Thread: Bull Trout Help
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Old 06-15-2018, 01:31 PM
scel scel is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 521
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There are still not that many bull trout. Sure, they are no longer super critically endangered, but they still live in a specialized eco-system.

There are a couple of things of bull trout that I have found. I have never caught them in a lake in AB.

First, bull trout are lazy. Like really lazy. They would much rather sit in a calm pool. If they are not actively feeding, you pretty much have to hit them in the nose. Also, I have never been surprised by a bull trout. They almost always live in very predictable areas, which is almost always the bottom of deeper, slow moving water. An actively feeding bull trout will definitely move to get a meal, but your best bet is to get the fly as close as possible to a lazy bully.

I a making a broad generalization, but I find flies are either heavy and sink fast, but have very little action, or are light but have a ton of action. I prefer to go with lighter flies with more action. Even on the little streams in AB, a small sinktip is usually required to fish the deeper pools. I find 7' ideal for most scenarios. You can definitely get away with a weighted fly, and the technique is not much different. I would say I catch 1/3 of my bull trout on a clouser minnow.

Using a streamer, cast upstream. Throw an upstream mend into your line the second the fly hits the water and continue to mend until fly begins to move downstream from your position. Start the swing, but continue to mend, you do not want the fly to pick up speed so you can effectively cover the whole pool. The problem with this technique is that you are not connected directly to your fly, so you also have to watch your line until you are sure you are tight with the fly. Still bull trout are not usually subtle.

I find lighter streamers work best (probably emulating whitefish, grayling, minnows). They do not need to be that big. A 10cm clouser works great, but bigger articulated flies, like sex dungeons, also produce fish. Bull trout are much like pike though---eyes bigger than their stomachs and for some reason, infuriated by red and pink. However, my biggest bullie was with a relatively small black-n-white clouser minnow.

Good luck.
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