24 January 14 , 2022 VOL . 41 • ISS . 1

This chunky rainbow trout slammed an orange Arctic Fox tube fly trolled at Lake Camanche on December 30 . Jack Naves tips his flies with one-inch long pieces of night crawler to add some extra enticement . These flies can be trolled slow , or up to 3 miles-per-hour when weighted or clipped to a downrigger wire . A small Wigglefin disc is run directly in front of the fly to impart action to the lure .

Photo courtesy of Jack Naves

storms , and we were able to carefully launch at the bottom of the main ramp in twilight . Robbie had been on the lake a few days earlier , so he directed me to his hot spot . He had quickly been able to put over a dozen trout into the net during his previous trip , so I figured we would start getting hookups as soon as we had our lines wet . For those of us who have fished for winter trout , we know that it ’ s not quite that simple . In fact , during the first couple of hours , we only had one hit that didn ’ t stick . Thoughts of “ I should ’ ve fished the delta ” were creeping into

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Photo courtesy of Jack Naves

my head . Was this going to be another one of those ‘ scratch bite ’, or ‘ lucky to get a few trout ’ days ? No … I knew that with this guy in my boat , something was going to click at some point . Sometimes you have to slow down and troll grubs or night crawlers when cold water temperatures make trout finicky . On this day , the water temperature was holding at 51 degrees , not too cold to troll fast in my book . We decided to cover lots of water , and trolled between 2 and 3 miles-per-hour all day . It was a gamble , but it allowed us to explore more of the lake . We had been trolling diving plugs like Rapala Floating Minnows and Scatter Raps both top-lined and on side planers . With the lack of success , we deployed two of the downriggers to

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start probing different lake depths . One of my favorite trout offerings is a small orange Arctic Fox tube fly behind a small Wigglefin disc . I tie tandem size 2 octopus hooks behind the fly similar to a kokanee lure . On the front hook , I nose-hook a one-inch section of night crawler . Although some may snicker at the use of bait , I ’ d rather grind out trolling with bait than go home empty-handed . We started testing out depths on the two downriggers , setting them anywhere between one foot down to seventeen feet of depth . By about 9:30 am we still hadn ’ t landed a fish , so I made my way to the back of the boat to stretch my legs . Out of the corner of my eye , I could see the starboard downrigger rod pumping in the rod holder . I quickly spun around , and soon had the rod in my hands . Robbie netted the fish like you would expect an experience guide to do , and we finally had our first fish in the box . Despite breaking the ice , the slow winter grind continued . We knew it was going to be one of those days where you just had to tough it out until the bite turned on . Finally at noon , the downrigger rod at sevenfeet deep got a nice rainbow trout . We quickly set the second downrigger to the same depth . Just like magic , the downrigger rods lit up , and we boated five nice rainbows within an hour ’ s time . A less experienced angler might have bolted for the ramp at lunchtime , but our combined knowledge and perseverance had paid off . It seemed like seven-feet was the hot depth , so Robbie quickly busted out a small box of bullet sinkers in different sizes . Each compartment of the box was labeled with weights organized by size . Again , this was something that separates the guides from the weekend warriors . Within minutes , the Rapala rods were rigged with bullet sinkers in front of their leaders . Robbie was letting out the first of the two Rapala rods when he immediately got slammed . That fish came off , but a few minutes later his side-planer violently surged towards the center of the boat , and we had another nice rainbow in the box . The subtle shift of only a few feet in depth made all the difference in the world . At 2:00 pm the bite went crazy , with hookups on downrigger , side planer , and top line rods all at the same time . We were finally dialed in ! We finished out our limits and were