Non stop action this weekend for us also ,fish are starting to feed more for fall.
Going to be alot of nice legal Lakers in about 5 years .

Fished the north end all Saturday and half day Sunday befor the wind and rain finally convinced us to call it done around 2:00.....boated over 120 fish in that time with about 20 or so keepers. We found a huge concentration of Lakers and huge schools of bait fish over 1km or so area and just worked em with herring rigs at 40-60' down in 180-80 feet of water. Out of the keepers only 2 were retained for shore lunches. Wind and rain made for interesting fishing on Sunday, but the constant double headers made up for it.

I highly doubt it. Lakers grow slowly and the keepers are being thinned out constantly with all of the angling pressure.

About every ten fish we catch on average are keepers but we let them slip into the water, I see many do the same to, lake has not got the pressure it had when the oil patch was booming, trust me those were some scary times, a lot more boats out there then.

There is no question the % of keepers being caught today is at a fraction as compare to when the size limit first increased a handful of years back. I know several local residents whom have fished all year and haven't been able to keep a single fish so far this year on the open water catching in instances over 50 a day. Often many fish into the low 70's very few get over 75 these days. Although I'm not out there as often as the locals, my own observations are the same.

I'll agree there may be slightly less boats on the water but I'll argue all day long that ice fishing pressure has certainly increased in recent years. A little easier for those without the fancy toys to get out on the ice and ice fish than it is to get out on the water with a boat.

If you are catching a keeper every ten fish I'll respectfully suggest that your likely just "eye balling" it.

She's been thinned out. I'm a C&R guy nevertheless when it comes to Lakers but it would be nice to catch the odd 20lber - 30lber like we were ~10 years ago.

this is 110% accurate. there is no way anyone is catching a fish over 75 out of every 10 when almost everyone else who actually knows what they are doing are catching 50-100 fish between keepers
B

I've caught 2 keepers in 2 trips this year. Only around 15 lakers total as I spent most of those trips targeting pike and walleye. That is by far my best year for catching keeper size lakers but I would say a significant part of that is luck.

My average is probably closer to 30 or so fish per keeper the last few years. It seems I usually get one at every trip or two.

If you are catching 50-100 fish a day and never any keepers then you need to stop targeting the herds of smaller fish and try some different spots. If you are catching a keeper every 10 fish then you are either lucky or know how to target the bigger lakers/avoid the smaller ones.

Fishing hasn't changed much for me the last few years. Lots of smaller fish 20-26 inches, a decent amount up to 29 in and the odd keeper size up to around 32.5 in. I am yet to catch anything bigger then that out of Cold although I do know the odd one still gets caught. I haven't played around too much trying to target bigger fish since I am usually in my kayak and target numbers of fish instead.

I get out and target the small bait balls with larger marks around it, get down to that depth and it increases the chance of larger fish.
If I want fun as in non stop action I find a large bait ball with many marks around it and bam double headers etc.

Patch has dried up and there is less pressure both summer and winter. Seen this first hand as I am from door to lake fishing under 20 minutes, always lurking around this lake....September will be better as all are working, kids in school etc.

If you want to start hitting bigger fish more often try my technique, small isolated bait balls with few larger marks....just a suggestion.

Good luck.

Your right maybe 15 ish but who is counting eh!

With all these under size ones kicking around and the amount of feed there is going to be some real beauties within a few years being landed....

I've been in the area for +40 years and know Cold Lake as good as most but I do appreciate the suggestions. We will revisit our opinions in a few years and see what happens.

So when you drive on top of these bait ball. do you stop using your down riggers and switch to jigging ?

No I actually do a figure 8 pattern crossing through it a few times, many times I get my bigger fish 30 or so yards off the bait balls.

I should stop and jig and enjoy a sandwich but every time I start eating I end up putting it down to bring a fish in, sandwhich either ends up tasting like a lake trout or dries up and I get a sun naked piece of toast:sHa_sarcasticlol:

Humm....seems like we both use a very similar tactic...I preform a very similar troll pattern and get the majority of the keepers just as we clear the bait ball about 20- 40 yards past and start the turn to go back through perpendicular to my last pass. I set my triggers about the top 10% of the bait ball for depth...we run a herring rig on one line and a 10" white storm kicking minnow on the other. I thread a length of momo through the body of the kicking minnow and out the tail to attach a stinger....seems to work very well. I totally embrace the "Bigger bait for bigger fish" theory. Been meaning to throw a full size mackeral on there sometime...just havent gotten around to it yet..

http://www.hotspotlures.com/products_apex_troll.php

Larger size, single hooks, no stinger.

I troll them behind a willow leaf for attractant attached to a pink lady, if required I add a weight to get down to them....they out fish all my other lake trout tactics.
Attachment 148100

4 to 5 1/2"


Shhhhh don't tell anyone:sEm_oops2:

I remove all the trebels that come on the kicking minnows and just have the 1 barbless gamagatsu stinger at the back and it works great. I also use fishy shaped 10lb weights on my downriggers which I paint glossy white with some silver speckles brushed on in spots for fun. This was my first trip to Cold Lake this year. Gonna be up there last week in August for the week as well. Guess I'll see if last trip was a one off, or if the pattern holds!

Cold Lake
 

The fishing was much better then the weather the past four days. We had a few slower evenings but most of the time wouldn’t have to troll more then 3-5 minutes before hooking one or two fish. Plenty of double headers which are lots of fun with a 3 and 5 year old, a dog and controlling the boat. The boys cranked in all the fish, I don’t think I got to catch any when they came out but that’s what keeps them interested.
I feel the fishing was much better now then when we fished it in May.

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any keepers? if so how many did you release compared to keepers.
I am at 60 to 0
lol

Yes we got some keepers. I found a lure the larger fish liked the last day and caught nothing but 75+ cm fish on it. Until I started using those lures we went probably 200+/0 for keepers. That style of plug picked up six over 75 in the last two hours of the trip. It wasn’t catching as many fish per hour so I ran a spoon on the other side of the boat to keep the boys busy reeling in fish.

That said we killed on male. Those are without a doubt the second best fish I’ve ever eaten. I ate one in May and thought it was exceptional, we ate another this week and they are better then fresh salmon or an 8lb halibut. Cover them in BBQ sauce, seal them in aluminum foil and throw them on the BBQ. DON’T over cook it.
I say second best because the right tuna is still better.

Looks like a great time, keep them on the fishing gig and you will never be without a fishing partner!:sHa_shakeshout:

awesome good for you!

Just finished up a week at Cold...did the same thing in the same spots, and caught waaayyy more fish then I care to count. However, this time only a few keepers...by a few I mean 2 all week. So maybe my last go was a one off. On a happy note though, my girlfriend caught her first Lake trout last Saturday after having her line in the water for 5 minutes....lol...33" 16 lbs. Not a bad first fish. To bad we never seen a few more of those. Regardless lots of fun bringing all those under the limit as well!

Its so much fun watching your kids reel in a laker .
They will remember those days for years.

great pics of happy kids Coiloil, well done!