Kootenay Lake without downriggers

WayneChristie · #1 08-25-2016, 10:19 AM

headed west with my brother the beginning of September to the Nelson area. he has a boat but no downriggers. what would be the best options for catching fish without them? neither of us has big lake experience and it would be nice to bring a few to the boat. thanks for your input.

Vigsy · #2 08-25-2016, 01:04 PM

three way rig with weight and spoon might work or other diving techniques like dipsys etc.

Pixel Shooter · #3 08-25-2016, 01:20 PM

Best way to fish Kootenay lake is planner boards with bucktails or lyman plugs. hopefully the water cools down, prime time for fall is typically November thru winter months then again in the spring. never fished summer til Oct. planner boards are easy and cheap to build. you want to get action out of the planners and we typically run long lines. hope you have some luck

deanna · #4 08-25-2016, 01:49 PM

Get salmon roe and anchor by K5 marker in 30 fow by Balfour ferry 3 way swivel & 4 foot leader with salmon roe and lots of bull trout or just troll royal coachman streamers back and forth in the west arm

deanna · #5 08-25-2016, 04:50 PM

PM me and I,ll hook u up on some good spots U don't have to burn a pile of gas on main lake the West arm is doing fine. Just be prepared to kill a lot of sqaw fish this time of year. Got some great pics of big ( 10 lb plus bull trout & 10 lb cutbows but can't post. I must be retarded. Whatever

idaman · #6 08-25-2016, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deanna

PM me and I,ll hook u up on some good spots U don't have to burn a pile of gas on main lake the West arm is doing fine. Just be prepared to kill a lot of sqaw fish this time of year. Got some great pics of big ( 10 lb plus bull trout & 10 lb cutbows but can't post. I must be retarded. Whatever

Killing a fish just to kill is illegal in BC and quite stupid...even if some consider it a nuisance,it's not written like Alberta where we state "sport fish"even though they have been around since the ice ages and they have always been around and create a balance in the ecosystem like most plants, animals, and fish.

deanna · #7 08-26-2016, 09:32 AM

he BC ministry asked us to kill as many as possible & freeze them so they could determine the impact they are having on the kokanee fishery which they fear is as bad as the big gerrards ya dummy

Kingfisher · #8 08-26-2016, 11:47 AM

Wayne, stop by my place on your way by. Or if you are just heading west let me know and I will send you a few bucktails that I have had good luck with on Kootenay Lake. I made a few that are not the "normal". I will make a few more of them in the next few weeks. If your not coming this way then I will mail them to you. You know how to get hold of me.

Yes, you can make planer boards that help get your lines away from the boat. But I have also just caught them by long lining your fly 200 - 300 feet directly behind the boat. If you don't have a downrigger you can use banana weights, or just Dipsy Divers to get your fly down if you want it deeper. But I have caught rainbows right on the surface in early spring and late fall. September might be a little warm there still. But still worth a try.

Cheers,
Rob

idaman · #9 08-26-2016, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deanna

he BC ministry asked us to kill as many as possible & freeze them so they could determine the impact they are having on the kokanee fishery which they fear is as bad as the big gerrards ya dummy

Do you have a link to share then, because all I can find on this subject is in 2010 they had a bounty in some areas, not to eliminate just to thin numbers and limit size.

This is from BC government in 2015 in the kootney lake area

"http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/kootenay/fsh/main/docs/Balfour%20meeting%20Q%20and%20A.pdf

And the only mention I saw of pike minis Is this "Pikeminnow are clearly part of the fish community that benefits from kokanee; however, they are not as effective predators as bull trout and Gerrard rainbow trout which rely more heavily on kokanee as a food source. This suggests that it is unlikely that pikeminnow or other non-game fish are contributing in a significant way to recent kokanee mortality increases. There is an unlimited daily quota for non-game fish, but we can’t definitively say if additional harvest would be beneficial at a full lake scale."

So I guess we should kill all bulls and Gerard rainbows if we think pike minnow are hurting Kokanee stocks.
You may also want to read this screen shot from pg9 of the BC regs as well
"uWaste the fish you catch.
If your fish is not suitable
for eating or if possession is illegal because of quotas, size limits or closed seasons, return the fish quickly and gently to the water."

Who's the dummy now...

WhitefishLady · #10 08-26-2016, 02:50 PM

Hi Wayne! I havent fished there but husband and I have used planar boards like the pink lady for lake trout in various places that went down to 30-40ft so that should work. No need for downriggers then.

Yeah dont kill pikeminnow just to kill them. They are a native species in that lake and part of the ecology. I think if you are fishing shallow you might catch them. Any issues with the kokanee fishery are probably human caused such as water level changes due to the dam. Or bring a few back for me and Ill try them in the smoker LOL.

Good luck!

deanna · #11 08-29-2016, 04:19 PM

Tried to send you a map. Sorry can't figure it out if you want PM me and tell me how. And yup don't kill squaw fish

graybeard · #12 08-31-2016, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayneChristie

headed west with my brother the beginning of September to the Nelson area. he has a boat but no downriggers. what would be the best options for catching fish without them? neither of us has big lake experience and it would be nice to bring a few to the boat. thanks for your input.

I just got back from there on Monday and the squaw fish count is very high in numbers. In the fish I caught, the squaw's out numbered the others five-one. There are some big squaw fish in there.

Trolling is 150-175 feet down and at 1.7 to 2.5mph.
It was hot for the 3 weeks we were there...28C - 33C.

Anything with silver on it was helpful

The fish are deep and you will need a down-rigger.

I hope to go out in October (a lot cooler); it is still to hot for surface trolling. In the last week there was some high winds so the lake got turned over to some degree but not much.

Good luck.....

iliketrout · #13 08-31-2016, 11:04 AM

Wayne, what kind of boat does your brother have? If it's a Lund with a Sport Track along the gunnel, you can borrow my manual scottys as I have removable mounts for them that take 2 mins to install. If he doesn't have the sport track you're still welcome to borrow the downriggers, but you'll need to figure out a mount for them. let me know. I've got 10lb weights and flashers you can take too.

Angler2 · #14 09-01-2016, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayneChristie

headed west with my brother the beginning of September to the Nelson area. he has a boat but no downriggers. what would be the best options for catching fish without them? neither of us has big lake experience and it would be nice to bring a few to the boat. thanks for your input.

As already noted trolling large buck tail flys 200' + behind the boat is effective. Using large planer boards to put action on the flys really increases your catch rate for rainbows. We normally fish north end of lake in mid May but didn't this year. Planning to get out there some time in September. Bull trout often caught deep so down riggers or weights required. Hope you have good luck! Kootenay Lake one of my favourites and enjoy visiting Kaslo!

deanna · #15 09-03-2016, 05:33 PM

We should make sure all pike minnow are saved from over fishing. Everyone want's to catch them. I don't know why the eagles won't eat them. They must be racist. Bastards

Red Bullets · #16 09-03-2016, 09:33 PM

If you want to get deeper without downriggers try using a Gibbs inline slip weight. A 4 to 8 ounce weight on your line ahead of your rig like the pic.

I like using a 3 or 4 inch silver flatfish 4 feet behind a willowleaf for the inland lakes of BC. And using the gibbs weight 8 feet above the willowleaf to get me down further.

A few years ago I spent a day trolling and was catching lots of pike minnows. That night talking to a local fellow he told me if you are catching pike minnow you are trolling too slow. Speed it up a mile an hour.

Travco1 · #17 09-04-2016, 09:38 PM

Troll a black/white/silver bucktail at 2.8-3 mph. Or green and white. 200 plus feet behind the boat. Silver crocodile with a bit of red or pink. Use an inline banana weight. Try any plug that looks like a rainbow or kokanee. Live target smelt 4" is great.
Tight lines and good luck

Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk

EZM · #18 09-05-2016, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by graybeard

I just got back from there on Monday and the squaw fish count is very high in numbers. In the fish I caught, the squaw's out numbered the others five-one. There are some big squaw fish in there.

Trolling is 150-175 feet down and at 1.7 to 2.5mph.
It was hot for the 3 weeks we were there...28C - 33C.

Anything with silver on it was helpful

The fish are deep and you will need a down-rigger.

I hope to go out in October (a lot cooler); it is still to hot for surface trolling. In the last week there was some high winds so the lake got turned over to some degree but not much.

Good luck.....

Graybeard ......... not to derail the thread ..... but one way to catch squawfish is moving too slow. You need to be moving 2.8 to 3.3 mph for rainbows and kokanees ......... and it seems to be just a bit too fast for squawfish.

I troll bucktails in the chop at 3.5 to 4.2 mph and find that crazy fast speed produces bigger bows.

Took me a few years to find out the right speed.

saskbooknut · #19 09-06-2016, 05:30 AM

I used to live in Proctor, right across the West Arm from Balfour in the late 1970s.
Most fun fishing that I had for rainbows in the West Arm, was fly fishing from my canoe at dusk or dawn.
Not sure how good the fly fishing is these days, but I caught some pretty fine fish that way.

WayneChristie · #20 09-10-2016, 12:44 PM

thanks for all the tips and ideas, no big fish caught but I did get some nice rainbows casting Kamlooper spoons. got to see the Kokanee run and met 5 black bears up close and personal in the campground during the week, always good for a thrill

. and I outfished my little brother as usual so its all good

the rain could have stopped and made it a lot more comfortable, but it was still an enjoyable week. I will upload a few pics and post them up, not the 90 plus I put on facebook