spray lake in august/early sept

[nevercatchmuch]

I'd love to chat with someone who has had success fishing spray lake in the past month. I've searched the forums and lots of folks post about ice fishing success but comments about summer are less abundant.

Here's what I know from fishing there this month:
-spinners, spoons are rarely working - differnt colors, sizes, depth, trolling speed....don't make a difference
-jigs with smelt work more often, but even so it's slow. this past weekend was a total skunk for me. 3 bites in 2 whole days on the lake.
-everyone says the bite is dead after 12:00 and I think that's true, which really sucks

[ice]

People say that.. But i dont belive it,
If the Pike are there, They Will Bite..
I Dont Fish Spray.. And i Dont Know what it contain's
But if theres Pike, I Have Yet to meet the one, That wont take a bait, that he only has to inhale,
Its all Presentation,
i Know lakes such as Angling, Cruising the weed line, Produces All Day Long..
They're There, You just have to find what works..

[Rugid]

I haven't fished Spray in the last month, but on that note Spray is my favorite lake. Spoons do work. Especially krocodlies. Also I have had luck after 12:00. I might be headed up this weekend, if you are interested you could come along and see what we could do. It's not set in stone yet.

[bigfis]

Originally Posted by ice

People say that.. But i dont belive it,
If the Pike are there, They Will Bite..
I Dont Fish Spray.. And i Dont Know what it contain's
But if theres Pike, I Have Yet to meet the one, That wont take a bait, that he only has to inhale,
Its all Presentation,
i Know lakes such as Angling, Cruising the weed line, Produces All Day Long..
They're There, You just have to find what works..

The lake is farly high in the mountain and has cold water only lakers white fish. And cutys which I have never Sean or got. For sure I have never had a laker past 12:00 but I think the white fish may bight

[outandabout]

Hey, I was out there fishing as well this past sat, 7 till about 3...little 14' red boat. We were also skunked...2nd time in the past 3 weeks! In the the spring we couldn't keep the lakers off our line. Now its ssslllloooooooow! They show up on the fish finder but just won't bite. Not sure if its because the waters so high or so cold...

[BeeGuy]

was out there today for 4 hours with the new sonar.

lots of small schools holding in either ~85' or 55-60'.

Couldn't get a bite.

Fished from 11-3, so it's not terribly surprising given the time of day.



Try a very slow drift bouncing a small spoon near the bottom.

A summer rig we usually use for lakers is a small spoon (little cleo) with 12-18'' of line, then a small treble tipped with a small minnow.

The flasher gets their attention, and the smelt seals the deal.

The alternative, is a bell sinker with 24-30'' of line then a minnow/smelt bottom bounced or jigged.

[goose]

Ok I can't stand it, I'll spill the beans. Try a white tube jig or white regular single tailed jig but ensure you use power bait jig/tube bodies on lime green jig heads. One foot above the jig head tie on a royal coachman SIZE #6 . For bait use smelts cut in half which better imitates minnows (YOU CANNOT USE MINNOWS THERE), and put 2-3 maggots on the fly. Bounce the crap out of the jig on the bottom and then let it sit for 30 secs or so, sometime you just have to keep it very still to get them to bite though. The fly usually catches whites but I also have caught some of my biggest lakers on the flys. There are a couple of good producing spots this time of year. One is straight out from the driftwood boat launch towards the middle of the lake in 45-55 feet of water and you must be anchored. The other is way down the lake just in front of the dam 20 feet from shore and again anchor your boat. I would imagine I'll get clobbered for this reply here but I believe in helping people and staying positive about helping people which I believe was the basis for this forum.

Have fun and please put the big ones back once you have taken your pictures and measurements of the big fish as it takes these fish a long time to grow and these are the fish that create next years crop!!!!

cheers
Goose

[Alex K]

Goose just posted exactly the way we showed people to fish when we filmed an episode up there. The other method of course is downrigging just try different spoons and cranks and you will catch them all day long. No problem jigging or downrigging, we caught them all day no cut off at noon.

Hope this helps.

Alex Kreis

[Rugid]

Originally Posted by Alex K

Goose just posted exactly the way we showed people to fish when we filmed an episode up there. The other method of course is downrigging just try different spoons and cranks and you will catch them all day long. No problem jigging or downrigging, we caught them all day no cut off at noon.

Hope this helps.

Alex Kreis

Originally Posted by goose

Ok I can't stand it, I'll spill the beans. Try a white tube jig or white regular single tailed jig but ensure you use power bait jig/tube bodies on lime green jig heads. One foot above the jig head tie on a royal coachman SIZE #6 . For bait use smelts cut in half which better imitates minnows (YOU CANNOT USE MINNOWS THERE), and put 2-3 maggots on the fly. Bounce the crap out of the jig on the bottom and then let it sit for 30 secs or so, sometime you just have to keep it very still to get them to bite though. The fly usually catches whites but I also have caught some of my biggest lakers on the flys. There are a couple of good producing spots this time of year. One is straight out from the driftwood boat launch towards the middle of the lake in 45-55 feet of water and you must be anchored. The other is way down the lake just in front of the dam 20 feet from shore and again anchor your boat. I would imagine I'll get clobbered for this reply here but I believe in helping people and staying positive about helping people which I believe was the basis for this forum.

Have fun and please put the big ones back once you have taken your pictures and measurements of the big fish as it takes these fish a long time to grow and these are the fish that create next years crop!!!!

cheers
Goose

+1

[outandabout]

ummm...well goose, you must have taght the same person who taught me to fish around spray. I have used this as well...in early summer works wonders but for some reason I am unlucky nowadays.
Great tips though and glad someone is catching.
Also (its sumerged now) but there is a small island by the the cliff face that holds some nice 5lbs'ers

[goose]

Holly cow Alex thanks for the e-mail back on this. Yes, I watched your shows faithfully!!!! I really enjoyed your shows. You made my day writing here commenting about my note, we need more shows about Western Canada fishing. Take care perhaps we'll meet one day up there on Spray.

best regards
Goose

[nevercatchmuch]

thanks all. I am using pretty much these techniques but I'll modify.

Sometimes a lake it inactive too...and it's good to know there are a few other folks who are getting skunked!