Trolling a dry fly

Sorry Stratocaster,

Looking back at it now, I think my comment came off wrong or at least wasn't complete.. I was just trying to point out that kayak fishing might be even more addicting if you give it a chance. 

Brian

Sorry Stratocaster,

Looking back at it now, I think my comment came off wrong or at least wasn't complete.. I was just trying to point out that kayak fishing might be even more addicting if you give it a chance. 

Brian

Hah!  First time I read your post, I thought to myself, "oops!".  But I knew what you meant the second time I read it.   

-Allen

No problem bsteves and no need to apologize.  I was pretty sure that was what you meant but then I thought, Well, I am a new guy here, maybe it is an honest question and it would be rude of me not to answer.



 

 

Slow trolling flies seems to work in Canada.

Here's a pic of Bob Mehrer (recently retired CEO of Snowriver truck campers) slow trolling some form of fly from a $pendy fly rod!   
Something like $2000 custom jobber. 





This is up at Chute Lake up in the hills halfway between Penticton B.C and Kelowna B.C.   
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=49.689621,-119.533396&spn=0.039257,0.10952&t=h&z=14

Here is his reward.  My son, holding Bob's catch for the day. 

While I've done it, I usually don't like to troll dries in lakes. I like to cast dries to surface feeding fish.
When trolling for trout in a lake, I usually use a full sinking clear intermediate line (sinks slowly at about 1.5 to 1.75 inches per second) and a leech pattern, wooly bugger, or streamer. Sometimes a nymph. I usually only troll one fly at a time, but I might start trolling a combo of something like a wooly bugger with a smaller nymph dropper.
 
I usually like to anchor along dropoffs or over shoals I find with my sonar, and cast and strip the fly slowly in. Or cast toward shorelines with overhanging bushes and trees, or weeds and woody structure.  I seem to hook up more strikes when I already have my fingers working stripping the line in than when I'm trolling.

I'll often NOT strike back if I'm slow on reacting to a strike while trolling. I'll set my paddle down, or cut power to my electric (other craft), pick up my rod and then slowly strip in some, waiting for the trout to return for a second grab.

Trolling dries works very well for recently stocked hatchery plants, as they usually hang in the top 5 feet of surface water for days after being dumped, and will go after anything that might look like food. They haven't learned how to fend for themselves yet, and aren't keyed into any natural food forms or hatches. They've been raised on food pellets, and probably expect some hatchery employee to show up and throw 'em a handful.
Fun to watch the Eagles and Ospreys fight over 'em, though.

Any dark pattern in size #12 should work for surface trolling. At least 9 foot leader, and 40' of flyline out. Worked for me every time I did that.
But I don't troll dries any more, because I have better chance of hooking up with a large triploid bow(4 to 10 lbs+) by trolling my leech or bugger patterns deep. I don't even want to hook up with a small (under12") recently planted hatchery fish. Can hardly keep those pesky things off the hook, so I try to avoid 'em.