Torres
Well-known member
During the late winter early spring months of the fishing season you occasionally read the reports from fellow anglers of their day on a lake:
"Trolling this lure behind this hardware with zero bites"
"Tried this setup and that and still no success"
"Water still too cold for them to bite"
The latter quote might be true to some extent and I believe it's true when it comes to trolling early in the season after kokanee.
Being an avid flyfisherman I like to tie flies that match as close to the real thing the fish are eating or create a pattern that a fish cannot refuse or want to destroy. i always listen to what my more experienced fellow anglers say to what they do or use to be more successful.
One very good example came to mind during a fly swap with some very experienced searun cutthroat anglers (Smalma being one of them) a few months back. A conversation came up about fishing at Lake Stevens and I added to it that I like to fish for, you guessed it, Kokanee, in the lake with some of the flies iv'e tied behind a flasher to unfortunately no success.
Since Smalma is from the Marysville area and regularly fishes Lake Stevens he added to the conversation a topic that made clear sense.
He told me he's successful catching Kokanee fishing chironomid patterns shallow during the colder months.
When it's cold out there is very little to no bug activity and the fish are going to be lethargic too due to the cold water. The first insects to usually come out and be active are blood worms (chironomids). Trout and kokanee are always targeting them, especially in shallow muddy bottoms during the winter months because, of course, the shallow areas of water are always the first to warm up on a lake.
So the next time you are out on the water and trolling to no avail, it might be time to try something different. Tie on a chironomid fly to your line with a float attached a few feet above and see what happens, you might be surprised.
Good luck!
"Trolling this lure behind this hardware with zero bites"
"Tried this setup and that and still no success"
"Water still too cold for them to bite"
The latter quote might be true to some extent and I believe it's true when it comes to trolling early in the season after kokanee.
Being an avid flyfisherman I like to tie flies that match as close to the real thing the fish are eating or create a pattern that a fish cannot refuse or want to destroy. i always listen to what my more experienced fellow anglers say to what they do or use to be more successful.
One very good example came to mind during a fly swap with some very experienced searun cutthroat anglers (Smalma being one of them) a few months back. A conversation came up about fishing at Lake Stevens and I added to it that I like to fish for, you guessed it, Kokanee, in the lake with some of the flies iv'e tied behind a flasher to unfortunately no success.
Since Smalma is from the Marysville area and regularly fishes Lake Stevens he added to the conversation a topic that made clear sense.
He told me he's successful catching Kokanee fishing chironomid patterns shallow during the colder months.
When it's cold out there is very little to no bug activity and the fish are going to be lethargic too due to the cold water. The first insects to usually come out and be active are blood worms (chironomids). Trout and kokanee are always targeting them, especially in shallow muddy bottoms during the winter months because, of course, the shallow areas of water are always the first to warm up on a lake.
So the next time you are out on the water and trolling to no avail, it might be time to try something different. Tie on a chironomid fly to your line with a float attached a few feet above and see what happens, you might be surprised.
Good luck!
