Gull Lake issues

[jaywroe]

Good morning all,

Went out to Gull last weekend. Amazing day but very little action. Was there 3 days prior and we couldn't keep the fish off our baitballs.
On Saturday, though, things were acting weird. For some reason my, normally 8-10ft diving baitballs, were surfacing and I could not get them to dive. The only thing that changed in 3 days was me going from a 6.6ft ML spinning rod to a 7 ft MH rod. Is that enough to make a difference?
As well, we stopped on the North east side, just south of the point, and anchored because of the major fish on the sonar. Once anchored we observed several (15-20) fish rising for the flies on the surface. So, my question is...where these Whites? I have fished for whites on the Highwood, south of Calgary with little orange flies and a maggot but I never expected them to be surface feeders on a lake. Made me wish I had brought my fly rod. Is it really as easy as a strike indicator and a nymph or chironomid hanging below the surface?
All we ever do is drive around and troll. Kinda looking to spice it up a little.

Thanks for any of your thoughts everyone. Please feel free to PM me if you wish.

J

[jaywroe]

I guess I should also mention that I changed my line to braided which I noticed I can see, quite well in the water. Should I be using a flourocarbon leader then to a titanium leader/snap hook or flourocarbon straight to len thompson/baitball/crankbait?

[Talking moose]

Is your crankbait not working?(side to side wiggle action) if it's working and not diving you probably have floating fly line on...
Maybe your knot is to tight to the crankbait and not allowing the crankbait to perform how it should...

[cube]

Originally Posted by jaywroe

Good morning all,

Went out to Gull last weekend. Amazing day but very little action. Was there 3 days prior and we couldn't keep the fish off our baitballs.
On Saturday, though, things were acting weird. For some reason my, normally 8-10ft diving baitballs, were surfacing and I could not get them to dive. The only thing that changed in 3 days was me going from a 6.6ft ML spinning rod to a 7 ft MH rod. Is that enough to make a difference?
As well, we stopped on the North east side, just south of the point, and anchored because of the major fish on the sonar. Once anchored we observed several (15-20) fish rising for the flies on the surface. So, my question is...where these Whites? I have fished for whites on the Highwood, south of Calgary with little orange flies and a maggot but I never expected them to be surface feeders on a lake. Made me wish I had brought my fly rod. Is it really as easy as a strike indicator and a nymph or chironomid hanging below the surface?
All we ever do is drive around and troll. Kinda looking to spice it up a little.

Thanks for any of your thoughts everyone. Please feel free to PM me if you wish.

J

Did you have the same reel on both rods? The rod difference will not cause this problem but retrieve speed will. Ie if you were using different reels with different retrieve speeds the faster one will pull harder and make your crank dive and the slower one will not, unless you turn the crank handle faster to make up the difference that is.

Do your cranks baits take on water ie leak? This can cause the weight distribution in your lure to change so that it will not dive the same.

As you mentioned floating vs sinking line can make a difference as well. Heavy metal or flouro leaders can help increase diving attitude and make it dive more aggressively.


Best way to tell what kind of fish those were is to 1. catch one. 2. see what they are on a camera. I have seen whites do this but also all other species esp when smaller. eg caught many many many walleye feeding on bug hatches exactly as you described.

Good luck with your season.

[jaywroe]

This is all trolling behind a boat mostly. Spinning rod combo. I might me reading to much into this all. Maybe it was just an off day?

[tight line]

Yes, they were whites and maybe suckers. It seems to be hot or cold action wise the last few years

[cube]

Originally Posted by jaywroe

This is all trolling behind a boat mostly. Spinning rod combo. I might me reading to much into this all. Maybe it was just an off day?

Usually this is a speed problem. The braid would have actually helped here. Next time try speeding up until the lure goes under for a bit. One can then slow down some. After a while you get to know your lures. I have some that will not dive unless I am going at least 2.68 km/h others 3.11 and some where I need to be going well over 4 before they will go down at all.

You might also still have leaked some water into your lure. I have seen that many times with lures that don't want to dive or action has changed.

[jaywroe]

Is it worth it to but some flourocarbon and make a leader? My braided line is very visible.

[cube]

Originally Posted by jaywroe

Is it worth it to but some flourocarbon and make a leader? My braided line is very visible.

Generally don't see a lot of need for a flouro leader except in more static presentations like vertical jigging, slip bobber fishing, or very slow trolling/casting.