Char_Master
Member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2016
- Messages
- 129
We're heading up to Erie for a few days at the end of this week and early next week to launch our boat and begin our fishing season for the year. Most of the time spent on the main lake will be trolling spoons and plugs and presque isle bay will be trolling plugs and casting jerkbaits. However, one thing I've wanted to try since last year is fly fishing for really any species either in the main lake or the bay from the boat. This time of year, the species I'd be aiming to target on the fly would be Lake Trout in the main lake and Steelhead, Browns, and Northern Pike in the bay.
As far as Lake Trout go, they tend to be somewhat shallow this time of year and will probably be hanging around 20-60' of water (yes, that's shallow for Lakers) for this weekend. They do tend to hug the bottom though, or suspend just a few feet off of it (which is why they're almost entirely trolled for), so trying to get a fly down to their feeding zone will be a challenge itself. If this is even possible, do you guys have any idea about how to go about doing this? I'm thinking break out the 8 weight rod with my heaviest duty reel, a system 2 with intermediate 5 weight line (I've got tons of rods but I really need to buy myself some heavier/bigger/more-diverse reels for when I'm not fishing natives haha) and tie a big several-ounce streamer on the end of the line (I've been tying a few patterns specifically to target Lakers the past few months). The other way I thought about catching them on a fly rod is a bit unusual but may still work. This method being to use the same setup described above and instead of a fly, tie either a crankbait or heavy casting spoon on the end of the line and troll it around behind the boat at about 2.5mph along with several traditional trolling setups in our spread. I'm not sure whether the rod could take this stress or how difficult it would be to get the fish in (you can't just stop the boat when you have more than one rod behind you unless someone is holding it, or you'll get a huge mess of line tangles). What do you all think, should I try casting deep, troll some casting lures, or just skip fly fishing entirely for Lakers?
Moving on to more accessible species, Presque Isle Bay tends to be stuffed full of Steelhead and Brown Trout until early May when they move out in to the main lake and Northern Pike are available pretty much year round here on any tackle. For those of you who've fished the bay at any point, it's not extremely deep and the water we fish in is only 6-30' deep. Again, with the same setup I talked about above, I think I'd have no problem casting some big streamers pretty far out and Steelhead in particular are known for feeding close to the surface in open water as long as they approve of the temperature. I'm almost certainly going to try casting for them at some point this weekend and I may try trolling with the fly rod too, but, as far as casting flies goes, can you guys recommend some good streamer patterns for fishing large water like this? I doubt shallow Muddler Minnows are going to do very well in this situation haha.
As far as Lake Trout go, they tend to be somewhat shallow this time of year and will probably be hanging around 20-60' of water (yes, that's shallow for Lakers) for this weekend. They do tend to hug the bottom though, or suspend just a few feet off of it (which is why they're almost entirely trolled for), so trying to get a fly down to their feeding zone will be a challenge itself. If this is even possible, do you guys have any idea about how to go about doing this? I'm thinking break out the 8 weight rod with my heaviest duty reel, a system 2 with intermediate 5 weight line (I've got tons of rods but I really need to buy myself some heavier/bigger/more-diverse reels for when I'm not fishing natives haha) and tie a big several-ounce streamer on the end of the line (I've been tying a few patterns specifically to target Lakers the past few months). The other way I thought about catching them on a fly rod is a bit unusual but may still work. This method being to use the same setup described above and instead of a fly, tie either a crankbait or heavy casting spoon on the end of the line and troll it around behind the boat at about 2.5mph along with several traditional trolling setups in our spread. I'm not sure whether the rod could take this stress or how difficult it would be to get the fish in (you can't just stop the boat when you have more than one rod behind you unless someone is holding it, or you'll get a huge mess of line tangles). What do you all think, should I try casting deep, troll some casting lures, or just skip fly fishing entirely for Lakers?
Moving on to more accessible species, Presque Isle Bay tends to be stuffed full of Steelhead and Brown Trout until early May when they move out in to the main lake and Northern Pike are available pretty much year round here on any tackle. For those of you who've fished the bay at any point, it's not extremely deep and the water we fish in is only 6-30' deep. Again, with the same setup I talked about above, I think I'd have no problem casting some big streamers pretty far out and Steelhead in particular are known for feeding close to the surface in open water as long as they approve of the temperature. I'm almost certainly going to try casting for them at some point this weekend and I may try trolling with the fly rod too, but, as far as casting flies goes, can you guys recommend some good streamer patterns for fishing large water like this? I doubt shallow Muddler Minnows are going to do very well in this situation haha.
