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[firstlight]

Thanks for the reply.
I plan on doing a little fall fishing up there when im not out harassing the Salmon on the Fraser.

[Damien]

Should have stuck to Alouette.  Chilliwack Lake was tough.  Three rainbows  (one of decent sized, all released) working all depths and various presentations over the course of 8-10 hours on the lake.

Lots of sockeye staging at the north end that we left alone.

Forgot worms, so that didn't help.  We used a bit of brined shrimp on most lures.  I tried larger spoons and flatfish.  Right down to small dicknites, miniG and wedding bands.  Even with good electronics, we could see some schools and large suspended fish, but no rhyme or reason to where they were.  And couldn't get anything to bite.

Will try Alouete and/or Stave for the afternoon/evening bite after work this week.  Doing what I can to stay off the river.

[wildmanyeah]

Same with me, went out and fished sandhead and not even a bit first time it's happened all year.

Will be going out to Alouette soon, need to give the boat a good clean water flush.  Hoping later this week if the weather is nice.

[wildmanyeah]

Just got back from alouette lake and the water was to low to launch the boat without scratching the cupcakes out of it.

18.2 deep v Hurston glass craft , gonna go try Pitt lake and see

[Damien]

Was out for a couple hours yesterday, lake is WAY down as they let a bunch out as Wildman said.  A bit harder to launch as the dock is high and dry.  I launched okay, backed down the right side of the launch (if looking down the ramp) and it dropped off nicely.  Just had to back far into the water.

I have a semi-V.  My friend launched at the same time as me in a deep V Campion and was okay as well.  Just have to back way out.  But I think it depends what line is taken.

Action was sporadic until we found an area with active fish.  Didn't mark many schools.  Couple of kokanee, couple of trout and a few pike minnow.

Slow overall and a bit different experience as many areas I fish were much different given how far the water is down.  Lost a jet diver and a couple lures on some stumps and forgot my net.  C'est la vie.  I don't have riggers mounted yet, as I debate doing it.

Bought a new Helix5 G2 Down Imaging + GPS but didn't spend much time getting it dialed in.  Managed to repurpose my old Humminbird portable kit and graft the new Helix into it.  It has a battery, carry case + suction cup transducer mount which worked like a charm.  Took the old screen out, plugged in the Helix and away I went.  No holes, no running wires to the boat battery etc.  And I can move it to my tinny when I hit the smaller lakes.

Wind and rain kicked up at times which made things less than ideal.  When there was some calm spots in the weather, I managed to run the new to me boat out to WOT.  Got it to 46.8MPH with two guys + day's worth of gear.  Felt there is a bit more to give but the 4 blade prop isn't ideal for top end and put me at max RPM.

Always fun to be on the lake, but I think I might be just about done for the year.  Might try Stave before the cold chases me off for good until Spring.  The wind really is a b1tch trolling with an electric motor.  I don't think the 55lb Minn Kota has enough jam for my boat.  Will use my 5hp Merc next time, I just like the quiet of trolling with an electric.

Good luck out there if anyone heads out. 

[firstlight]

When it gets windy I put the motor away and just wind drift with the fly rods.
Motor upwind and then drift back down wind.

[Damien]

Yeah, thats a good notion and we did do that at some points.  Hard when when the wind is whipping around, and in spurts.  Also we were working around a lot of submerged and emerged stumps, so we had to follow very specific depth contours etc.

So we did a lot of working with thhe wind, using the main as a rudder, and the electric to just keep curse corrections.

[firstlight]

Anyone from here go up today?
I seen a nice looking rig heading that way early am.

[armytruck]

.  The wind really is a b1tch trolling with an electric motor.  I don't think the 55lb Minn Kota has enough jam for my boat.  Will use my 5hp Merc next time, I just like the quiet of trolling with an electric.

Good luck out there if anyone heads out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ2lPhyzxsk
Seen these ? . Wonder if this would work better .

[Damien]

Yeah, I've hummed and hawed over those for a couple of years.  I don't like the idea of having to drill into my cavitation plate.

Anyhoo, back to a report.  Hit Stave Lake yesterday instead of Alouette.  It was a nice day on the water after it took a good hour just to get to the lake through the channel.  Harrowing to say the least, we had to go extremely slow as the water is super low.  Widow makers EVERYWHERE.  Following the green markers wasn't suffient to ensure save passage.  We barely skimmed the top of huge stumps, trimmed up.

Once on the lake proper, it was nice.  Didn't mark many fish and in 3-4 hours of trolling a variety of gear. We left without getting a sniff.  Wedding bands, smaller and medium Tomics, big spoons, small spoons, coyotes, crocs etc.  140ft on the riggers to dragging bucktails on the surface.  Worked a variety areas including pump station.  Made it all the way to the north end.

The anticipation of trying a new lake (after the anxiety of dealing with the channel) was fun.  But it quickly became frustrating without any action whatsoever.

The trip back through the channel to the launch was better as we closely and slowly followed our track on the GPS.

There was a 2-24' cuddy (Bayliner?) putting in at the launch.  I told him not to bother and gave a ton of cautionary advice.  He put in anyway. He was frustrated as he had come from Alouette which is way down as well. THERE IS NO WAY he'd be able to navigate the channel, but he put in as we drove away. 

Good luck to him.

[wildmanyeah]

MY outing to Pitt lake was much better, Landed a few rainbows just past the main island on the west side of the lake by the waterfall.  Also caught a salmon smolt on a dic nite.

Easy to navigate the channel into the lake 20+ feet the whole way to the lake.  We marked some big fish on the sounded but did catch any. 

[Damien]

Sure, the depth says 25 ft on the Navionics chip.  But the lake is SO LOW that the stumps that are usually a couple feet above the bottom in what is usually 25 feet of water, are now 1-2ft below the surface even in the deepest part of the channel.  There is no 20 ft clearance channel right now.

[wildmanyeah]

Sure, the depth says 25 ft on the Navionics chip.  But the lake is SO LOW that the stumps that are usually a couple feet above the bottom in what is usually 25 feet of water, are now 1-2ft below the surface even in the deepest part of the channel.  There is no 20 ft clearance channel right now.

I was at Pitt Lake, Not Stave

[Damien]

Hit Alouette yesterday. It was a beauty day on the water, compared to last weekend when we got blown off after barely wetting a line. Further hampered by a stuck bilge pump and wood jammed in the prop. Was not fun out there.

Not much action though. Chased them on the sounder working the gear from 20-110ft on the riggers. As well as trying close to the surface.

Only one fish to the boat, a nice 2lb cuttie in an area I haven't worked all that much. The usual spots didn't produce. Water temps were 7- 7.2 degrees. No kokes to be found.

2-3 other brave souls out there, didn't see any nets out. But one guy stayed in the same area (17-18' Smokercraft) for quite a while, so he was either on'm or lazy, lol. Other guy seemed to be ripping around from spot to spot in a new ~17' Legend.

Good to be on the water without wind and rain in December. Actual little spurts of blue sky in the mix as well.

[Damien]

Sunny day on the water yesterday, 5-6 other boats out there. Including 3 guys in a 12 foot jon boat that had about 4" of free board way up in the a narrows, brave souls.

Lucky it was a very calm day by any standard, let alone there was no typical afternoon blow up out there. They said they got one kokanee by the first set of pilings across from the launch.

I only managed this little rainbow, with a couple bites here and there. Rainbow was taken with a Luhr Jensen Shoehorn (#1573) with a 24" leader to an all pink wedding band with small piece of UV brined shrimp.

No thermocline established, water was 5-6 degrees C, ~41F. Couple weeks of warm weather to go yet.

That said I will be out next week (might try Pitt instead) for the early spring/first run of the year shake down on my boat.