Fishing Deep

As summer progresses, the water at your favorite fishing hole is warming up. This is good for some species of fish like Bass, Crappie and Perch. They tend to like water in the 70 degree range.

Trout, Steelhead and Salmon prefer cooler water. 55 degrees is their perfect water temperature. When the water becomes too hot for them, they do deeper. Warmer water holds less oxygen for the fish. They will become lethargic and feed less often. If they cannot find water cool enough, they can die.

Using a boat and a fish finder will help locate the fish and indicate the depth. You may find Trout and Kokanee (a land locked Sockeye Salmon) 50 to 90 feet deep during the min summer months. So how do you get to them? Here are a few different ways to effectively fish at those depths.

• Downriggers: A downrigger will allow you to achieve the depth without placing a lot of weight and drag on your line. They utilize a quick release system, which will carry your bait and or lure into the proper zone. Remember to run your lure just above the depth of the fish. They will always feed up before looking down for prey.

• Drifting with a Sliding Float: It’s unrealistic to try to cast 50 feet of line under a fixed bobber. So place a stopper on the line and allow the float to travel up the line, until you reach the proper depth. See Photo. The first photo is of a typical sliding bobber rig. A weight would be attached to the small red plastic item. The second photo shows the float stopping at the stopper knot. Using Dacron line, simply tie a Snell Knot.

• Heavy weights: Place 3-16 oz of weight on your line to reach the proper depth. This will require a much stiffer fishing rod and you may not be able to detect the fish’s bite. The photo shows a 5 oz Banana weight.

I hope this helps you catch those deep Trout and Salmon.

See You At The Dock!

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC