Spray Lake report

[nicemustang]

We did end up going to Spray this morning. A very nice day but the wind was definitely blowing hard at times. We arrived early and fished in the usual spot at Driftwood, didn't have enough balls to try a new spot like Sparrowhawk. Once we found the right spot again (GPS wasn't working), we almost caught our limit within an hour. It took until 10:30 to find the spot :mad:

We managed five lakers, 1 - 17", 3 - 16" and 1 - 13". Beats though little buggers from Chain :lol: Had to get home for football and they stopped biting right at noon. Lots of bites and misses as well, I had one on that broke my line and lost my favorite buzz bomb. It must have been big, it busted right away. A couple of pics.

Early on, one right after another as soon as you hit bottom
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp140/nicemustang11/Fishing/IMG00010.jpg
In the tent, keeping warm
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp140/nicemustang11/Fishing/IMG00011.jpg
Size does matter
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp140/nicemustang11/Fishing/IMG00020.jpg
My buddy with the biggest one of the day (the only one he managed to pull in)
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp140/nicemustang11/Fishing/IMG00018.jpg
My biggest
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp140/nicemustang11/Fishing/IMG00012.jpg

[denpacc]

Gotta love that wind on Spray.

Nice fish and thanks for the report.

Cheers

[TheWelder]

What do you guys catch em on in there? We wanna try that next weekend.

[denpacc]

What do you guys catch em on in there? We wanna try that next weekend.

My dad and I always use a beena-a-weena-roni rig (bait on a hook; in Spray Lakes the bait is a smelt) with success. He's been fishing that lake since the late 50's. Others often use a lure (ie. buzzbomb) of some sort tipped with a smelt or some other secret bait.:evilgrin: My pops was never one for experimenting so I am looking forward to reading what others use at Spray.

Cheers

[FishorDie]

are you allowed bait on spray lake?

[BobLoblaw]

are you allowed bait on spray lake?
Yes; but no BAITFISH (no minnows). Smelt are not considered baitfish, so, smelt
are legal at Spray.
But, don't take my word for it- check the regs. The last thing you want to do is
take someone else's word for the regs. I don't think it would fly with the fishcop:
"But, sir, some dude on some internet forum said it was legal..."

[nicemustang]

That's correct, no bait fish but smelt is not a bait fish so it's legal. That's why they use. The problem I find is that smelt you usually buy at the fishin hole or CT is way to big, I usually tear the tail off. Buzz bombs or tube jigs work best for lake trout through the ice.

[FishorDie]

im thinking of heading up there next week ... i fished on the north end last time and it wasnt the greatest.... youve told me before you like to fish near the dock or something?... is that on the south end?

[FishorDie]

and Buzz bombs are a type of lure right?

[Mudslide]

Are exploding "Bombs" legal at Sprey?:evilgrin:

[nicemustang]

Driftwood boat launch. Just fish anywhere and there is fish. Buzz bombs can be found at any fishing store.

[tazman_1]

Thanks for the boost in moral with the pics, we were out there on Sunday by the dam and had no luck.:mad2: Perhaps we will try again this weekend............:D

[whitewolf]

hey guys is spray lakes accesible by car and is the boat launch hard to find or does the road lead you right to it and is there rainbow in it to?

[muley300]

The road parallels the lk for a good part of it i usually park just past Sparrowhawk on the side of the rd and walkdown the 75 or so mtrs to the lk.

[muley300]

Sorry never caught any rainbows there, i have tried powerbait the odd time with no luck.

[bubba 96]

we went on sat 3 of us caught our limit in 2.5 hrs all lakers except 1 brookie. windy as hell but it wasent -35.....

[nicemustang]

There are no rainbows, just whitefish, lakers and the odd bull or brookie. There is a sign at both Driftwood boat launch and Sparrowhawk with places to park. You can drive there in a car but will have to walk on, no motor vehicles allowed on the lake. It's moving water as well (damned and camore's water supply) so it probably isn't safe to drive on. There was lots of ice though, 16-18" of hard black ice. It's usually windy there as it's between the two ranges of mountains. Whitefish can be caught in 20-30 feet which is where they say the lunkers are chasing the whitefish.

[whitewolf]

thanks guys im gonna try to get up there and give it a go its been a long time since i have been ice fishing......should be fun!

[4D7]

Was out on spray lake today for a couple hours. Super nice weather there was absolutely no wind. Only pulled up one laker. Very little snow on the lake. You can access spray lake with a car. no need for 4x4

[FishorDie]

any flood water on the lake right now?

hows the ice looking?

[Alex K]

Just so you know, driving on Spray with any motor vehicle is prohibited.

Alex Kreis

[4D7]

Whoops what i meant was the roads to spray lake are good. Never drove on the lake

[jts1]

Well I feel like a fool , but if someone can learn from my screw up then I guess its worth it. There was a post here about bait on Spray. Well as the guy said DONT take some guys word 4 it. Cause that fish cop dont take "But Mam He said it was ok" Even if u flirt like a 3dollar prostitute. Being a fly fishing guy I was not keen on the smelt vs minnow thing. But $200.00 later I can assure you I am a pro. I ened up with 1 laker that day. Hmmm fuel bait ticket.... Yep that was a $300.00 fish. http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj253/jts1_album/DSCN0142.jpg

[jeprli]

So "no baitfish" means exactly that, no baitfish of any kind(be it sal****er or freshwater)? correct?

Sorry I'm just not 100% clear with what you said.

[FishorDie]

I went to spray on wednesday and had a ****ty day fishing.... i got there and drilled a hole and once i broke throught my auger broke into two peices (the handle stayed in my hand and the other end went down into the bottom of the lake)... next my rod broke in half... and on top of that i didnt catch anything!..... amazing weather though , -12 and sunny and no wind ....so if anyone hooks onto an auger let me know! haha

[gunsnreels]

eol

[FishorDie]

yeah .... and dont buy the cheapest auger out there .... good lesson

[AxeMan]

Well I feel like a fool , but if someone can learn from my screw up then I guess its worth it. There was a post here about bait on Spray. Well as the guy said DONT take some guys word 4 it. Cause that fish cop dont take "But Mam He said it was ok" Even if u flirt like a 3dollar prostitute. Being a fly fishing guy I was not keen on the smelt vs minnow thing. But $200.00 later I can assure you I am a pro. I ened up with 1 laker that day. Hmmm fuel bait ticket.... Yep that was a $300.00 fish.

JTS1, I am confused about your ticket. I am assuming you were using smelts and that you were on Spray lakes and that is what you were charged with. If this is true, I think you may have been wrongly charged according to the regs. Clearly by these statements in the regs, salt water smelts may be used. It says:

page 31.
"Spray Lakes Reservoir - Open all year - Trout limit 5, but only 3 may be Lake trout; Mountain Whitefish limit 5 over 30 cm; Bait, except bait fish, allowed."

page21.
Fishing with Bait Fish
Bait Fish means any of the following:
�� suckers (family Catostomidae)
�� sticklebacks (family Gasterosteidae)
�� trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus)
�� Iowa darter (Etheostoma exile)
�� minnows (family Cyprinidae), except carp, goldfish and the
western silvery minnow.
Note: Pet store fish (tropical fish) or crayfish cannot be used as bait fish.
Bait Fish may be used in waters that do not have bait bans or bait fish
restrictions. Where fishing with bait fish is prohibited, other baits
including smelts, herring, gammarus shrimp and dead fish eggs (e.g.,
preserved “salmon eggs”) may be used, provided a bait ban is not in effect
for that water body.NOTE: Smelts and herring are of the salt water families Osmeridae and
Clupeidae. Use of the freshwater species cisco (Coregonidae), also called
tullibee or lake herring, is prohibited from use as bait.

[denpacc]

So "no baitfish" means exactly that, no baitfish of any kind(be it sal****er or freshwater)? correct?

Sorry I'm just not 100% clear with what you said.

He said don't take someone's word from the internet, it can cost you $ and make you look foolish. Check your regs!:wave: "Baitfish" is clearly defined.

Cheers

[AxeMan]

Baitfish are clearly defined, but also it explicitly states that salt water smelts are excluded from this. How else could you possibly interpret these regulations?

[Walleyes]

Yah I would have to say He was wrongly charged I would be taking this one up in court boy for sure..

[nicemustang]

Except i think he was using minnows, which guys on the net and CT said he could use at spray, so he believed them. It's easy to tell between smelt and minnows but for someone that never knew...no bait fish includes no minnows. Thats what he was caught for I gather.

[AxeMan]

I think JTS 1 may have been mistakenly using minnows and not smelts as admitted in the post:
http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=26386
The rules are clear in regs, smelts but not minnows where there is a bait fish ban. This was pretty clearly pointed out in the earlier posts though.
Tough one JRS 1. Pay it and get back out there and have some fun.

[nicemustang]

^ agree as above. Don't get too discouraged, spray is an awesome lake to fish if you know what you are doing. Use my PM from the iceshanty and you'll be fine!

[gunsnreels]

eol

[kinwahkly]

so can we use smelts at spray?

[whitewolf]

same regs for pine coulee and we used smelts and the warden didnt say anything about them he even said thats what people use there so were you busted for smelts or minows?not getting what the ticket was for

[gunsnreels]

eol

[GrtWht]

After a dismal showing at Pine coulee today we decided to head over to Chain. Managed to chat with the C.O's there and got the official down low on the smelt vs. minnow debate. Where it says "Bait except bait fish" you are allowd to use smelts but not minnows. So I showed him what I had bought the container that said Minnows no go. The package of large salt water fish ( smelts ) OK. So now I know. Guess there are several reason for this, but to be honest none of them really made sense to me. But that's the law so smelts it is!

[Cowtown guy]

So I showed him what I had bought the container that said Minnows no go. The package of large salt water fish ( smelts ) OK. So now I know. Guess there are several reason for this, but to be honest none of them really made sense to me. But that's the law so smelts it is!

I can understand if someone is bringing fresh caught bait from another lake being illegal but this is ridiculous. A tub of frozen minnows being illegal is stupid! Frozen = dead and not able to proliferate a lake. The rules may be the rules but they are still ******ed.
ps why does this censor r e t a r d e d

[kostianych]

they are illegal because they are better bait for fishing......:huh:

[marlin1]

I would agree they were better bait. A long time ago when minnows were allowed I saw more than once a three hook rig bring up three lakers , when a three hook rig was legal .

[jts1]

As for my earlier post. I "was" using minnows. I just didn't understand the difference. Lucky I did have a bag of legal smelts with me so I got to finish the day. The Worden explained to me that minnows can carry some disease's that the smelts do not. If it keeps ore fish safe for the generation to come I agree with the ban and have no complaint's about my ticket. I know I am always hunting the monster, But I would trade it all to assure that my son gets the chance to enjoy all the memories and friendships that this great sport we all enjoy brings brings us.

[thumper]

" Being a fly fishing guy I was not keen on the smelt vs minnow thing. "


I read this as meaning that he was confused regarding 'minnows' (which are not permitted) and 'smelt' (which are permitted), and used minnows at Spray.
Hence the ticket.

[Sundancefisher]

I know the first hand reason for the regulation is to prevent any doubt as to preventing the unwanted transportation and use of live minnows. People in the past just dumped their bait bucket in the lake when the wardens approached. Now their is no doubt as any minnows are illegal.

Non minnows such as smelt when found used by a warden is guaranteed not to be live when used.

While a frozen bait contained of minnows are clearly dead...unfortunately it is the few bad individuals transporting live fish from one water body to another that need to be regulated.

Therefore while Fish and Wildlife have no problem with dead minnows...it is the risk of live ones that are problematic.

Simple reason surely but yes it does punished unnecessarily those good guys out their fishing.

Cheers

Sun