lake roosevelt fishing

[bowhunterforever]

Anybody been fishing at lake roosevelt lately, or know how the fishing has been? thanks

[TeacherMan]

two Wednesdays ago we did an all day fishing/picture taking marathon. We started out at Kettle Falls at day light, then we went to Daisy boat launch , after that we moved to Hunters boat launch, then to 7 bays. No luck, lots of good pics, not a single bite. We where fishing off of shore with eggs, floated worm and egg, power bait and worm (several colors), and even mallows and worm. Besides different baits we fished at different depths of the bottom, 18", 30" and even about 6'. Still a fun day just getting out.

[huntnphool]

There was a guy at the Sportsmans show a few years ago that fished one of those big lakes and was catching 20-30lb bows. He trolled rapalas or the like and seemed to catch a lot of huge fish, any idea if it was Roosevelt?

[Skyvalhunter]

I like to hit Roosevelt just above the dam near the later part of Febuary. This is the toime frame when those nice bows go along the shoreline getting ready for spawning. I just bank fish and usually it's with green sparkle floating power bait.

[yelp]

Been out done well we've caught several rainbows powerbait around Grand Coulee.  Great looking fish...We caught 15 last week good smoker load!  bite seems to be at 9, 12 and 4 pm.  Good Luck.

[Alchase]

Phool, my guess is he was probably fishing Chelan for Mackinaw (lake trout). There are some huge rainbow in Roofus Woods, I believe Priest Lake Id. also has big Trips, but 20 - 30 lbs is very big even for those football shape triploids.

[Whitetail Chaser]

I agree.  At 20-30 lbs. they were probably Mackinaw (Lake Trout).  Priest Lake doesn't hold any trips (no Rainbows at all, actually) but it does have a healthy population of Mackinaw....some in the 20-30 lb. range (although fewer than there used to be).  Priest also has a few cutthroat hanging in there, along with some perch, smallmouth bass and plenty of Northern Pikeminnow.  I would think that what you saw were Macs from either Lake Chelan or Priest Lake.

[TeacherMan]

he may have been fishing Rufus, 10 pounders are not uncommon you see a few 20 plus come out every year, I've seen 30 pounders but you cant get them to bite anything but a size 22 chronomid 

[Alchase]

White Tail, Do you know which northern Id lake has the big trips like Rufus?

[TeacherMan]

Lake Pend Oreille. Huge trout in that lake. They are not triploids they are camloops, they fight harder and get even bigger.

[rasbo]

Lake Pend Oreille. Huge trout in that lake. They are not triploids they are camloops, they fight harder and get even bigger.

how are those camloops for taste

[TeacherMan]

They feed on the Misas Shrimp and silvers  , much better than Triploids, not as fat either. Overall a really good eating fish. My wife likes it when I wrap them in foil and BBQ them with garlic butter, lemon, mayo and general seasonings.  You really need down riggers to fish for them along with decent electronics.

[Alchase]

Oh ya! camloops taste grate.

[rasbo]

man Ive spent almost a year not doing much.that sounds like a good time.you must have to get pretty deep.to use down riggers

[TeacherMan]

Its a bottomless lake. I think its deepest spot is close to 1500'. There is a sub base on the lake. The lake is over 90K acres. Depending on the time of year the fish range from 15-60 feet, 35 is very common.

[huntnphool]

Its a bottomless lake. I think its deepest spot is close to 1500'.

I can attest to that, I was there this past summer. We cruised the lake slowly just partying and drifted a good deal. At one point I thought my transducer stopped working, I wasnt getting a reading anymore. After jumping in the water and checking the ducer it appeared to be fine. I went throught the adjustments and was playing with the depth meter when all of a sudden it started working. I couldn't believe it we at 1400+ feet

 Lots of goats in the rocks around that lake too, we glassed them for quite a while.

[Whitetail Chaser]

I've fished Pend O'Reille a bit...knocked the paint off of many lures there.  In addition to Kamloops Trout, they also have a good sized population of Mackinaw.  For the Kams, you'll need either downriggers or planer boards (I like the new Sidewinder boards.  They're small, easy to use and effective).  There are several good fly patterns designed for the Kams.  I've had the best luck trolling for Kams when there's a pretty good chop on the lake.

For the Macs, I fish around the islands located at the north end of the lake but others do well in different parts of the lake.  Macs tend to stay right on the bottom, but I have found them suspended in Pend O'Reille at times. You will definitely need downriggers if you plan to troll for Macs.  If you don't have downriggers, you can dropshot them (jigging) but I've had better luck trolling.  Pend O'Reille is a big beautiful lake...just pay attention to the weather reports.  Storms tend to move in quickly and you can get yourself in trouble if you're not careful.

[TeacherMan]

Its a mini ocean. 

[Whitetail Chaser]

Exactly!  The only good way to ride out a storm on Lake Pend O'Reille is by watching it through a window as you're sitting on a bar stool at one of the local watering holes