Quesnel Lake With Downriggers

Sasquatch

Member
I have bucktailed on Quesnel Lake a few times in the past and done really well on rainbow trout. I am going to be there again in Sept with a couple of friends and they want to catch some lake trout. I have downriggers on the boat, but really am not familiar with depths, or areas to fish for lakers there.

Does anyone have experience downrigging for lakers on Quesnel Lake? I'm thinking of using apexes and rappalas, will watch the finder to see if we can locate them, but not sure what depth to start at....80 ft? 120 ft?
What size do they average? I know there are some big ones in the lake, but I would prefer to use light action gear if possible.

Personally, I would rather just bucktail for big bows, but my buddies are hot to catch a few lakers. Any help is appreciated.
 
I have fished Quesnell for Lakers and did pretty well while I was there during the summer. Best depths if I recall was 65-85 ft deep on the riggers. I don't recall having to go to 100 to get them, but I was there early in the summer and the water probably hadn't warmed too much.

The best things to use is big spoons and plugs. I caught most of my Lakers on an old 5" Lucky Louie plug. My next most productive lure was a size #6 (large) chrome Canadian Wonder spoon. Wooden Lyman plugs and Ross swimmer tail spoons in 5" sizes caught as well.

I would sometimes run a dummy flasher such as a hot spot agitator style flasher off the Downrigger line with the spoons about 5 feet above and 7 feet behind the clip. I found it pretty easy fishing with the down riggers when I was there. Caught more trout than Lakers, but the Lakers were probably easier to catch in Quesnell than any other lake I've fished for them.

Good luck.
 
FLNRO out of Williams Lake has been doing a tagging study over the past few years of the large apex predatory fish in Quesnel Lake - the large rainbows and lake trout. Apparently the lake trout biomass is significantly higher than the rainbow biomass so there are a lot of big lakers in Quesnel! Never fished it but, lakers like colder water than most other salmonids so you need to get down to the thermocline or just below it this time of year - likely in the 60-100+ ft range. Juvenile kokanee and sockeye fry are likely the primary prey, so appropriately sized spoons and plugs with silver and green should work. Also, lakers are slower and lazier than rainbows so while folks trolling for big bows tend to troll at a good clip you'll want to go a lot slower when targeting lakers.

Good luck!

Cheers!

Ukee
 
Great input, thanks. I was thinking it might be a good idea to run dummy flashers and I will mix up the offerings between spons, apexes and plugs.

There will be three of us in the boat, so my plan was to keep three lines in the water, varying between bucktails on the surface and lake trout gear 60+ ft down. Speed may be an issue, because I remember that the bows really like a fast troll, which I don't think will suit the lakers. Might end up just targeting one or the other depending on time of day.
 
Fish finder? Varying speed is never a bad thing, could always troll at a good clip to cover water and work the buck tails and slow down if you mark good sized fish deep …

Cheers!

Ukee
 
We always use Apex's for lakers in Quesnel. September is a good time for Rainbows though.
I usually fish 60-120ft.
What area of the lake are you fishing?
 
I am heading out to Quesnel this spring. Early June. We are thinking of Elysia as our base. All the above info is great - do you have any more insights relative to this location and time of year? thank you!
 
my wife and I have had a place on Quesnel lake for close to 10 years now. lots of things can work, but my most consistant results come from

rainbows - 6" bucktails on the surface at 3-5MPH, (two tone, any dark color over white), if you have planer boards they also help. that time of year the main body of the lake at the junction will start holding some crankers, but really they move around constantly so don't be tied to one spot. as a start I would find the 200' depth band and troll it for a couple km on either side of the junction on the north shore of the lake crossing straight through the junction on each pass. the narrows between cariboo island and horsefly bay and all the way down to mitchell bay can be productive at times too. If they arent running on the surface yet, break out your salmon gear...... flasher and hoochie on the downrigger, white on bright days, oil slick on overcast days

Lakers - we run a plug, stick bait, or large spoon VERY slowly, anywhere from .5 - 2 mph tops, we also run very deep for them, usually no less than 150' and up to 250'. keep it near the bottom, but watch out for those rocky areas.....they can be gear killers. If you catch one, go right back over the spot, they school up pretty good in this lake. When you find a "char hole", you will limit out quickly!

Hope that helps
Good luck
Chris
 
Hey team, keeping the Quesnel Lake discussion in this post… considering heading up for May long with the fam to boat camp, explore and fish. How is the water in May, still not peak levels I assume? Is fish distribution a dogs lunch at this time of year or starting to key in on thermoclines, structure, etc? I image weather can be anywhere from snow to +20 pending the year?
Thanks.
 
Near the town of Horsefly, the road can flood, usually at end of June.
I was up June 17-19th one year and I had one day that was too windy.
Fish were on the surface, including 2 lakers.
 
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