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Rock Lake Report
Whitman County, WA

Details

01/15/2014
46° - 50°
Trolling
Rainbow Trout
Sunny
Plug
Afternoon
Under 40°
01/15/2014
3
1764

Decided with the warm weather to give Rock Lake a try. Did some trolling in the south end. Water temp was about 39. Cloudless sky and bright, hardly any wind, water was glassy, probably not the best conditions. Tried a variety of things to try and get some bites, leadcore with spoon, flies, mono with shallow and deeper running plugs. Caught 4 browns over the course of a couple of hours, all on deeper running plugs (ripn minnow) mainly in 30-40 feet of water. Was marking fish either on the bottom or suspended at around 20-40 feet. After that switched over to casting spoons and grubs on a dropoff that goes from about 20-30 to 120 feet. Several bites but only connected with two. All fish caught were browns, small 12-14 inches. Really nice to get on the water, but maybe the weather was just too good today. Full moon probably doesn't help either. Water level is up. Much easier to launch than in November.


Comments

ericksg
1/16/2014 10:22:00 AM
you should try apex lures on lead core, we have good luck there with them. 2 1/2 colors or more seems to do the trick. some times tipped with shoepeg corn. i like using orange apexe's there.
rwl
1/16/2014 10:58:00 AM
Thanks for the suggestion. I think it was mainly a slow day. I've thought about getting some apexes for trolling. I ran between 3-4 colors of leadcore for about an hour or so before I switched out the leadcore to a diving plug then since I was getting bit every other pass on the diving plug I didn't switch back to leadcore. If I go out this weekend, I'll try some apexes. Usually when I don't get bit on the leadcore and I think the fish are there, tipping with a bit of nitecrawler will usually get the bites on my usual offering (white and black clouser minnow), but I didn't bring any bait.
ericksg
1/16/2014 12:04:00 PM
yeah, when i troll a fly i might tip it w/ a bit of night crawler, but shoepeg corn on the apex for sure. as the lead core goes, how long of a leader do you use? i usually run 30ft or more of 8lb maxima chameleon.
rwl
1/16/2014 12:48:00 PM
I've got about 100 feet of Pline copolymer in 6 pound test after the leadcore, haven't varied this length very much. Two or 3 winters ago I found that this rig was the big producer with the clouser minnow especially for some really big rainbows on Rock Lake. Whenever I troll I will use this rig, but now that I think about it it hasn't been as productive in this last year, although I have caught fish on it. Most of my bites are coming on mono 150-200 feet back.
soberg
1/16/2014 8:40:00 PM
Jerk Jerk baits in the shallow flats on the south end or in the 2 bays. Serious that is how I used to catch my largest fish out of there this time of yr. Just dont care for the taste of the fish that come out of Rock.
ericksg
1/17/2014 3:43:00 PM
rwl, try an action disc in front of your fly, i like the clear ones. it makes the fly look like it's swimming. soberg, ive heard that, or maribou jugs cast at the shore.
rwl
1/17/2014 3:53:00 PM
got some action disks never got around to trying them out, I've always been surprised at how well trout will bite a trolled fly without anything giving it action, but need to revisit the action disk idea.

Re: the shallow flats on the south recommended by soberg. If you mean the ones about 1/4 up the lake, I was getting bit pretty consistently where they drop off yesterday on jigs and spoons. If you mean the flats to the right by the launch, I never see anyone fishing there. I would be curious to fish them when the wind is from the north blowing onto the flats, but I usually avoid rock under those conditions because of whitecaps.
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Available Guide

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

Phone: (509) 687-0709