The hotter the summer, the deeper the piles in the lake. Deep sea trolling is the only effective way to catch these fish.
Where there may be smoking? This question is asked by many colleagues who fish in deep lakes in the summer. In spring, catching salmonids on the shore was child's play, while in summer these fish suddenly disappear somewhere. This is true of all mountain lakes, same in Austria, and Sweden.
Even in Canadian lakes, In summer, you should simply look for palia. Why is this happening? Well, it burns, similarly to all salmonids, they do not tolerate heat well, and therefore they should be searched deep in summer 40, 50, 60, and sometimes even 100 meters. During the "great immersion" period, catching this fish with the traditional spinning method or with an artificial fly is simply impossible.
At such great depths we are forced to use special fishing techniques.
For example, in the Swedish lake Vattersee many anglers only fish with pilkers in summer. This lure can provoke fish to bite at any chosen depth for any length of time. Traditional artificial lures, such as spoons, centrifuges or wobblers always move diagonally upward when retrieved to the boat and therefore leave the hunting deep zone too quickly.
Deep-sea fishing
What to do to keep the lure moving deep enough, where we expect bites of smoking? It is best to use deep sea trolling equipment, for example, a downrigger that is so popular with sea anglers. The principle of operation of this device is extremely simple. There is a winch at the stern of the boat, on which we lower a large lead ball on a steel rope into the water. The line is attached to a three-part carabiner just above the ball, so that the lure is always pulled at the selected depth. A short, thin line tied to the handle of the carabiner of the trolling set (combination of main line and leader with bait) and the ears of the downrigger's three-part carabiner break when bitten, so that free hauling is possible.
Another way of deep sea lure hauling behind the boat is fishing with the "planer boards", also called "seal". It is a floating board that goes down into the water. It is attached to the rig between the main line and the leader. The seal always draws the line sideways out of the boat's line of travel. The deep descending models reach very great depths with the bait, where the fire is preying.
A horse carriage with a seal”
It is commonly believed, in terms of the efficiency of fishing for a pile on a carriage, The "seal" ranks, right behind the downrigger in second place. And although I was, in a sense, forced to try to fish with a seal, I cannot complain about the lack of results. In my favorite lake, fishing with a downrigger is forbidden, when together with a friend we caught as many as eight piles during the first attempt, including several pieces weighing over 3 kg.
Whether we like it or not, we switched to the seal sets and we caught it right away… burns even bigger! So it turns out, that the "jib" working at the appropriate depth is almost in no way inferior to a downrigger. Besides, it is incomparably cheaper, you can put it in your pocket and pull it behind the boat while sailing on the oars (an engine is required for downrigger fishing).
If we want to bring a large "seal" to a depth of approx 35 meters we have to pull her 70-80 meters behind the boat. However, with such an amount of line in the water, we lose full control over the lure, and jam is not always effective, especially when the hook is not super sharp.
Any depth
The biggest advantage of the downrigger is the possibility of fishing at much greater depths. In addition, the line detaches itself from the device immediately after taking it, thanks to which we have better contact with the fish.
The downrigger wheel should fit approx 60 meters of steel cable, and the weight has a mass 4-5 kg. Many original weights weigh only around 2 kg and it is far too little for trolling at great depths. The greater weight of the downrigger lead allows better control of the lure. The deeper the lake, the more difficult it is to locate the piles. If it is allowed, we should pull several lures at the same time after the boat at different depths. For this purpose, we use so-called stackers that allow you to attach the bait (on the rig) at a distance of 5 do 10 meters above the ball. Thanks to stackers, we can pull two or three lures on one downrigger.
At great depths, palms feed mainly on fish and our artificial lures must imitate them fairly accurately. As a rule, all models of wobblers are effective, spoons and centrifuges, which have proven their worth when fishing for palia in shallow water in spring. Personally, I really appreciate the slender silver lures made of thin sheet metal and blue-silver lures by Rapala. (e.g.. J-9 i J-13, both two-piece and floating models). Light centrifuges with a mother-of-pearl-color blade are also very catchy, not only on the pile, the best proof of which are the two record-breaking lake trout caught in Sweden with this lure. Both fish, each weighing almost 9 kg were caught nine days apart in August 1994 year. Installing a so-called dodger in front of the lure significantly increases its attractiveness. Dodger is the American name for a large and flat spoon, trailed around 50 centimeters in front of the bait. The wobble of the dodger gets the smoking's attention, provokes her to attack, it also makes the work of the lure pulled behind the boat more attractive.
Helpful fishfinder
You can also attach a slender spoon in front of the bait (lake troll). In the mountain lakes of Sweden, anglers have been catching the largest piles with such rigs for years. The sonar makes it very easy to locate fish at great depths.
But this is not the end, because careful observation of the fishfinder screen also provides many unforgettable impressions. So sometimes you can see for example, as from the depths a great fire emerges, say six meters behind the lead downrigger ball. quickly approaching the bait, and then assists her on episode ten, twenty meters.
Later, the fish loses interest in the prey and suddenly disappears from the fishfinder screen.
Similar scenes, causing the immediate release of adrenaline into the blood, they are quite rare, of course, but also this, what we normally observe on the screen, it's just as interesting.
We can perfectly see the shape of the bottom, we also see the depth at which our lures work. Besides, we notice the obstacles lying on the bottom in time, thanks to which we do not risk losing the lead ball and 30-40 meters of downrigger steel rope.
In addition, the fishfinder allows you to accurately locate shoals of smelt and whitefish.
And there, where is the general cargo, there are always smokers somewhere nearby looking for food.