I fished Fish Lake 1/2 days for the past few days. I wanted to get my family members into fish so I first tried fishing with bait. That worked great for perch and nothing else. Not my idea of fun fishing. I next switched to trolling the east shoreline. In prior years (haven't been up there with my boat for a few years) trolling the east shoreline has been non-stop action for rainbows. We would occasionally catch a rainbow or a splake, but really slow compared to what I have experienced previously.
We then switched to trolling all over the lake. Surprisingly, we did slightly better trolling out near the middle in water that is over 100' deep. I set my down rigger (finally installed one on my current boat) at anywhere from 20' to about 38' and put out two leaded lines our 4 or 5 colors and drug a fly on the surface. We caught a few fish (mostly rainbows, a few splake and two kokanee). I wish that I would have put the fly out sooner, because it caught a surprisingly number of fish.
Everyone I talked to commented on how slow the catching was.
It was a fun trip, but wish we could have caught a few more and it would have also been nice to catch a few more larger fish.
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Hey Kent,
Nice to see you had a good time and got into at least some fish. Did you notice the water temp ? And, how fast were you trolling when you were catching on that fly ?
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Water temperature about 70. We had our best luck trolling about 1.7 mph.
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How big were the kokes?
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Thanks for the report, sounds better than any day at work.
I'm heading there my self next weekend for a few days on the lake. The last few reports I have read haven't been the most promising, but we will let you know how we do.
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Too bad the catching wasn't what you hoped for but I bet it was nice to get away and fish a different lake. If you were there two days, I'm guessing you stayed up there, how what the overnight/early morning temps?
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[quote Theekillerbee]
How big were the kokes?
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Didn't measure them, but I would guestimate them at 18 to 19".
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We were there at least a portion of five days. We rented a motel room in Bowery Haven Resort. It was roomy (two beds and room to put a queen-size blow-up mattress on the floor), had a mid-size fridge, table and chairs, kitchen sink and a stove top (no oven or microwave). We ate twice in the restaurant and found the prices were reasonable and the good was great.
I would guestimate the night-time temperature was in the mid-fifties. I just needed a light jacket.
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Sounds nice, how were their prices.
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$125 a night, which seems reasonable for a room by the lake.
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Sounds like a good trip. Did you put your new bimini top to use?
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Yes I did; however, one of my fishing guests decided that the single strap in the rear was in the way. I was sitting up front, minding my own business, when I was suddenly hit by the bimini as it crashed on top of me. Apparently, he decided it would be easier to fish if he unhooked the strap. It didn't occur to him that the strap was keeping the bimini up.
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[quote kentofnsl]
It was a fun trip, but wish we could have caught a few more and it would have also been nice to catch a few more larger fish.[/quote]
Isn't this what keeps us going back for more?
At Fish Lake, you really have to decide what you want, and then stick with it. If it's quantity over quality, then focus on the perch or troll for rainbow trout. The rainbow trout historically in Fish Lake don't get that big -- 17 - 18" is really about max.
if you want quality over quantity, then you have to expect to catch very few fish (maybe none) and hope for that trophy fish. Trolling big rapalas deep, or jigging deep. There are a lot of guys that troll all summer long looking for that 1 fish. They'll go days without any at all.
Middle of summer, it sounds like you did fairly well. If you want more splake (and lake trout) come back again this fall (September / October).
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This is true. My problem is that I can remember "the good old days" when I was able to catch rainbows non-stop while trolling the east side. Of course, in those days there were also far fewer boats on Fish Lake.
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The days of loads of rainbows kind of ended in a two-stage evolution of the management of the reservoir that started with the perch wiping out the chubs and the lake trout turning to rainbows for forage and then more recently culminating with the stocking of Kokanee and the subsequent decrease in rainbow trout stocking. Overall, I think the changes are good, but those looking for rainbows will surely have a more difficult time. On the flip side, more lake trout and spake should be able to get through the bottleneck to becoming trophy fish and the Kokanee are filling a formerly underutilized niche within the lake. I believe the apex of Fish Lake’s production capability as a fishery is in the near future and it is quite possibly going to be better than ever in the near future!
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[quote wormandbobber]
On the flip side, more lake trout and spake should be able to get through the bottleneck to becoming trophy fish...
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Please explain further.
In the early days of planting splake in Fish Lake they seemed to get much bigger than they typically do these days. Perhaps that is because they prefer dining on chubs more than dining on perch.
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Diet studies of lake trout have yielded a grand total of zero perch in lake trout stomachs and splake only utilize them slightly more probably because of where they live. In other words, yes lake trout and splake preferred chubs to perch as forage. And, early results are showing that more large splake and lake trout are using Kokanee. Already we are seeing more large splake than just five years ago...
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It looks like lots of rainbows are still being stocked. I have no idea how many were being stocked in "the good old days" of 25 to 30 years ago. I give the UDWR credit for planting a variety of fish in Fish Lake and Kokanee are definitely a plus (IMNSHO).
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Kent -- this discussion is showing why we disdain the perch so much.
The perch changed everything in Fish Lake. They, for the most part, have eliminated the chubs, which were the primary food source for Lake Trout.
Lake Trout will forage on insects and plankton until they reach ~24". At that point those fish must convert to a strictly pisciverous (fish) diet if they are to grow any bigger. If they convert they quickly grow to over 30". This is the bottleneck mentioned by wormandbobber.
Without the chubs, lake trout and splake struggle to get through this bottleneck, and thus the number of trophy lake trout is limited while the number of mature small (<24") lake trout is high.
For many years the stocking of rainbow trout was basically an expensive feeding program for those fish.
At the same time, due to a missing population of chubs - which are an open water plankton feeding fish -- there was a whole niche in Fish Lake that was not being utilized. Further, with better access to hatcheries producing kokanee than in the past, the availability of kokanee provides a good match to fill that niche, and at the same time provide better prey for lake trout and a sport fish opportunity to anglers.
You also mentioned the size of the splake today vs. in the past -- I think this is easily credited to stocking practices and the increased popularity of ice fishing. When splake were first introduced, and for the next 10 - 15 years, they didn't stock nearly as many as they have in more recent years. It's the same old analogy of "how many jelly beans can you put in a jar?". The answer depends on the size of the jelly beans. You can put in a few big jelly beans, or a whole bunch of small jelly beans. It all depends on whether you want quality or quantity.
Like wormandbobber, I feel optimistic about the direction that Fish Lake is heading, and that it's best days are yet to come.
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Like was said before you either want bigger fish or troll for rainbows. I know you jig for the cutts at strawberry and fish lake is really not any different but location tends to be the factor. There are three areas I have found to hold splake year after year. There deep though around 60-75 feet so you need to use a super line with a leader.
Let me know in a PM if you want some help.
fnf[cool]
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