Having trouble finding the bigger girls....

floppychicken · #1 07-28-2008, 10:55 PM

Naw, not 'Girls, Girls'... The 'Fish Kind...'

Was in Travers on Sunday and it was of course 'windy' again, but the Pike were hitting the lures like nuts. Musta' came outta there with about 20 each but only 4 'eyes'.

Having a REAL hard time finding the BIGGER FISH though....(both Pike and Walley) Do I need to use some bigger lures than 5 or 6 inch Husky Jerks and Rattlin' Raps for those PIKE ? Catching fish is great but I'm getting kinda sick o' these 3 to 5 pounders when I know there are a lot bigger ones in there !

Any tips for bigger fish in ANY body of water south of Wabamun would be greatly appreciated !!

BTW, I had a 4 pound Jack barf a whole bunch of Crayfish up in my boat. I used to catch them all the time, but these ones were 'RED'. They kinda looked like 'cooked lobster'. I couldn't believe how HUGE those friggin' things were ! One of the claws that came outta that fish was about two inches long ! Damn ugly and smelly too

. Perhaps a good 8 inch Crawdad plastic might do the trick.....

Cheers,

/FC...

BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES · #2 07-28-2008, 11:21 PM

I two have started to notice lots of crawfish.not sure whats up with the influx of them. But there pretty rank on the nose..Ive also noticed lots of freshwater shrimp.

Alberta Bigbore · #3 07-29-2008, 12:55 AM

crawfish on the rise? might be time to stock bass all over alberta

or @ least

the NSR.

packhuntr · #4 07-29-2008, 06:39 AM

You might not be looking deep enough Floppy Chicken. The slammers you are looking for will come out of cooler comfort zone temp water to feed but are back deep for mid day. Look on and around structure that is adjacent to deep water during prime time. Dont chase them deep though, not if you value the fishery, (air bladder issues).

BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES · #5 07-29-2008, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by packhuntr

You might not be looking deep enough Floppy Chicken. The slammers you are looking for will come out of cooler comfort zone temp water to feed but are back deep for mid day. Look on and around structure that is adjacent to deep water during prime time. Dont chase them deep though, not if you value the fishery, (air bladder issues).

agreed. Big pike love cold deep water. The only time you might find these beast in the shallows is when ice ice is first off and during winter even though they will still offen be deep so they can feed.

floppychicken · #6 07-30-2008, 01:14 AM

Yeah it seemed as soon as any lure hit the top of a weed bed or was pulled close by one, a pike would hit. Between the visual spotting of weedbed and the depthfinder, you could almost anticipate the strike. It was really weird. Just about EVERY fish was caught in about 15 feet of water either before or after a weed bed. I noticed too that those bastid's would QUICKLY hit the weed beds after taking the lure. I lost a few that way, until I started to pull those heads up on the strike.

I find the structure in Travers really tricky though. Although I'm fairly new to the reservoir, I find it really difficult to follow drop off's and hollows. It seems that the water can drop off into 40 or so feet in a heartbeat and then back to 7 or 10 feet again, really quickly. The North end was a bit easier but still, very tricky for trolling. I think I might try some drift bottom bouncing and tossing Muskie Spinners along those weed beds where the drop offs are.. I'm itchin' to try some of those surface weed baits too....

There's gotta be a way to coax those "Big Ladies" outta the deep !

Cheers,

/FC....

floppychicken · #7 07-30-2008, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BIGBADJOHN

I two have started to notice lots of crawfish.not sure whats up with the influx of them. But there pretty rank on the nose..Ive also noticed lots of freshwater shrimp.

Yeah BBJ,

Those things are way bigger and far more colorful than what I used to catch as a kid ! As far as Freshwater Shrimp are concerned, I was amazed at how many I saw in CVR a number of weeks back. Those suckers were big too ! Kinda reminded me of 'Eagle Lake' when the fishing was good about 4 or 5 years ago. I think Glenmore used to be full of those things as well....

Cheers,

/FC....

Buck Krazy · #8 07-30-2008, 01:56 AM

The huge ones are there, just soooo much food they are not hungry! A 30 lb pike in travers (which I know there are lots) wants easy prey. She cruises the drop offs and wants an easy meal. I know around the spillway there are some huge pike!! They hang out looking for tired and injured fish...... Chances are a trophy pike is not gonna chase your 6" husky jerk, try throwing a 12" floating bait= Work it with your rod how you would imagine a dyeing fish-- the 20" pike are so plentiful in certain lakes that they get to your bait first, anchor and drift a huge makeral or herring on the bottom-- something tooo big for the snot rockets. One thing I can tell you for sure is that the huge pike are there, you just gotta slow down, throw bigger baits (which will result in less fish to the boat) and keep at er. Anywhere you are getting good action with smaller fish, you can be sure there is one that is bigger in there watching and waiting. A 20lb pike probably only needs a 4 lb whitefish a week-- they are opportunistic- if the small ones are biting put on the biggest bait in your box and slow down!!. That being said, Travers can be a frustrating lake and the fishing is greatly affected by weather-- but hope I helped!

Winch101 · #9 07-30-2008, 07:38 AM

I have hooked some big pike trolling home made spinners ( 2" hammered
chrome blade tied on a 6" pc of stainless wire and a 48" snell 17 lb test .2/0 mustad hook and biggest shiners you can find ) on bottom bouncer . Big is if they are folded in half and wont fit in a rubber net , so I have lost a few at the boat . I will put a spin glow on the wire to ballance all that metal out ..
I have hooked some pretty small walleyes on that rig ..Stay out side the weeds .....a good bait is about a 2 lb. goldeye ... not sure if that is legal here ....

floppychicken · #10 07-30-2008, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buck Krazy

The huge ones are there, just soooo much food they are not hungry! A 30 lb pike in travers (which I know there are lots) wants easy prey. She cruises the drop offs and wants an easy meal. I know around the spillway there are some huge pike!! They hang out looking for tired and injured fish...... Chances are a trophy pike is not gonna chase your 6" husky jerk, try throwing a 12" floating bait= Work it with your rod how you would imagine a dyeing fish-- the 20" pike are so plentiful in certain lakes that they get to your bait first, anchor and drift a huge makeral or herring on the bottom-- something tooo big for the snot rockets. One thing I can tell you for sure is that the huge pike are there, you just gotta slow down, throw bigger baits (which will result in less fish to the boat) and keep at er. Anywhere you are getting good action with smaller fish, you can be sure there is one that is bigger in there watching and waiting. A 20lb pike probably only needs a 4 lb whitefish a week-- they are opportunistic- if the small ones are biting put on the biggest bait in your box and slow down!!. That being said, Travers can be a frustrating lake and the fishing is greatly affected by weather-- but hope I helped!

Hmmm,

Good advice. I was thinking about using some of those very large frozen Herring. I imagine I could use some smaller rainbows from a stocked pond that I've caught couldn't I ? I did pick up a few Very Large spinner baits at CABELA'S and am looking forward to using them in the near future...

Gonna try it all out.

Thanks a bunch,

Cheers,

/FC....

floppychicken · #11 07-30-2008, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winch101

I have hooked some big pike trolling home made spinners ( 2" hammered
chrome blade tied on a 6" pc of stainless wire and a 48" snell 17 lb test .2/0 mustad hook and biggest shiners you can find ) on bottom bouncer . Big is if they are folded in half and wont fit in a rubber net , so I have lost a few at the boat . I will put a spin glow on the wire to ballance all that metal out ..
I have hooked some pretty small walleyes on that rig ..Stay out side the weeds .....a good bait is about a 2 lb. goldeye ... not sure if that is legal here ....

Yeah, I was thinking about just that... (making your own lures)

I have a ton of Tin, Copper, Brass, Steel, etc.. along with a shear and OXY/FUEL setup. Maybe some annealed copper tubing with a few brazed fins and google eyes would do the trick ! HMMMM...

Cheers,

/FC....

Gordoats26 · #12 07-30-2008, 10:23 PM

Best tip i can give you on Travers is follow the weedlines dont be scared of going into shallow water. the biggest walleye i ever caught out of there was in 6 feet of water in the heat of the day, right along the weed edge, there quite easy to find this time of year often you can see the weeds poking right out of the water we were so close to the weeds my fishin buddy on the other side of the boat was snaging every weed and i didnt touch one. of course i was driving the boat lol..

Frans · #13 07-30-2008, 10:29 PM

I have trouble finding any girls... eh, what?... oh... never mind ;-)

I have to admit that I've never caught any monsters... a two-foot carp in a small ditch back in the old country, and one unidentified fish that snapper my leader before I had the wits to give line... but other than that... nothing worth boasting about.

Frans