Typical day at Merwin , The wind comes up and the fish turn on

[DODGER]

We went out this Mothers day morning and didn't get much at all...Untill the wind came up around noon . Once that happened we started fast trolling on the south side and things happened quickly !

Did I mention fast trolling ?....When I say fast I mean we went as fast as anyone would ever want to go and then gave it a little more juice untill our rods loaded up in the pole holders like ithey were dragging a load of weeds !

I don't know if any of you guys were up there but I gotta tell ya.......
Even after the wife and I started to hit the fish a few of the other boat operators just looked at us going by them at that speed like we were nuts......And then one of us would grab a rod that had just gone down and reel up another Kokanee.....I know that other people saw us getting on the fish because the south shore was pretty busy today......By busy I mean a fair amount of traffic but I didn't see much going on for the other fishermen......And still no one else picked up their speed to see if it would work for them as well........ I've fished at that speed before on windy days at Merwin , and Yale , with pretty much the same results.

I guess that we could have missed the action that was going on for the guys that kept it slow and steady , but if you were up there Mothers day and didn't do well......Next time up if the wind starts to kick up give the fast troll thing a try......It seems to work for us with regularity.

 

[sweetpea]

fast troll

well i know what you mean. 2 fridays ago i was out when real windy. i found a cove out of the wind and started hitting fish. then a buddy wanted a piece of driftwood so i turned the boat to get it and gave some gas. then we had 2 fish on in a matter of minutes trying to get that piece of wood. thought it was wierd and kept going what i thought was to fast and had another right away. slowed down because i seem to loose them so i thought a slower speed would help for that. so like you said faster tolling works too.

 

[Kokonuts]

I havnt tried that, I always thought that 1 to 11/2 was best. So when you say fast is that like 2 mph ?

What kind of gear are you using?

 

[SilverBullets]

What kind of general set up were you useing (kind of dodger, lure type, downrigger or in line weight?) Any idea how fast you were actually trolling?

 

[DODGER]

I havnt tried that, I always thought that 1 to 11/2 was best. So when you say fast is that like 2 mph ?

What kind of gear are you using?

When I say fast I mean FAST !!...Probably 4-6 mph , possibly faster on the down wind run...

The usual gear ...Dodgers , or 4 blade troll doesn't seem to matter most of the time...Wedding ring of course , but I use a piece of night crawler NOT white corn...Which end of the crawler you use DOES seem to matter sometimes....The bigger fish seem to respond better to that and you usaully get a second or third chance if they short strike the first time around...Two ounces at SIXTY pulls out...At that speed you really make a lot of noise and the more agressive fish ARE up close to the surface right now so it seems that you need some distance to allow the fish to come back up into the depth that they were at when you passed thru....

Later in the summer I may go back 120 pulls to get the depth I need....I know , I know....A down rigger would probably be easier but I've just never looked that seriously into them....Besides , I'm more likely to be on the Columbia with the anchor set in about twenty feet of water in the summer......One Steelhead is worth more than 5 Kokanee in July and August.....In my opinion!!

As for loosing fish at that speed...The moment you get a solid hook-up drop back to an idling speed...Just enough forward thrust to keep yourself pointed into the wind on the uphill run , and the line tight...Most hook-ups at this speed are so solid that you could probably get away with not using a snubber....But I don't recommend tempting fate!!.....

Most of us have probably noticed that the fish seem to get very "Directional " when they turn on......Has anyone else noticed that that usaully means fishing with the direction of the wind???...Could it be that SPEED from the pushing wind is the BIGGER factor???

Give it a try....Your luck may change...

 

[jzell]

There are days at Merwin when it's best just to troll with the wind and then run by up and do it again rather than troll into the wind. If you have socks, try using them to control your speed.

Another crazy thing about this time of the year is that the wind can just stop or change direction. The west of the lake can be windy and the east calm and vice versa. The wind can come up late morning and you think you'll be dealing with it for the rest of your day and then all of a sudden it goes calm for an hour or so.

jz