Fishing reports
March 18, 2024: fished Elk Lake at 5 PM. A lake I have no experience fishing. 41 degree water. Used a Black Chrome 3.6" spoon with pink "glow in the dark" dots/stripe. Caught a 16 inch rainbow within 5 minutes, then promptly lost the spoon to a snag. Tried other colors of spoons with no success. Was trolling 35 feet deep, at 1.6 MPH.
March 24: Elk Lake. Water 47 degrees. Full sun, windy, choppy. Had 5 hits in 2 hours. Landed a 14 inch trout, lost 2 trout in the 16 inch class, and had 2 hits that did not stick. 2 hits on Black Chrome/pink spoon, 3 hits on gold/pink/black spoon. No hits on other colors. Trolling at 2.0 MPH, 24 feet deep (4 colors of leadcore line).
March 30: Elk Lake. 46 to 47 degree. Caught and released 10 fish in the 14-15 inch class, trolling 24 feet deep at 2.0 MPH. Productive spoon sizes were 3.25" and 3.6". Productive colors were: black chrome/pink, gold/pink/black, gold/silver. At noon I changed to a True Gold Lil Thumper spoon with a green "glow in the dark" stripe. Caught a 16 inch rainbow right away. Thought it could be a fluke. Put the spoon back down and caught a 17 inch cutthroat 10 minutes later. This seems to indicate that the Lil' Thumper spoon catches larger fish than other spoons.
April 4: Fished a small lake on Vancouver Island for the first time. Water 51 degrees. Between 5 PM and sunset landed 3 rainbows from 12 to 15 inches, and another got away. Trolling speed 2.0 MPH, depth 24 feet. All caught on collectible True Gold Che'gegon spoons (black/pink stripe, pink stripe, glow green dots).
April 10: Fished Elk Lake from 8:30 to 12:30. Water 48-49 degrees, sunny. Trolled at 2.0 MPH, 24 feet deep. For the first half-hour I tried nickel-plated spoons with no success. As soon as I switched to black chrome spoons I experienced one savage takedown after another for 1.5 hour. Released 6 rainbow trout, all in the 14-15 inch class. All on light duty conventional 3.25" trolling spoons. Colors that worked:
black/green stripe
black/pink glow
black/pink-orange color-shifting
black/purple
black
gold/green glow stripe
I then fished 2 hours with various nickel colored spoons with only nibbles, no real hits.
Conclusion: in some conditions, trout are afraid of nickel (too much flash). But trout will absolutely brutalize a black or gold spoon (less flash).
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If I had been fishing nickel spoons only, I might have caught nothing today. Nickel spoons will be productive later in the season, when fish are more active. I have seen days last fall when trout would not touch a brass spoon, but would hit a silver spoon with chartreuse stripe. Nickel is also useful on larger/deeper bodies of water, where you need to attract fish from longer distances.
Another theory: trout are hitting the black spoons hard at Elk Lake because that lake holds a large population of bullheads. Even though the stocked trout are sterile, they probably still have the instinct to kill predators of eggs/fry. That is why trout are hitting the black spoons so hard. They are not seeking to feed, but to destroy.
April 12: undisclosed lake on Vancouver Island. 52-53 degree water, 6 knot wind, sunny afternoon. I was testing some magnum size spoons and was getting hits on every pass, but none that would stick. That is because even though these stocked rainbow trout have large bodies, their mouth are relatively small. I switched to a black chrome 2.5" slender spoon with a pink dot, to imitate a leech feeding on a trout egg. I got a hit immediately, and landed a 13 inch cutthroat. I switched to a wider 2.5" spoon in black nickel/pink glow color pattern, in hope of catching a larger fish. It worked: I landed a fat 16.5 inch rainbow. I continued working that spoon, and a spoon of the same shape on the 2nd line, in gold/green glow pattern. That gold spoon hooked another large rainbow, that got away. Hooked and lost a few more trout. Productive trolling speeds were 2.0 MPH, then 2.2 MPH, then 1.6 MPH at dusk. Depth 24 feet.
April 16. Lake Cowichan. Air temperature minus 2 at 8 AM. Water 47-48 degrees. Sunny, light wind. Did not find any rainbow trout. Ended up with 2 cutthroat, 16 and 17 inch, and released 2 smaller ones. Finicky today. They would only bite a small 2.5" gold/glow spoon. They would ignore a large gold spoon, or small spoons of other colors. 18 to 30 feet deep, 2.0 MPH.
April 17: Undisclosed lake. Caught two rainbows in the 14-15 inch class, and 2 smaller ones. All on gold/green glow 2.5" spoon. Trout would not hit a larger gold spoon, or small spoons in other colors. Most fish were caught 12 feet deep at 2.0 MPH.
April 22: Undisclosed lake. Water temperature 54 degrees, wind light. Two nice rainbows in the 14-15 inch class, plus two smaller fish. Caught on small gold/green glow spoon, and a pink/matte silver back Williams Thinfish modified with a black stripe. Between 12 and 24 feet deep, 2.0 MPH. I then tried a SilverLeaf spoon, that only produced "nibbles". This is in stark contrast with the brutal takedowns I have experienced with the other spoons that caught fish today. This makes me ponder that there may be "ordinary" spoons that trigger a mild interest in trout, versus "extraordinary" spoons that trigger pure aggression from trout, even if these spoons do not look different to fishermen. More research is needed on that topic.
April 26, 2024: this nice chinook salmon was caught near Victoria, BC, on a 3.25" Black Chrome trolling spoon, customized in a variation of the "Blueberry Muffin" pattern popular on the Great Lakes. One other fish was caught that day on a similar spoon. I can assemble for you almost any custom pattern/size/color of spoon you can dream of. If there is a spoon you used to like but got discontinued by the manufacturer, I can reproduce it or even improve it with high-visibility lure tape.
May 8: Fished Langford Lake for the first time ever. I only had 2 hours available, mid-day. Breezy, sunny, water 56 degrees. Was rewarded with a fat, healthy 18 inch rainbow, released unharmed. Released another fish in the 15 inch class. Both fish caught on True Gold spoons with green "glow in the dark" stripe. 2.0 MPH, 24 feet deep (4 colors of lead core line).
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May 14: undisclosed lake, early morning, water temperature 61-63 degrees. Fishing was slow today, due to warmer water, but within one hour I caught a 13 inch rainbow on a 2.5" True Gold spoon with bluish-green coarse glitter stripe. On my second line I was running a collectible True Gold Che'gegon spoon, which I had dressed with a new pattern I call "Black Eyes and Bloody Nose". At 8:40 I caught a 17 inch rainbow. Was fishing 18 feet deep at 2.0 MPH.
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This is the end of an outstanding spring fishing season: in 2 months, 11 trips on 4 lakes, 42 fish landed in 30 hours (1.4 fish per hour, all between 12 and 18 inches, most of them released unharmed). Due to numerous work commitments, I must now stop fishing, and "pass the torch" to my customers, to gather data on productive spoon colors. Have fun fishing this summer! I will start prowling the lakes again on October 15, and I will spend a lot of time on the water this coming winter. My favorite season, when I often have the lake to myself, and when trout taste better. If you have not tried winter fishing yet, you should. Just put hand warmers in your gloves and boots, and you can spend a whole day on the water, comfortably. Get a bimini top for your boat. Best $200.00 you will ever spend: when the rain starts, it takes 2 seconds to raise the top and keep fishing (it also keeps the sun from baking you in summer). There is no need to get up early in winter. The bite starts at 11 AM, and continues until dusk. The trout only become inactive in the first 2 weeks of February, when the water is too cold. Come February 15, the bite is on again! We are blessed with 50 weeks per year of good open-water fishing on Vancouver Island. Too few people take advantage of it. Please keep visiting the "fishing reports" and "pictures" sections of this website for regular updates in the coming months.
June 10, 2024: after several weeks of windy weather that seriously limited salmon fishing, the guides are out again and the salmon are falling victim to the Black Chrome spoons. Victoria, BC. Nickel-plated or True Silver spoons enhanced with green and chartreuse lure tape have also been producing numerous chinook salmon.
June 20: salmon fishing is in full swing. I have received reports from mid-Island, Gulf Islands, and Victoria/Sooke, of numerous coho and chinook up to 20 lbs, caught on my custom spoons. A surprising number of fish hammered the 2.5" spoons, with 3.25" spoons producing as well. Top-producing colors: Black Chrome with chartreuse stripe/pink dots, True Gold with silver stripe, nickel-plated with chartreuse/green stripe.
June 21: Just received a report from Mid-Island: the True Gold Che'gegon spoon with green "glow in the dark" stripe has caught 6 chinook today.
June 25: wind conditions were favorable to fish Lake Cowichan in a small boat, which is rare this time of year. I fished near Bald Mountain in the early morning in search of the elusive rainbows, and did not find any. I trolled through Honeymoon Bay on my way back to the ramp, and found a steady bite of cutthroat in the 16-17 inch class, which allowed me to do some comparative testing of new spoon colors. True Gold with glitter pink/glitter black was the top producer. Gold with green glow stripe caught fish too. Gold with silver stripe got ignored, gold with chartreuse stripe got ignored, as well as nickel-plated spoons, black chrome spoons, and copper spoons. It seems that the cutthroat in this lake are afraid of bright colors. But when presented with a gold spoon with a touch of color, the trout are cooperating. I released 4 fish between 9:30 and 11:00 AM. 2.0 MPH, 24 feet deep. Sunny, water temperature 62 degrees.
June 28: I could only fish from 6 to 9 AM today. Cloudy, water temperature 61 degrees. Fishing was a bit slower than usual. Released 2 cutthroats, 16 and 17 inches. No pictures, because they trout had lamprey marks on them. Once again, the trout would only hit the 2.5" gold spoon with green "glow in the dark" stripe. They would not hit a magnum gold spoon, or any other spoon color. I also tried a cherry colored Wiggle Wart, without success. As usual, 24 feet deep, and 1.8 to 2.0 MPH. Tried other speeds and depths without success.