Modified Lake Trout Activity Theory

Ann and her husband Tom came up to the cottage this weekend, along with their dog Wasabe! Thanks for coming up! Tiger was all over Wasabe the entire time - what a crazy pup that Tiger is.

Saturday:

Weather: Cloudy - no rain

Air Temp: 18 C

Water Temp: 19.5 C

Wave Activity: None

The combination of cloudy, and no wave activity meant, you guessed it, no lake trout. Tom caught a few bass however.

On Sunday, the conditions were much the same, however, there were some waves. The waves really picked up at around 10am-12pm and I landed 3 trout, the last one is about 3 lbs:

Here's the theory on lake trout feeding activity:

a) Wave action trumps everything else, no wave action, no trout, period - with the exception of clear skies in the really early morning (6-8am)

b) The abundance of sunlight steers the trout feeding times. If the weather is clear, it concentrates the feeding times to early morning and late evening. If the weather is cloudy, the fish feed throughout the day.

So watch those waves! and adjust your fishing times depending on how clear the skies are.

Surprise visitors from the past..... & elusive togue

Water temp: 21.4 C
Air temp: 17 C
Cloudy & spitting rain

So, the lakers seem to have been on vacation or something. I've been marking them but couldn't get them to hit. They seemed active, suspended just under the thermocline, but just wouldn't hit, no matter what I threw at them. I finally tried the downrigger and got a really strong hit 50 ft down, the strike was very strong, pulled the line out of the downrigger clip AND pulled my rod tip into the water, but I didn't hook him. With only a few weeks left before season closes this has turned out to be a very slow season, perhaps because of the cool weather. Last year, I caught more than 100 trout, it was extremely hot and the thaw was very early. I haven't been catching them in the same areas any more, in fact they seem to have completely abandoned their favourite spot from the last year. Just when you think you have them figured out lakers with throw you a curveball!

On another note I calibrated my Normark fish scale and it is accurate. So the 15.2 lb'er, is actually, a 15.2 lb'er. 3 more weeks to catch a big one...... I may try to use a 3-way swivel method to get the lure deeper if they aren't hitting at the thermocline....

We had some surprise guests on Saturday. Donna and Gena, daughter and mother that owned the cottage from the 70's! They gave us some perspective on the history of the cottage and the things that have changed. Very interesting stuff. Thanks for visiting gals!

3 more weeks!

Where's my prop?

Sandra's folks and Peter and his girlfriend Jill came up this past long weekend for the first time. I spent most of the time with Sandra's parents hunting for bass in the early mornings and late evenings and temporarily threw away my catch and release formula for the bass because they liked to eat fish so much. Sandra's parents were more hardcore than me! We got up at 5:00am on labour day.... I must say - that's pretty early, even for me.

The trout were all over the sonar and I managed to catch one about 2-3 lbs. We then caught countless numbers of smallmouth bass and kept about 10 of them ranging from 0.5-1 lbs.

Oh.. and... we were cruising around the lake on the ski-boat and my PROP FELL OFF. I'm on the hunt for a new prop for a Yamaha F100 - if anyone has any tips on where to buy it I would be grateful!

Pretty much SKUNKED!

Viet came back from the UK and wanted to do his annual lake trout fishing at the cottage. Sam, Viet, and I went up to the cottage on the weekdays. Weather was going to be great, a bit on the cool side, but really nice and no chance of rain. I had just gotten back from the weekend with Saajida + family and thought we'd get an early start on the trout.

Viet and I went out Monday morning - a bit chilly and looked a bit cloudy but it soon brightened up. SKUNKED. Nothing. Sam did the smart thing and didn't come out with us and caught up on sleep.

Ok. We still have the afternoon. I caught this one:


The next couple of hours - with Sam, Viet, and me with 3 different proven lures. Nothing, not even a bite. Very strange, the conditions, other than the chilly morning were the same as any other successful outing in the past 3 years. Viet caught this largemouth bass (apparently now a permanent resident of our lake) near shore out of desperation:



The next TWO DAYS, nothing, not even a nibble! Weather was beautiful. We were charting fish on the sonar under the thermocline. I have never experienced such slow fishing on my lake! Hopefully next weekend will be better.

Pics from August 23rd Weekend with Saajida's Family