Mabel lake trout fishing

Don

New Member
can any one pass on some pointers I have a boat with a downrigger .i caught one dink in five days help ? The other question is do you have to wear helmets in a licensed side by side on or off road ..... thanks in advance
 
Hi there,
Pretty hot right now so lake is probably slow. Salmon season starts soon too so DFO will be out. From the lumby end (river flows in) head north, keep to east side of lake. About 6km maybe 8km from provincial park will be a bay with a bunch of RVs on the beach. Just past that is a rock bank on the edge of the lake, You can’t miss it. Start trolling there and keep heading north. There will be the rock bank , a small point(sort of) then another rock bank. Then a cabin on the shore. That’s where I usually turn around and start trolling back towards the bay. Troll at about 35 feet to start. I’ve done well with a black and gold plug about 4” long (jointed rapala) and the last person I recommended that spot to caught a 7lber. Search the forum for Mabel lake and you might still find the post. If your into fly fishing, a salmon egg fly drifted deep may be productive right about now. Good luck
Clint r
 
can any one pass on some pointers I have a boat with a downrigger .i caught one dink in five days help ? The other question is do you have to wear helmets in a licensed side by side on or off road ..... thanks in advance
can any one pass on some pointers I have a boat with a downrigger .i caught one dink in five days help ? The other question is do you have to wear helmets in a licensed side by side on or off road ..... thanks in advance
Hi there,
Pretty hot right now so lake is probably slow. Salmon season starts soon too so DFO will be out. From the lumby end (river flows in) head north, keep to east side of lake. About 6km maybe 8km from provincial park will be a bay with a bunch of RVs on the beach. Just past that is a rock bank on the edge of the lake, You can’t miss it. Start trolling there and keep heading north. There will be the rock bank , a small point(sort of) then another rock bank. Then a cabin on the shore. That’s where I usually turn around and start trolling back towards the bay. Troll at about 35 feet to start. I’ve done well with a black and gold plug about 4” long (jointed rapala) and the last person I recommended that spot to caught a 7lber. Search the forum for Mabel lake and you might still find the post. If your into fly fishing, a salmon egg fly drifted deep may be productive right about now. Good luck
Clint r
hi Clint .do you use the down rigger or any other attracter with the plug or just straight line ,I’m new to trout fishing .thanks again
 
Mabel in colder weather use plugs with a Long long line on the surface. In summer I’d start at 35 on the rigger in 50-80 feet of water. Plug about 40’ back. No attractor. 2,5 mph. If a Lotta boats on the water I’d drop it further back. They can be spooky in that lake. Troll around the area I mentioned and u’ll see the fish on your fishfinder and that’ll give you the actual depth their hanging out at. My wife got a 12lb rainbow in that bay I talked about. We looped around to play/net it and you shoulda seen the look on the guys face in the boat we were beside when I netted it. Priceless.

If you try for salmon, you can catch some pretty nice dollies/bull trout too dragging a flasher and hootchie around at this time of year.
 
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What have you been doing far? Without knowing it is hard to make suggestions. However some somewhat universal things to do;

Find the thermocline using your sounder. And yeah, look for fish with the sounder as well. Focus on areas that have quick depth transitions, drop offs. S curve over those contour lines.

With a plug that floats, I wouldn't send it too far back before clipping to the rigger if you are dropping down 35, 45, 55ft of cable but letting out 50ft of line before clipping in. This will have your plug running too high. After marking fish or dialing in the thermocline, say it is at 45ft. Only put out 15-20ft of line line before clipping to the rigger.

Remember to vary speed. And stick a piece of worm on the hook of the plug as well. Not too much to impede the action. Oh yeah, and as others mentioned, try using flashers and spoons or smaller hootchies as well. Perhaps try downsizing and go after some kokanee. Small flasher/dodger, wedding band with worm or shrimp and bob's your uncle. Again hard to know what to suggest if we don't know what HASN'T been working so far.

There are tons of fish in that lake, should be decent action. Get out there at first light and fish for a 2-3 hours then head in for breakfast. Get back out at dusk FOR SURE and fish til dark.

Keep mixing things up, depth, speed, lure size, lure colour etc. 5 days and 1 dink smells of not adapting and adjusting. GOOD LUCK!
 
all the techniques above are very good ideas! as for gear the last salmon I got out of there was a 16lb spring on a green and white 4" lyman plug at 50' at 2.5mph, rainbows like the plugs along with flasher/hoochie (Army Truck or Splatter Back) in the colder months a nice bucktail works well as on top of the water 300' back
 
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Yep all good advice. But about floating plugs, they all dive when being pulled through the water. Otherwise floating plugs wouldn’t work without a weight. For instance, a 4” wood Lyman 50’ back( short on a winter troll) will run about 5-7’ maybe slight less feet deep without a weight. Moving of course, stop and it will float to the surface and then dive again when you start trolling. There’s variables there too, turns, current, how much line you have out( to a point) and boat speed will all have an effect on the depth of an unweighted plug. But they will still only dive to a certain depth depending on the kind.
 
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Thanks for all the tips on trout fishing Mabel lake .things have picked up for me and I caught a 4.1 on the east side where you mentioned Clint.lost a big one yesterday ?some of my fish have come up smoked lol.smoke is really bad it isn’t pleasant sitting out in a boat. Sorry for no reply’s lost the form and pass word ,(must be a senior thing ) thanks again don
 
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