet under the water transitions suddenly from comfortable for swimming to quite chilly which is what trout prefer if swimmers do not.
Oxygen depleted zones in lakes are not necessarily associated with thermoclines and I don't think they are common in oligotrophic (low nutrient) lakes like Alouette.
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from Wiki:
I've experienced thermoclines directly by diving into some of those interior lakes in summer. At about 6 feet under the water transitions suddenly from comfortable for swimming to quite chilly which is what trout prefer if swimmers do not.
Oxygen depleted zones in lakes are not necessarily associated with thermoclines and I don't think they are common in oligotrophic (low nutrient) lakes like Alouette.
I remember back in the day while swimming at Buntzen.
Was a huge difference in temp from your feet to your shoulders if just treading water.
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The big yellow thing in the sky may have played a role in that. :P
Anyhoo,i'm hoping to get out onto Alouette this weekend. Will report back here. Maybe we should rename this thread Alouette 2017.
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Metal Feathers, it was a Lake Trout. Sorry he didn't provide any pics just the story.
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Metal Feathers, it was a Lake Trout. Sorry he didn't provide any pics just the story.
Good one.
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Well it was one of those days.
Started off sunny and warm loading up the boat around noon in Langley and getting set to head over to Alouette. Sure enough, the clouds were stacked up against the mountains and it was cold and wet on the lake.
Water temps between 7.2 and 7.8 degrees C. Lots of boats on the water, from your typical ski boats to lots of tinnies and kayaks. Including one 10 foot jon boat that had two guys and a huge cooler. It looked comical. As did a goose that followed us around for 20 minutes, we couldn't shake him!
Anyoo, on to the fishing. Well, it was the first shakedown of the boat in the spring and as usual there are some hiccups to overcome. On the first drop with the downrigger, BANG, the rigger mount explodes off the gunnel. I barely saved the rigger, rod/reel and pancake weight. That was nearly a $400 oopsy to start the day. I only packed one rigger so that was that for getting deep. I had a jet diver, but was too lazy to tie it up.
My fishing buddy had a lead line that seemed to have pooched itself over the winter, so that was a cluster as well. I went to using the usual mini-G, wedding bands etc with a bit of weight. Tons and tons of nibbles and tiny fish, lots of surface activity but only very small fish seen. Fished from 2-6 without much to report. Saw one boat net a 8" kokanee...
To make matters worse my fish finder reset itself at some point over the winter so when I went to fire it up on the lake it was operating in some eastern European language so i was messing with it to get it in English so I could tweak the settings to track down the thermocline.
The best part was my mid-80's 2 stroke Mariner/Yamaha ran well, pushed my 14 ft tinny with two of us loaded with gear to 27MPH on the GPS. It sure feels fast in an open boat with a tiller. Not sure one would want to go much faster than that safely, even though the boat says it is rated for a 40hp on the transom plate. That said it is from the 1960's so many 40hp motors of that vintage didn't put out the kind of torque more modern motors do, let alone the weight of someone using a 4 stroke.
It was good to be on the water and the brief moments of sun felt nice. But oh those first trips of the year can be a challenge.
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Thanks for the report.
Close call on the rigger.Whew.
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Hit Alouette yesterday. Was on the water by 8am, some sunny breaks, some wind and rain showers at a few intervals to make things interested. The day started off very slow. Tried a few different set ups most without much action for the first 2-3 hours.
Pulled lines from the Gold Creek area and headed across the lake to the fish farm area and started to work south from there and began to get steady action for the next two hours and limited on kokanee.
Coyote as a flasher to a wedding band with worm or fire brined shrimp was the ticket, as were mini-G. All on the surface with no weight.
Lead line set up got nothing, downrigging at 15, 25, 35, 45, 60, 70, 90 feet got nothing.
Water temps was 9.2 first thing, to 9.6 during mid-day.
I really need to update my electronics to help get this lake figured out.
These guys will be in the Bradley today!
(http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/index.php?attachments/img_20170513_173218-1-jpg.33066/)
Another lesson relearned. When the fishing was hot and the action was fast, I went about 20 minutes without a bite. It's always important to be aware of time passing. I pulled my line and noticed the point of my hook was broken, must have pulled on a deadhead or something. Effectively I was fishing with only the shank of a hook. Another time was my mini-g got the hook through the split ring, killing the action. More time wasted on that one.
Check your lure/bait often. Sure beats wasting time on the water.
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It's nice when glassy calm in the morning. Shot a quick vid of the boat/motor in action yesterday as I will be selling my 30hp Mariner/Yamaha 2 stroke short shaft. It was so calm that it was hard to tell where the water ends and the mountains and sky begin;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STOBdO3rOxQ&feature=youtu.be
I plan to fish some of the Washington State bass lakes that are 4 stroke only, unfortunately. If anyone is interested in the motor, let me know.
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It's nice when glassy calm in the morning. Shot a quick vid of the boat/motor in action yesterday as I will be selling my 30hp Mariner/Yamaha 2 stroke short shaft. It was so calm that it was hard to tell where the water ends and the mountains and sky begin;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STOBdO3rOxQ&feature=youtu.be
I plan to fish some of the Washington State bass lakes that are 4 stroke only, unfortunately. If anyone is interested in the motor, let me know.
Thanks for the great post! glad to see its finally warming up to a decent temperature. My time these days is spent out in the salt. May try again this year if it's sunny and to windy to go out on the ocean.!!
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Limited out on the weekend, camped for 3 days.
Fished just left of the boat lunch around the point of the shallow water marker. No one else around for most of the time. Ski boats scared to come close and all the other fishermen were working the pilings on the opposite side as usual. It was GLORIOUS.
Fire brined shrimp was the ticket using the regular set up of either a mini-G or coyote as a flasher to a wedding band. Fished worms one day and had 1/2 the amount of bites as when I switched to shrimp.
Saw some larger suspended fish at 35' and tried to get at them with an Apex, notta. Going to try after work this week using downriggers only. Going to pull something big out of that lake one of these days.
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Was out yesterday May 26th from 9 am to 1pm. My son is 2 and really wanted to get out on the boat and fish. Started off trolling from the boat launch to the other side by the logs. Was using a red wedding band with worms on one rod and a dick nite on the other. Had about 4 hits and lost them all, Dam kokanee with soft mouths. Trolled north towards the fish farm, Just past the fish farm nailed 2 rainbows at 20 feet deep. one small one released and kept one that measured 14 inches. Nailed it and came out of the water at the back of the boat before we could even get to the rod. That one was caught on a red and silver dick nite.
Water surface temperature fluctuated from 11 to 13C.
10 mins later caught a nice 12 inch rainbow at the surfaces on my kokanee gear. Red wedding band with a small silver dodger flasher and rubber snubber.
Were only people fishing on the lake and that was super nice. Got off by 2 before the weekend wake boats started to show up. Looks like that will probably be it for Alouette hitting the salt again on sunday.
(http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/index.php?media/img_1555.432/full)
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I've been on Alouette 5 times this year. Nothing other than kokanee for us. Interesting that you tagged a couple rainbows. I have seen the odd 2-3lber jump clear out of the water though...
I've had the best success on hits to hookups by just leaving my kokanee specific ultralight rod in the holder and keeping on trolling. As the bites come, I let the rod and movement of the boat drive the hookset. And check bait every 10 minutes or 1 minute after getting a hit, especially if using bait that comes off easily like krill or cured shrimp.
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Arrived at the lake around noon. 3 people were taking there boats out of the water who spent the morning fishing. Did not seem like they had much success. Our goal was to try out a dual rod holder that mounts to the scotty downrigger base that we plan to use while out in the ocean. Worked great is a nice clean setup!
Again the surface water temperature was cold. This time the water temperature was 5-7c and the thermocline ranged from 20-30 feet depending on location in the lake. Lots of debris past the narrows probably from the windstorm a few days early so we fished elsewhere.
We fished from the narrows south on the west side of the lake for two hours, marked some fish on the sounder but had no luck. Tried frog flat fish, apex, dick nite, pink hoochie and others all with no success. fished from surface down to 50 feet.
picked up and motored to the hatchery, marked what look like kokanee schools from 100 to 150 deep. Put the rigger down to 130 feet deep and on the last past hit a stump and lost all the gear and saved the ball. Not sure why the sumps looked like school suspended above the bottom. Still "stumped" on that one! No luck so headed in
No signs of fish jumping or surfacing so the lake is still cold. Looks like the late will probably heat up a month late! just in time for the watersports to take over the lake. Was a hot clear day! saw a few falcons or eagles making a nest! saw some geese flying just over the lake! was great!
Hopping to get out on the salt this sunday!
Nice!!! Just got a new boat too.
what setup are you using? Scotty swivel mounts?
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I've been on Alouette 5 times this year. Nothing other than kokanee for us. Interesting that you tagged a couple rainbows. I have seen the odd 2-3lber jump clear out of the water though...
I've had the best success on hits to hookups by just leaving my kokanee specific ultralight rod in the holder and keeping on trolling. As the bites come, I let the rod and movement of the boat drive the hookset. And check bait every 10 minutes or 1 minute after getting a hit, especially if using bait that comes off easily like krill or cured shrimp.
Willowleaf or ford fender with a small weight, 8 inch leader and a dick nite (red white or red and silver) and you will hit rainbows in any lake. Caught kokanee on it in nicola lake too.
Hit 3 rainbows on it that day and last fall in november as well
(https://www.carid.com/ic/dick-nite/products/215_6.jpg)
(https://www.fishandsave.com/images/fullsize/154577.jpg)
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Was back Sunday. Lots of fish kokes still biting. They turned off and on, at depth on the riggers 20-30ft. Then on the surface.
Lost a nice trout fishing with no weight just below the surface.
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Still lots of action out there. No problem limiting on Kokanee yesterday. One cutty and also a nice bull trout landed by my partner;
(http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/index.php?attachments/alouette-bull-jpg.33841/)
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Still lots of action out there. No problem limiting on Kokanee yesterday. One cutty and also a nice bull trout landed by my partner;
(http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/index.php?attachments/alouette-bull-jpg.33841/)
That forum requires login to see pictures. Can you upload it somewhere else?
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(http://i.imgur.com/Ok7gi7u.jpg)
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Nice!
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Awesome fish! what depth did u land the bull at? I have only ran into bulls around the narrows
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30 feet on the rigger. Temps were 14 degrees.
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30 feet on the rigger. Temps were 14 degrees.
I am hopping to get out to the lake this week. Winds to strong out in the chuck right now
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Out again this week, lots of bites but only kokanee to the boat, fished 6-9pm. Water temps 22 degrees. Tried a little for Bulls in a spot that will remain nameless where we've had success, but not this time.
A couple of the kokanee were starting to show colour and were released.
A few bites close to the surface using an old chrome dodger to mini-g + shrimp with no weight. Most other action was on the riggers 30-60ft. Moved around, found schools (everywhere) on the sounder, dropped down, bang.
One of these times I'm gonna tough it out and only run bigger gear for a full day.
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Out again this week, lots of bites but only kokanee to the boat, fished 6-9pm. Water temps 22 degrees. Tried a little for Bulls in a spot that will remain nameless where we've had success, but not this time.
A couple of the kokanee were starting to show colour and were released.
A few bites close to the surface using an old chrome dodger to mini-g + shrimp with no weight. Most other action was on the riggers 30-60ft. Moved around, found schools (everywhere) on the sounder, dropped down, bang.
One of these times I'm gonna tough it out and only run bigger gear for a full day.
Where did you find the Kokanee thinking about going with all the wind out in the chuck?
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They were literally everywhere. We started trolling right out of the speed restricted zone in the middle of the lake. Worked to the pilings, and north. Then headed to the narrows and had action there as well.
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Anyone out recently?
Just picked up a new/bigger boat. Looking to get out soon!
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Was out on the weekend. We limited without too much effort. All on the riggers, 30-75ft.
I put on a large, Silver Horde Coho Killer without any bait to try avoid the kokes and get a big Bull, Rainbow or Cuttie. Still caught kokanee on it. I don't know how the hook fit in their mouth.
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Was out on the weekend. We limited without too much effort. All on the riggers, 30-75ft.
I put on a large, Silver Horde Coho Killer without any bait to try avoid the kokes and get a big Bull, Rainbow or Cuttie. Still caught kokanee on it. I don't know how the hook fit in their mouth.
I was planing on going out to sand heads Friday or to Alouette lake. I still haven't had any luck getting kokanee this year but was only out before the hordes of ski boats showed. Only managed to get rainbows.
What type of flasher or you using, Wending band, dodger, ford fender? have you tried running dummy flashers so u can have a nice fight without out the flasher
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Yeah, we use and are successful every which way. Depending on the depth they are at and what seems to work.
- Bare line to a small mini-g with no weight, virtually on the surface.
- Dummy flasher and a lure (did this with the Silver Horde) on the downrigger.
- Inline flasher/dodger set-up (using a small dodger or skinny g) to a dicknite, wedding band or mini-G etc on the dowrigger or
flatlining
- Wedding band with or without a split shot or two to get it down a litte.
I tend to try to get some bites/land some fish. Then trim my gear as much as possible while still getting action. Lighter is better, whenever possible.
The most go-to used rig is the light 3" or 4" Skinny G. Just like the ones used in the local chuck, Outfitter, Irish Cream, Cop Car etc, doesn't really matter, used as the 'dodger' then 24" leader to a wedding band, small/trimmed hootchie, or miniG. Usually with home brined shrimp ( I use a combination of UV FireBrine and that pink borax stuff) or a bit of worm.
Thats' about it.
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Do you find that the Kokanee are any bigger than early season fish?
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Yes, plumper and bit longer at this time of the year compared to this spring.
Going up to Chilliwack tomorrow and will see how they are doing up there. Fun if I catch an actual sockeye by accident on my Kokanee specific UL rod.
Camping for the night, will be fishing tomorrow afternoon and first light on Sunday then off the water by noon.
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Thanks for the reply.
I plan on doing a little fall fishing up there when im not out harassing the Salmon on the Fraser.
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Should have stuck to Alouette. Chilliwack Lake was tough. Three rainbows (one of decent sized, all released) working all depths and various presentations over the course of 8-10 hours on the lake.
Lots of sockeye staging at the north end that we left alone.
Forgot worms, so that didn't help. We used a bit of brined shrimp on most lures. I tried larger spoons and flatfish. Right down to small dicknites, miniG and wedding bands. Even with good electronics, we could see some schools and large suspended fish, but no rhyme or reason to where they were. And couldn't get anything to bite.
Will try Alouete and/or Stave for the afternoon/evening bite after work this week. Doing what I can to stay off the river.
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Same with me, went out and fished sandhead and not even a bit first time it's happened all year.
Will be going out to Alouette soon, need to give the boat a good clean water flush. Hoping later this week if the weather is nice.
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Just got back from alouette lake and the water was to low to launch the boat without scratching the cupcakes out of it.
18.2 deep v Hurston glass craft , gonna go try Pitt lake and see
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Was out for a couple hours yesterday, lake is WAY down as they let a bunch out as Wildman said. A bit harder to launch as the dock is high and dry. I launched okay, backed down the right side of the launch (if looking down the ramp) and it dropped off nicely. Just had to back far into the water.
I have a semi-V. My friend launched at the same time as me in a deep V Campion and was okay as well. Just have to back way out. But I think it depends what line is taken.
Action was sporadic until we found an area with active fish. Didn't mark many schools. Couple of kokanee, couple of trout and a few pike minnow.
Slow overall and a bit different experience as many areas I fish were much different given how far the water is down. Lost a jet diver and a couple lures on some stumps and forgot my net. C'est la vie. I don't have riggers mounted yet, as I debate doing it.
Bought a new Helix5 G2 Down Imaging + GPS but didn't spend much time getting it dialed in. Managed to repurpose my old Humminbird portable kit and graft the new Helix into it. It has a battery, carry case + suction cup transducer mount which worked like a charm. Took the old screen out, plugged in the Helix and away I went. No holes, no running wires to the boat battery etc. And I can move it to my tinny when I hit the smaller lakes.
Wind and rain kicked up at times which made things less than ideal. When there was some calm spots in the weather, I managed to run the new to me boat out to WOT. Got it to 46.8MPH with two guys + day's worth of gear. Felt there is a bit more to give but the 4 blade prop isn't ideal for top end and put me at max RPM.
Always fun to be on the lake, but I think I might be just about done for the year. Might try Stave before the cold chases me off for good until Spring. The wind really is a b1tch trolling with an electric motor. I don't think the 55lb Minn Kota has enough jam for my boat. Will use my 5hp Merc next time, I just like the quiet of trolling with an electric.
Good luck out there if anyone heads out.
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When it gets windy I put the motor away and just wind drift with the fly rods.
Motor upwind and then drift back down wind.
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Yeah, thats a good notion and we did do that at some points. Hard when when the wind is whipping around, and in spurts. Also we were working around a lot of submerged and emerged stumps, so we had to follow very specific depth contours etc.
So we did a lot of working with thhe wind, using the main as a rudder, and the electric to just keep curse corrections.
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Anyone from here go up today?
I seen a nice looking rig heading that way early am.
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. The wind really is a b1tch trolling with an electric motor. I don't think the 55lb Minn Kota has enough jam for my boat. Will use my 5hp Merc next time, I just like the quiet of trolling with an electric.
Good luck out there if anyone heads out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ2lPhyzxsk
Seen these ? . Wonder if this would work better .
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Yeah, I've hummed and hawed over those for a couple of years. I don't like the idea of having to drill into my cavitation plate.
Anyhoo, back to a report. Hit Stave Lake yesterday instead of Alouette. It was a nice day on the water after it took a good hour just to get to the lake through the channel. Harrowing to say the least, we had to go extremely slow as the water is super low. Widow makers EVERYWHERE. Following the green markers wasn't suffient to ensure save passage. We barely skimmed the top of huge stumps, trimmed up.
Once on the lake proper, it was nice. Didn't mark many fish and in 3-4 hours of trolling a variety of gear. We left without getting a sniff. Wedding bands, smaller and medium Tomics, big spoons, small spoons, coyotes, crocs etc. 140ft on the riggers to dragging bucktails on the surface. Worked a variety areas including pump station. Made it all the way to the north end.
The anticipation of trying a new lake (after the anxiety of dealing with the channel) was fun. But it quickly became frustrating without any action whatsoever.
The trip back through the channel to the launch was better as we closely and slowly followed our track on the GPS.
There was a 2-24' cuddy (Bayliner?) putting in at the launch. I told him not to bother and gave a ton of cautionary advice. He put in anyway. He was frustrated as he had come from Alouette which is way down as well. THERE IS NO WAY he'd be able to navigate the channel, but he put in as we drove away.
Good luck to him.
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MY outing to Pitt lake was much better, Landed a few rainbows just past the main island on the west side of the lake by the waterfall. Also caught a salmon smolt on a dic nite.
Easy to navigate the channel into the lake 20+ feet the whole way to the lake. We marked some big fish on the sounded but did catch any.
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Sure, the depth says 25 ft on the Navionics chip. But the lake is SO LOW that the stumps that are usually a couple feet above the bottom in what is usually 25 feet of water, are now 1-2ft below the surface even in the deepest part of the channel. There is no 20 ft clearance channel right now.
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Sure, the depth says 25 ft on the Navionics chip. But the lake is SO LOW that the stumps that are usually a couple feet above the bottom in what is usually 25 feet of water, are now 1-2ft below the surface even in the deepest part of the channel. There is no 20 ft clearance channel right now.
I was at Pitt Lake, Not Stave
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Hit Alouette yesterday. It was a beauty day on the water, compared to last weekend when we got blown off after barely wetting a line. Further hampered by a stuck bilge pump and wood jammed in the prop. Was not fun out there.
Not much action though. Chased them on the sounder working the gear from 20-110ft on the riggers. As well as trying close to the surface.
Only one fish to the boat, a nice 2lb cuttie in an area I haven't worked all that much. The usual spots didn't produce. Water temps were 7- 7.2 degrees. No kokes to be found.
2-3 other brave souls out there, didn't see any nets out. But one guy stayed in the same area (17-18' Smokercraft) for quite a while, so he was either on'm or lazy, lol. Other guy seemed to be ripping around from spot to spot in a new ~17' Legend.
Good to be on the water without wind and rain in December. Actual little spurts of blue sky in the mix as well.
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Sunny day on the water yesterday, 5-6 other boats out there. Including 3 guys in a 12 foot jon boat that had about 4" of free board way up in the a narrows, brave souls.
Lucky it was a very calm day by any standard, let alone there was no typical afternoon blow up out there. They said they got one kokanee by the first set of pilings across from the launch.
I only managed this little rainbow, with a couple bites here and there. Rainbow was taken with a Luhr Jensen Shoehorn (#1573) with a 24" leader to an all pink wedding band with small piece of UV brined shrimp.
No thermocline established, water was 5-6 degrees C, ~41F. Couple weeks of warm weather to go yet.
That said I will be out next week (might try Pitt instead) for the early spring/first run of the year shake down on my boat.
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Was out today from 12-3, Water was 5C and all the fish were hugging the bottom. Got bored so put out a flasher and a hoochie, Caught loch ness monster, line popped out of the clipp, i pick up the rod its bouncing then the fish starts screaming line. go to tighten drag and it popped off. Tried all the usual spots with now luck. Lakes still way too cold
Was just before narrows on the left side/west side, Water depth was 70 feet and rigger set to 25 feet. Wish I would of seen the fish
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Those are the fish you remember forever.
Im sure we all have a few that we would have liked to have seen.
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The odd large lake trout can be found in 30 foot or less depth in the spring.
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Nice, That Loch Ness monster was probably 'Mad Mack' himself. I know what your gonna say:
"Who is Mad Mack"? Why he's the Mackinaw that lives in Allouette lake big enough to eat a man whole...
See Jaws, but without the salt water.
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I thought a Mackinaw was a Haney dinner jacket?
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He probably looked a lot like this one from a few a days ago;
(https://i.imgur.com/m5BmRka.jpg)
;)
Not caught at the narrows though. Plenty of good spots on the lake, just spread out all over the place, and hard to nail them down.
Getting better at finding fishy water, the down imaging sure helps but with many stumps and debris, it can still be hard to differentaite between structure and fish.
And sometimes, even a larger presentation targeting bulls can be inhaled by the kokanee further hampering the effort. 3-4" spoons with larger hooks still find their way into the mouths of the hungry kokes.
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Nice one!
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Beauty!
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Thanks!
Going to give it another go tomorrow.
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KNOW THE REGULATIONS PEOPLE. AND GENERALLY DO THE RIGHT THING.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/docs/1719/fishing_synopsis_2017-19_region2.pdf
I was on the Alouette yesterday, I see a guy trolling in a small 17-18ft bowrider, yellow. I would guess late 90's early 2000's, guy and his wife/GF.
He's trolling off his main (inboard) no kicker. I see what I think is a drift sock off his starboard side, upon closer look he's dragging an effing 5-7lb Bull trout on a stringer. The fish is ALIVE and thrashing around right on the surface. As he passes I get a good look, and say "is that a bull?".
With a big sh1t eating grin he says, "yeah!" and immediately says 1 trout/char over 50cms. I say, "NO NO NO, you HAVE to release that, it is NO RETENTION OF BULLS ON ALOUETTE". He sheepishly turns his boat so I can only see his port side as I am trolling northbound. I can only hope that he was fussing to release it and not shelter himself from my eyes.
Jeez. Then as I get back to the launch to take my boat out of the water at about 2pm as the wind is picking up, two dumbasses doing donuts and ripping around in the 8km/hr area out front of the launch. Hard enough with a packed launch and dock with northernly winds to not have to deal with smashing wakes.
Right at the launch there are sighs showing the 8kn/hr area, and NO RETENTION OF BULLS signs. Don't even get me started on people just BLASTING music while sitting at the dock, while crushing beers. On summer days like this, a vist from a park ranger our CO once in a while would go a LONG WAYS.
I've been to Alouette at least 100 times, been checked by a CO once. Never seen a cop or ranger at the actual launch.
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I was on that lake 2 years ago. I was 100 meters from the launch. Only boat on the water. I had a Ranger yelling at me. I turned around ( wondering wtf I was hearing ) and geared up so i can go talk with this clown. I motored over to the dock and had a sick of a park ranger probe my boat and all my documents for 10min. He was a young, uneducated moron. I schooled him on more than a few rules and regulations. I am sure most BC Park Rangers are great people but that clown on Alouete lake is a total moron.
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Try the preview if you are going to swear.