[Flygirl]

On the weekend we were at Dot Lake, west of Merritt, in the plateau near Chataway Lake. We started off by trolling the perimeter at about 20ft using leech type patterns. It was the recommended approach according to BC Fishing Magazine for that lake. We didn't even get a blip on the fish finder. After a couple of hours we decided to head for home so crossed the lake where the depth drops to 40ft to 50 ft. The fish finder went nuts! It appears that all the fish were pooling in the middle of the lake around the 10ft to 20ft depth. We crossed several times, several places using different depths, different fly patterns all to no avail.

Anyone have any suggestions for what we could have been doing differently? Thanks!

 

[Pat AV]

Hey Flygirl,

I moved this here hoping that a few of the die hard stillwater folks out there could lend you some advice.

To me it sounds like you did everything right, sometimes they just won't bite. Hopefully other members can add more insight.

Maybe trying a chromie using the sinking line technique would have been a good idea?

 

[flyfisherB]

It can be most frustrating to know they are there, but just not bite'n. My old standby is a black doc spratley. It seems to imitate many different
bugs and is a good all purpose fly. Keep the size down to maybe a 12 and it seems to work better. Do a very slow troll and use lots of action on your line
interspursed with frequent pauses. Keep mixing it up and maybe something will come by for a look.
:2cents:

 

[bronjuan]

slower and longer, finer leaders!

 

[gmason]

were you trolling a fly on a fly rod ? I don't have a fly rod yet so drag flies on my spinning
reel (no weight) just small swivel 5 ft leader and fly. One thing that seems to happen is when
trolling slowly coming out of a corner getting hits, so try a change of direction,fly drops a bit
or speeds up depending on what side of boat you are on, my 2 cents anyway.

 

[Guest]

Dot lake..beautifull lake but a little frustrating. The last time I was there all I had was a one 3lb fish on a geen wooly bugger on a type 6 line trolling near the cabin at the end of the lake. If you really want to know what is going on in that area, go talk to the lady at Chataway lake...she knows alot about the surrounding lakes!

 

[BuckShot44]

Bump.. I'm heading up to Dot this weekend.. this will be my first time there and am hoping for success! I'll be sure to file a report when I return.