Fall Trout Fishing in Ponds and Lakes

[Gray Ghost]

I am always trying to get some new advice for fall trout fishing. I enjoy trolling in my Hornbeck canoe. I was just wondering if others would share some of their most successful techniques for fall trout--especially in regard to trolling tactics in a canoe such as mine. What is the best way to catch fall trout from a canoe? Feedback is greatly appreciated. This weekend I am going to a lake that holds brookies and lakers, so species-specific advice is also welcomed.

[Creekwader]

For Lakers, how about trolling with your ID? Gray Ghosts and their many color variants are good laker flies. I usually use them in the spring but no reason why they wouldn't work now. With your Hornbeck, troll at a moderate pace with a full sink flyline and with at least a size 2 10XL streamer. Vary depth by the amount of line you have out. My personal favorite fall laker streamer is a simple orange and white bucktail. Lakers love it. Troll around rocky shoals and points. The best time for lakers I've found is usually after the 1st week of october so you might be early for the shallow fishing. They gather on shoals to spawn and are often quite aggressive.

For Brook trout, this is highly proprietary information!

[Gray Ghost]

What about lead core?

I talked to another guy who fishes the same lake as me and he uses lead core line. I put lead core on my fly reel and had some success with the gray ghost this summer. Do you use a lake clear wobbler or anything with the streamer? Thanks for the info.

[Gray Ghost]

One more thing...

I've been using a size six gray ghost. Is this way too small?

[Creekwader]

I talked to another guy who fishes the same lake as me and he uses lead core line. I put lead core on my fly reel and had some success with the gray ghost this summer. Do you use a lake clear wobbler or anything with the streamer? Thanks for the info.

Nothing wrong with leadcore but unless you are using a 10 wt. flyrod I would think it might be overloading your setup, especially if you add a wabbler, flasher, or christmas tree. At the speeds that I like to troll for lakers in the fall, a lake clear will spin like crazy and probably not be effective. I don't run anything in front of the streamer but dodgers or christmas trees could be used.

[Creekwader]

I've been using a size six gray ghost. Is this way too small?

For me, size 6 is a casting size for streams. I use size 1 Martinek Gaelic supreme Hooks or size 2 Mustad 94720 for laker, landlocked salmon, rainbow trolling. Lakers will hit tarpon flies in the fall, so that should give you an idea of scaling your fly size.

[Gray Ghost]

Thanks

So, are you willing to give out any advice on brookies? I had on a nice fish using the xmas tree-ghost combo. What do you recommend for leader size/pound test? Thanks again.

[Creekwader]

So, are you willing to give out any advice on brookies?

Sorry!

I had on a nice fish using the xmas tree-ghost combo. What do you recommend for leader size/pound test? Thanks again.

For lakers, 3X flourocarbon minimum with a slow action flyrod and preferably a net. 2X if you have a fast action rod because you might break off during the hookset on a large fish. Here's my typical terminal rig for trolling streamers: Full sink flyline with loop connector, 6 feet of 0X flourocarbon, minimum 10 feet of 3X flourocarbon, then the fly. Some people use a minimum of 20 feet of mono between the flyline and the fly to make the flyline less visible to the fish. I think that's a bit excessive and expensive if you use flourocarbon.

Have fun and let us know how you do.

[Gray Ghost]

Thanks again

Thanks again for the great info. If there is anyone else who'd like to chime in, it would be appreciated--especially in regard to brook trout as well. Thanks!

[Gray Ghost]

Success

thanks for the advice, creekwader. It helped me land a beautiful, though small, fifteen inch lake trout over the weekend, which I released. It was the first trout I have ever caught while trolling with my Hornbeck. I am going to hit a pond that holds some nice Brown trout this weekend. Do you have any suggestions as to how I go about fishing them? Thanks again.

[Creekwader]

thanks for the advice, creekwader. It helped me land a beautiful, though small, fifteen inch lake trout over the weekend, which I released. It was the first trout I have ever caught while trolling with my Hornbeck. I am going to hit a pond that holds some nice Brown trout this weekend. Do you have any suggestions as to how I go about fishing them? Thanks again.

Glad to hear of your success. I don't do much brown trout fishing in lakes but a friend has had some luck using the same tactics as for lake trout.

[redhawk]

For lakers, 3X flourocarbon minimum with a slow action flyrod and preferably a net. 2X if you have a fast action rod because you might break off during the hookset on a large fish. Here's my typical terminal rig for trolling streamers: Full sink flyline with loop connector, 6 feet of 0X flourocarbon, minimum 10 feet of 3X flourocarbon, then the fly. Some people use a minimum of 20 feet of mono between the flyline and the fly to make the flyline less visible to the fish. I think that's a bit excessive and expensive if you use flourocarbon.

Have fun and let us know how you do.

Now if I could just figure out what the Hell he just said, maybe I'll turn into a fisherman.

Scott, HELP!!

[lumberzac]

Now if I could just figure out what the Hell he just said, maybe I'll turn into a fisherman.

Scott, HELP!!

Don't feel bad Hawk. I don't know what he said either and I've been trout fishing for the past 23 years, but I've never fly fished before.

[Creekwader]

Don't feel bad Hawk. I don't know what he said either and I've been trout fishing for the past 23 years.

Guys,
Check this link out for tables of tippet sizes vs. breaking strength:

http://www.kman.com/umpqua.htm

The '3X' designation refers to a line diameter (0.008 inch). Not sure why the #X rating other than it's easier than writing 0.008 inch. Personally, I think the strength per diameter ratio is much more meaningful but then again I'm a geek.
Hope this helps.
-Scott

[Gray Ghost]

Trout

I understood what you were talking about, even though I didn't use that exact setup this past weekend. I'm still looking for more trout suggestions from anyone who can provide them. I want to troll for all species--especially brook trout--but this seems to be classified information. What other streamers do people like to troll with besides the Gray Ghost? Creekwader, if you do somehow decide to be generous and offer me even one tiny brook trout suggestion, you can email me as well. I am surrounded by brook trout waters, but I don't know if my laker setup will work for them. Oh, and thanks for the great link.