VOL. 36 • ISS. 26
Tempting Trout When the Going Gets Cold
Dec. 8- 22, 2017
11 presents Strategy For Frigid Water Winter Trout!
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When the icy jaws of winter descend on our lakes trout fishing can get tough, but there are some strategies and tricks you can employ to keep your landing net busy. This big rainbow was caught during a mid-winter adventure at Lake Almanor
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If you have to absolutely positively hook trout during the winter when the water is at its coldest, a threaded night crawler like the one shown here is the way to go. For the best results keep your trolling speed at 1 mile per hour. It often pays to experiment with worms trolled naked and worms paired with dodgers or flashers.
^Do trolling flies work? You bet they do! Shown here are some of Bryan“ Big Daddy” Roccucci’ s flies. Here’ s what Bryan has to say,“ I regularly use trolling flies especially at lakes like Almanor, Eagle and Davis and Arctic Fox Trolling Flies are tops. Tons of versatility in rigging their Tube Flies for presentations from mild to wild.
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One of the ways to trigger strikes from lethargic trout is to present them with a lure that stays in the strike zone for an extended amount of time. That’ s what makes Flatfish a great choice for winter trollers. Flatfish display tons of wiggle and put off a bunch of vibration at slow trolling speeds.
Be aggressive and troll fast. Zip into those coves and around those
points at three miles an hour, challenging those aggressive trout to pass up your quick moving spoon or plug …
You’ ve read my stuff, you know that fast and aggressive is the way I like to troll for trout and that tactic generally works … generally but not always.
At times the trout simply are not aggressive, are not chasing and to hook them on the troll you’ ll need to get slow, get seductive and show them something that stays in the strike zone for a bit.
In recent years, I’ ve been using three offerings extensively when trout are the target and I have to slow my troll. Let’ s take a look a close look at each of these offerings. I know if you fish them with confidence you’ ll catch more and bigger trout this winter.
Now the first question you might be asking is why three offerings? Why not two or four? The answer is simple. Most of the time when trolling with a partner in an average size boat we run three lines when prospecting for fish. More lines often creates more tangles, especially when top lining is involved. If you run only two, you’ re cutting your chances of a hook up by a third...
Mind you this three-rod business is just my theory, your mileage might vary. Anyhow I’ ve babbled long enough, let’ s fish!
Trolling Flies While I do fish some“ bug lakes”, most
FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg
of lakes and reservoirs I visit are“ bait lakes” meaning that the trout residing in them feed mainly on baitifish rather than insects. As a result, most of the trolling flies I use are either baitfish colored or brightly colored. If you fish waters with a strong insect forage base, by all means stock up on those olive, black and brown hues to“ match the hatch”.
Looking at my fly selection most of my bright colored flies come from Sep’ s Pro Fishing with orange being my favorite. For imitating baitfish, I’ ve not found any flies better than those offered by Arctic Fox. Cop Car No. 2 is my hands down top choice, but I also utilize Rainbow Trout and UV White.
The dark over light Cop Car No. 2 pattern was specifically designed for lakes like Shasta and New Melones that have a shad based economy. This pattern features purple holographic and UV Flash on the back, making for an extremely realistic shad imitation when drawn through the water.
While a lot of guys have heard how effective trolling streamers can be, many of them don’ t really understand how to fish them properly. I rig flies a few different ways. Teaming the fly with a clear Wiggle Disc is an easy and effective way to impart deadly erratic movement to your fly. To vary the action, I monkey with the distance between the Wiggle Disc and the fly.
If the Wiggle Disc routine isn’ t working I’ ll sometimes team my fly with a small dodger like a Sep’ s Side Kick or Strike Master. At other times, I’ ll run a fly
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