Christmas

[erikwells]

I am going to Xmas lake this afternoon 4:00 or so. Will I get a parking spot? Do I bother trolling long line small plugs with cowbells? Am I better of drifting trolling vertical jigging? Has anyone ever vertically jigged with cowbells for trout or do you slow troll or drift them? Lots of questions being I have never fished xmas. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[This message has been edited by erikwells (edited 07-15-2002).]

[erikwells]

Fished and fished and caught no trout. Fished mainly NE area on XMAS at 3:30 to about 7:30. Covered the water trolling small risto raps/cleos and also tried running cowbell rigs on them as well. Fished water from 20 to 75 feet. Tried drifting and slow trolling crawlers about 15-25 feet down on areas we marked fish. Slip bobbered crawlers and power bait as well. Only had on anchor in the boat so couldn't try anchor tied to dynamite rig. I guess I will try earlier in then season next time or get out on the ice. Tried like hell slipped in fell.

[Renneberg]

Trout fishing in xmas will get better as the season comes to a end. The cooler water will bring them up and shallow again, and it will make them more aggressive.

[erikwells]

Renneberg, I received an email that you responded (thanks). But I am unable to review the response? Any suggestions?

[erikwells]

Renneberg, I have had good success trout fishing streams in the fall but it seems when I fish lakes in the fall my suceess is lacking. I fished bad medicine lake in Becker county last October and only picked up 4 trout in 3 days. The only success fishing trout in lakes seems to be in the spring. Am I doing something wrong?

[Renneberg]

Erikwells, I don't think your doing anything wrong I just think you need a few tips to help you decide on a lake to fish and why.
The first one is water temp. Bad Medicine is a big lake and it takes time for big lakes to cool down. Stick to smaller lakes in the fall because it takes smaller lakes less time to cool down. The colder the temp the more trout feed.
Second thing is something very few people do in the fall. Fish in the early morning and late into the night. When I say early in the morning I mean be there a hour before sun rise and stay until the trout stop bitting or till the sun hits the water. In the evening fish about a hour or two before sunset and keep fishing into the night. Rainbows are alot like walleyes. When the sun comes up they go down. I've found this only to be true in the fall. Brook trout on the other hand will stay shallow longer in the day. They are also the first to go shallow in the fall. Sometime in early september in the northern half of the state. About the middle of the month around Park Rapids.
Third reason is because in the spring your most likly catching trout that were stocked last fall after the season closed. These fish are almost completely cleaned out by fall on some lakes.
If I were you I would find 3 or 4 smaller lakes and fish them in the fall. The reason why is because one of the lakes will have bitting trout in it. The lake will change from year to year.
I found this to be true last fall on a trip to Ely. The year before we hammered the trout in one lake but, when we went back next year all we caught were sunnies and one trout. We tried two other lakes and found one that had bitting trout and we caught a ton.