Cold Lake Story, Videos, And Pic Heavy

[justinO]

Hello AO it took me awhile to post about our August Long Cold Lake trip I had some computer issues that are fixed now. Me and My GF headed up on Sunday and got on the water around 10:30. Fishing was tough and we had to work for them but we started to find active fish in deeper (250-320) water than usual. It turned out a Chrome Anchovy Special was the ticket along with fluctuating the positive Ion Control on the downriggers to entice strikes. We got into the fish pretty consistent but size was down until we made the switch to a different hump. That night I caught a laker in one of the most thrilling ways possible it's all in video below.
http://youtu.be/DUgqDK-2qvM
I also put together this video compilation of some cool hook sets we caught on film its only 52 seconds but gets me fired up every time I watch
http://youtu.be/Cpr3VEMCpZk
Later that night we were treated to an amazing firework show done by the city of Cold Lake. The next day we were on the fish again but couldn't find a 20+ still tons of fun. The weather was Perfect both days and we took numerous diving breaks as we were the only boat around. Just a great trip

[ddddd05]

Nice Lakers! I hope you were able to hang onto the rod in the last pic.

[tight line]

Awesome! Ive had them chase my jig up and almost come right up my hole ice fishing. Its usually the bigger fish that do it. What kind of Moching Rods are you using? And do you like them?

[Speckle55]

Grats Justin great video on how to set the hook and your set up

Thanks for sharing

David

[CK Angler]

Awesome vid! Thx for sharing

[58thecat]

Looks like one jumped overboard! Must not have been a keeper!

[The Reel Deal]

Sweet fish!

Do you find that ion control is a big factor?

[justinO]

hahaha dddd05 I got a 10 from the russian judge and still managed to hold on to the rod

Tight Line: That's awesome I have never fished for them hard water but I am sure that gets the heart racing. I was using Shimano Moocher Plus reels and Shimano Technium rods it is so much fun it's all I use for them now. I also use them on pike that's fun.

The reel deal: Yes it is very important when running electric downriggers in an aluminum boat especially if the fish are finicky, I have never had a fiberglass boat but my cousin doesn't use anything on his ranger. I have some cool video talking about this I will try to edit it when I have some free time but in short It works. And if you don't have one built into your downrigger you can buy a box that will do the same thing.

I am taking my GF brothers Wednesday night and Thursday should be fun they have never fished for Lakers.

[The Reel Deal]

I have an aluminum boat but only manual riggers. I was rigging for lakers at Minniwanka Saturday and watched on the sonar laker after laker come up and take a look but not commit. Tried countless lures and flasher/dodger combinations but no strikes. Heartbreaking day

[fishinggeek]

Nice fight in the vid. Those calm days always seem to produce the biggest fish. 👍

[Sigmet]

Nice looking fish.

[justinO]

Originally Posted by The Reel Deal

I have an aluminum boat but only manual riggers. I was rigging for lakers at Minniwanka Saturday and watched on the sonar laker after laker come up and take a look but not commit. Tried countless lures and flasher/dodger combinations but no strikes. Heartbreaking day

That sounds rough I have found a few tricks to catch those fish that just trail your lure P.M me if you want and Ill walk you through whats worked for me.
Lots of factors can play into this electrical stuff every aluminum boat will put out a different current so takes some trial and error but last trip fluctuating the current was definitely working and it would also bring fish up from the deeper water to check out the bait so who knows Every trip you learn a little bit more but still have no clue hahahaha. I have caught them on my buddies river boat it's just like mine but he had manual riggers and no box,, we did catch them but it was only one morning and the fishing was insane the day before so can't really go by that day. Hope this helps.

[Mackinaw]

How come the boats with all the good looking ladies get all the fish...
Nice looking catch.


Mack

[justinO]

Originally Posted by Mackinaw

How come the boats with all the good looking ladies get all the fish...
Nice looking catch.


Mack

Haha well I'm taking her brother tonight and tomo his mug is definitely not pretty so if we don't catch any it's all on him bahaha

[ddddd05]

Hi Justin,

Do you mind posting or PMing me the info you sent Reel Deel about manual downrigger, aluminum boats and electrical currents?

Those mooching reels/rods sound awesome

[justinO]

Originally Posted by ddddd05

Hi Justin,

Do you mind posting or PMing me the info you sent Reel Deel about manual downrigger, aluminum boats and electrical currents?

Those mooching reels/rods sound awesome

The mooching set up is by far the funnest way I have caught them its all I will use from now on, Well untill the lakers start getting to be 40lbs and bigger then I will bring out the Tekotas with a Talora I will post a thread about using my moocher set up for big Pike I have a great video on it also.
And P.M Sent

[Mike Rae]

Great videos and some terrific fish, congratulations to you both.
Thanks for sharing.

[Mackinaw]

Originally Posted by justinO

Haha well I'm taking her brother tonight and tomo his mug is definitely not pretty so if we don't catch any it's all on him bahaha

Lol how did you make out is it only pretty that catches..,...


Mack

[-JR-]

Originally Posted by justinO

That sounds rough I have found a few tricks to catch those fish that just trail your lure P.M me if you want and Ill walk you through whats worked for me.
Lots of factors can play into this electrical stuff every aluminum boat will put out a different current so takes some trial and error but last trip fluctuating the current was definitely working and it would also bring fish up from the deeper water to check out the bait so who knows Every trip you learn a little bit more but still have no clue hahahaha. I have caught them on my buddies river boat it's just like mine but he had manual riggers and no box,, we did catch them but it was only one morning and the fishing was insane the day before so can't really go by that day. Hope this helps.

Congrats on that 14 pounder,Looks like you really know what you are doing,I see you found both humps also . Its nice being the only one out there when the water is flat. I was out at Rock lake that week ,here is another lake where the lakers come up to your hook and swim right down . Not sure why yet ,maybe you can shed some light what might work.

[norcodh]

Originally Posted by -JR-

Congrats on that 14 pounder,Looks like you really know what you are doing,I see you found both humps also . Its nice being the only one out there when the water is flat. I was out at Rock lake that week ,here is another lake where the lakers come up to your hook and swim right down . Not sure why yet ,maybe you can shed some light what might work.

Nice lakers, but I also inquire about the followers I have an aluminum boat with manual riggers. Two weeks ago I was in waterton varying speed, S turns etc and yes we did catch a couple small ones but as for the followers!!! so here is my story. We were trolling along I was pulling ball at 64ft and not much activity so decide to try a new location I put the boat in neutral got up popped line off rigger and started to reel, I was using a dodger with 29" leader to a lydman plug anyway as I was reeling tackle came to the surface about 25ft behind boat I'm not really thinking about much just reeling as it's getting closer to the boat there's a decent laker following it right in on the surface I pause for sec started reeling again he turned and headed down to the depth. Talk about heart breaking, any info on what I did wrong or how stop these followers from happening would just be awsome, did he follow it all the way up from the depths and not hit? Or was he suspend higher and I caught his attention as I was reelin?

Thanks, kev

[cube]

Originally Posted by norcodh

Nice lakers, but I also inquire about the followers I have an aluminum boat with manual riggers. Two weeks ago I was in waterton varying speed, S turns etc and yes we did catch a couple small ones but as for the followers!!! so here is my story. We were trolling along I was pulling ball at 64ft and not much activity so decide to try a new location I put the boat in neutral got up popped line off rigger and started to reel, I was using a dodger with 29" leader to a lydman plug anyway as I was reeling tackle came to the surface about 25ft behind boat I'm not really thinking about much just reeling as it's getting closer to the boat there's a decent laker following it right in on the surface I pause for sec started reeling again he turned and headed down to the depth. Talk about heart breaking, any info on what I did wrong or how stop these followers from happening would just be awsome, did he follow it all the way up from the depths and not hit? Or was he suspend higher and I caught his attention as I was reelin?

Thanks, kev

Lakers are definitely followers. I have a camera on one of my riggers and have watch a laker follow for over 4 km's. Have seen hundreds follow for over 1 km. At the end of the day you can try speeding up or slowing down or both (moving in an S pattern does this to some degree but also seems to affect lure action in other ways). Some guys "jig" with their down riggers. ie they periodically move them up and down trying to trigger a strike from a follower that might be there. Of course changing hooks, lead lengths, bait, distance from dodger to lure etc. also needs to be tried. With the camera I can see when a follower is there and fine tune speed etc for that particular lure until I get the least amount of strike less follows. Can usually fine tune it down to within 0.1 kmph for that lure on that day. AT THE END OF THE DAY THE MAJORITY OF LAKERS WILL STILL BE FOLLOWERS AND NOT BITERS NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO

Good luck with your quest

[justinO]

Hey Guys I just got back last night from a fast trip out to Cold Lake. It was a night bite for sure I went in knowing this as the moon rise was 1045pm I believe. I rigged my boat up with LED lights the day before... AWESOME... I recommend you guys do it also the kits are like 22 bucks at canadian tire a little bit of wiring and very cool even if you don't want to fish at night they are good for setting up the boat early morning or cleaning up after fishing at night.
Well back to the fishing we got to Cold Lake Wednesday night and were fishing by 845pm, fish were active and the sonar was stacked with fish in the middle of the water colum what I consider active fish. My GF brother has never fished with downriggers let alone with a mooching set up in the dark so he definitely had a learning curve trying to set the hook that night atleast he got many attempts lol. I was planing on staying on the water till about midnight but the waves were coming in bigger than I expected for how calm it was and the clouds rolled in so we decided to go in and come back at first light. I attached a picture of Jasons first ever laker and it was a beautiful looking fish. The next day most of the fish we caught were so fat from feeding all night, I do not know how some of them actually had room to eat anymore. Some came up like dead weight their belly's looked like a balloon I could feel the bait fish in their stomachs. I was marking so many fish at 180-220ft stacked up they were digesting I am guessing but once I would mark a fish in the middle of the water column that's when strikes would come as you could watch them fly up on the sonar. Finding bait was critical and finding those active fish was the most important part in catching fish yesterday for us anyways. Even the somewhat active fish were lackadaisical and biting soft I guess we would too if we ate a 1/3 of our body weight the night before lol. We caught fish all day but you had to find those active fish for sure. Nothing huge for size still no 20+ but can't complain about anything weather was amazing and we caught a lot of fish. I will be at Cabelas North Edmonton to help with our Shimano product this Saturday till 4pm. If you are around Edmonton come say Hi we can chat about some of these Laker techniques also. Also good read on CUBES post lots of good info

[Mackinaw]

Good post nice fish heading out tomorrow morning if all goes well


Mack