Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3823 Oct 25-Nov 8

6 HOW TO... Oct 25 - Nov 8, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 23 Fall Trout Pointers… > The fall is the time to be bold and aggressive when it comes to trolling for trout. Lures such as these half ounce Mack’s Lure Hum Dingers are a great choice to employ when starting a fall trolling trip. Run spoons like these at 3 mph, work the structure and see what happens. Only slow down or downsize if you have to. Remember fall trout are programmed to feed, so pulling big bold lures often sparks fast and furious action!. < During the fall, author Cal Kellogg uses dodgers differently than he does during the summer. Rather than using dodgers to attract fish, Cal tends to employ smaller dodgers like the Diamond Backs and Sidewinders shown here to add action to subtle offerings like threaded worms and grubs. > Big streamer flies teamed with Action Discs are a great offering. They look like a baitfish in distress and that stimulates the feeding response in trout looking to gobble down a substantial meal. ^ Here we see Cal Kellogg landing a fish on one of his Hybrid Leadcore Rigs. When the trout are in the top 30 feet of the water column, Hybrid Leadcore Rigs are a great option allowing you to get your offerings down to the fish without the hassle of employing downriggers presents W Fall Trout Notes ith wind-blown rain splattering against my sliding glass door and flashes of lightning in the distance, I spent last evening going through my trout fishing backpack and double sided tackle box. Not only was my gear a mess, but it was aimed at summer trout and king salmon fishing. My goal was to neaten things up and dial things in for the fall season. Along the way, I also organized my thoughts about what works best for me during the frantic fall season and now I’m sharing those thoughts will all of my fishing friends out there in Fish Sniffer Country! I wouldn’t have believe they existed in the tiny creek. I certainly never saw them during the summer! This is the point…Fall trout are desperate to feed and they are willing to put some of their natural caution beside to get forage into their stomachs. You, the angler can take full advantage of this tendency whether you are fishing a small stream or a big reservoir. How? Go big and bold, that’s how! Most of the time I’m a match the hatch guy. If the trout at X Reservoir feed on 1 inch pond smelt, I troll 1 inch pond smelt imitations. The one big exception to this philosophy is during the fall when I tend to upsize my offers, running brighter colored than ordinary lures at fast trolling speeds. During the fall, there are lots of aggres- sive trout up for grabs so it makes sense to bang them with big bright colored lures run at high speeds. This allows you to cover maximum ground while offering any interested trout a substantial meal. If there is a large trout around interested in feeding this is a great strategy for fooling them. FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg Go Big & Bold Until You Can’t! Back when I was a hardcore fly angler, one of my “home streams” was a small tributary of Deer Creek in far northern California. During the summer, fishing there was an evening dry fly proposition. I’d fish during the last couple hours of day light, hooking 6 to 10-inch trout on a variety of size 14 flies. It wasn’t until the first chill of fall rolled around that things changed on the creek. With shorter days and cooler tempera- tures, the trout sensed that winter was looming and it was time to pack away as many calories as possible. My tiny dries went away, replaced by big bushy caddis imitations and hoppers. Not only would the trout hit these big dries with zeal, they’d hit them almost all day long. On top of that, there was notable upswing in the size of the fish. Sure, I’d still catch plenty of sub 10 inchers, but fish over 12 inches would start showing up too. In fact, the two biggest fish I ever caught on the stream, a pair of 20 plus inch browns were caught during mid-Oc- tober afternoon outings. Truth be told, if I had not caught those big browns myself Don’t Use Dodgers For Fall Trout! Yeah right! That headline kept you reading…In reality while I do use dodgers for fall trout, I use them with a different philosophy than I do in the summer. During the summer, I spend a lot of time pulling lures in open water at big deep reservoirs where trout and king suspend around bait. In those situations, I mainly rely on dodgers to pull fish into my spread and not to add action to the lures I’m pulling. I want the rainbows and kings to mistake the flash and thump of a big 6-inch Sling Blade for the impulses put off by feeding fish. They move in to investigate, spot CONTINUED ON PG 13

Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3823 Oct 25-Nov 8 | Page 8