Northwest Fishing Reports

Being a new member I am excited to start posting reports and participate in the information swap available here on washingtonlakes.com. First I am a life long fisherman recently relocating back to the PNW. I was hatched in Ballard and grew up in Bothell. After HS I spent a year in Alaska commercial fishing and then took a real job back down here in civilization. I was transferred out of the area 20 years ago and thought that my obsession for fishing would be put on hold. Wrong, I got in to the warm water offshore thing and fishing in Baja…the fishing was incredible and I loved all the new experiences. Anyway, I am back and fish every opportunity available (although I have had to trade shorts and flip-flops for waders). I am base in Skagit County but will fish anywhere.

Question: When trolling flies on spinning or bait casting gear what are the common techniques? I know that lake conditions have to be considered but typically are the flies trolled on a downrigger, a flat line, with a split shot or??? I am partial to woolly buggers but what other fly patterns are common? Also are the flies fished on just a light fluorocarbon leader, behind a small dodger or pop gear?

rseas,

you might want to post this one in the fly fishing section,, the title of this section "Hardware How-to's" might have slipped you up.

Welcome back to WA.
This is the set up that I've been using at Rufus Woods, several North Idaho lakes and Sun Lakes once they open.
Worm weight, wiggle fin action disc and larger wooly bugger on about a four foot leader. The 1/4 oz worm weight runs the fly in the top couple of feet of water depending on my trolling speed. I troll 1 1/2 to 2 mph using a spinning rod & reel. If the fish are deep I may add a trolling banana weight in front of the swivel. As the water warms, you will find that a set up similar to this works very well on the surface without weight. I tie the flies on a larger 2½” size #1 or #2 hooks. Bigger bait bigger fish you know. At this point I have not tied using the setup behind a small dodger or pop gear because I do so well without them. Also I pinch down the barbs because at Rufus Woods the limit is two fish a day and I enjoy spending the full day on the water. To see the wiggle fin action disc in action check out this site http://www.wigglefin.com/