Flathead Lake, Summer 2020 fishing

A friend and I had a slowish day of fishing today on Flathead Lake. But even a slowish day of fishing is a fun day.  And one of the lake trout I caught was 35 inches long.

Nice fish Peter. I see you have your wind indicator out did you get her jigging?

Nice fish Peter. I see you have your wind indicator out did you get her jigging?

Yes, I did.  In the spring, most of the lake trout are pretty deep, and jigging at depths from 170-240 feet is the most productive fishing technique.  In the first picture above, my fish finder is showing 177 feet, which is about the depth at which I caught the fish.  That's pretty deep for downrigger trolling from a kayak.

I caught a bunch of lake trout today on Flathead Lake, including those shown below, and released a fish about 33"-34" long. The lake trout are starting to move into shallower water - I caught all the fish between 100' and 140", except for a couple at 80'.

Nice fish Peter. Some people really no how to do retirement!
Have you heard any news regarding the whitefish forecast?

That's an interesting reel handle mod.

That's an interesting reel handle mod.

For jigging in deep water within a couple of inches of the bottom, I like to use 300 or 400 size baitcaster reels with power handles and a fast retrieve rate, like 7:1.  The power handle makes it a lot easier to winch big fish up from 170-250 feet of water; I find the two-paddle handles which come with most baitcaster reels to be inadequate for reeling up big fish.  The reel in the picture is a Shimano Tranx 300, which is a nice reel, but the power handle isn't counterbalanced.  As a result, when the power handle gets past 12 o'clock, the handle is heavy enough that it flops down to 6 o'clock, reeling in line and raising my lure up above the bottom.  This was really irritating.  I tried to find a counterbalanced handle for the Tranx, but wasn't able to.  So I added the DIY counterbalance shown in the picture. This completely fixed the handle flop problem.

I have a Daiwa Lexa 300 baitcaster, which comes with a counterbalanced power handle.  The counterbalance avoids the handle flop problem, but the power handle on the Lexa isn't as long as the power handle on the Tranx, and thus doesn't provide as much leverage.  As a result, I prefer to use the Tranx. The Lexa is on the spare rod in my rear rod holder.

That's an interesting reel handle mod.

I also modified my favorite jigging rods by lengthening their butts, to make it easier to jig with the butt in my armpit, and to operate the spool release of the baitcaster reels with my rod hand comfortably in front of my chest.

I have never considered lengthening a rod but.  How did you go about this?

I have never considered lengthening a rod but.  How did you go about this?

I sawed off the end of the butt of the rod to expose the hollow core of the handle.  I got a maple dowel which fit snugly into the handle and glued it about 4" deep into the handle.  I got a piece of thick radiator hose which fit snugly onto the dowel, and which fit snugly inside a piece of PVC pipe, and glued on the radiator hose and the PVC pipe.  I got a PVC threaded pipe plug which fit into the PVC pipe, glued it into the end of the pipe, and filed it off flush with the outside of the pipe. Be sure to choose a piece of PVC pipe which fits easily into your rod holders.  If you can't find a piece of radiator hose which fits both outside the dowel and inside the PVC pipe, you could wrap duct tape around the dowel and/or outside the radiator hose. My butt extension has been rock solid.