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Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service

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Rock Lake Report
Whitman County, WA

Details

12/03/2011
Trolling
Rainbow Trout
Worms
Orange
Mack's Wedding Ring
All Day
12/05/2011
3
947

I fished Rock Lake for the first time this year in a jonboat with an electric trolling motor. Seemed like most of the guys fishing the lake headed up to the north end, but I didn't have enought horsepower to get that far on a couple of batteries. I had a fishfinder and was astounded to mark virtually no fish for the first 4-5 hours of trolling on both sides of the southern third of the lake. I even made my way downstream from the lake under the highway and came up empty. I finally marked some schools about halfway up the lake on the eastern shore. Started catching fish about 3 PM. Came home with a 14 inch brown, a 14 inch rainbow and a fat 20 inch rainbow. Beautiful red meat. Delicious.


Comments

rwl
12/5/2011 6:35:00 PM
Thanks for the report. Sounds like you are figuring it out. I troll the south end of the lake a lot. With an electric motor I used to troll a lot slower than I do now. Now generally I troll at 1.5 mph or faster. It seems that a faster speed and changing direction and speed a lot can trigger bites. I often get bit in areas where I am not marking fish on the finder. If I go one pass through a productive area without any bites, something is wrong and time to change strategy or location in my experience on this lake.
crustyliner
12/6/2011 6:33:00 PM
I agree with rwl, a little faster speeds are usually the ticket here depending on your lure of choice. One thing we have found that works good on browns is trolling large stick baits (rapalas) at a moderate speed 1.5 to 2 mph. You'd be amazed at what size browns will hit a 4-5 inch rapala. We often are not marking fish either when catching fish. Depth can play a big roll too, once last fall we couldn't buy a fish and I had left the downrigger at home, we ended up using flies at slower speeds with a bunch of weight on to get down 20 ft or so and then we couldn't keep the fish off. good luck learning this fishery it's great when you do!
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service

Phone: (509) 687-0709