NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Regional Discussions => Alaska Kayak Fishing => Topic started by: Swartz on May 29, 2018, 05:54:28 PM
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Weather permitting, it sounds like I will be taking my maiden voyage on Hidden Lake this weekend. Has anyone on here trolled around this time of year? I know some of the spots to hit during ice fishing for lakers, but I have never trolled them. I am thinking of doing something like a salmon rig with some different color spoons behind a flasher instead of herring. I have watched some others have some success without a downrigger and about 80ft of line out, but Hidden Lake gets a lot more pressure than most other lakes.
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Although herring use to be a preferred troll rig, those that have it dialed are often running a K-16 silver Kwikfish with chartreuse nose. Trolled 50 feet down. You can get by with a 50 ft depth Jet Diver rather than downriggers for a 'yak. Personally I would add a sardine wrap to the K-16 just to make it more palatable. :) Bait is still allowed on the lake.
I would take along some kokanee rigs in case you get bored with just paddling/peddling around sight seeing. The tiny mini hootchies that anglers troll with are sometimes tipped with a single kernel of white Shoepeg corn. L48 kokanee experts get into adding different scents to their corn and colors too. Shoepeg corn is very hard to find and some grocery stores don't even carry it since its a bit pricey. If you track down a supply stock up a couple cans for the future. Green Giant makes it. Works great in the winter tipped on a tiny jig or castmaster. Kokanee trolling is behind a dodger at very slow speed. Just enough to keep the dodger close to horizontal and no more. 3 foot lightweight leader.
Usually the first week after ice out is when I had my best success. The fresh oxygen into the lake seems to turn on the bite.
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Hey that's a lot of good info! Thank you for sharing. It seems like its impossible for anyone to share anything about Hidden Lake other than a few spots here and there. I noticed some small lakers being caught on my FB feed over the weekend, but nothing crazy. Maybe this will be the year to try out some other types of fish with LCI kings being closed.
We ended up heading out to Watson Lake on Monday instead and played with some rainbows.
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Just wanted to do a follow up post and say that I did end up out on Hidden for a night! I actually didnt have any success on the Kwickfish. The diver ended up acting weird with it, so I decided to just roll with a Kodiak Custom spinner I had with a 40' diver. I found that going about 1.8mph, I could get it do right around 30'. I cant wait to get a downrigger!
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All right, that's a great start for a first time on the water. Congrats on a nice fish.
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Nice to see success in little known/reported areas. Off topic: How are the marine charts on your Raymarine? I'm looking at the 4 Plus and the only concern I have is the accuracy of the charts for Cook Inlet.
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You know it was super accurate when I was just sitting in my garage and all around town, but it wasn't reading anything out on Hidden lake. It was recommended to send the card in and everything would be updated, but I was able to download the updates on my own. I don't think it lets you go right to the most current update, because it keeps updating on every start up to a new version.
Still a great finder though!