Northwest Fishing Reports

I live in Massachusetts, and in the summer our lakes get pretty warm. This makes the trout go under the surface of the lake about 12-17 feet. The best way to catch them is to troll. I have heard of people trolling with powerbait. Other than rubbed on lures for scent, how do you troll powerbait? Do people anchor and chum for trout? Anything you do to catch trout in the summer would be much abliged.

Pop gear, with a wedding ring and a gob of PB just big enough to cover the hook. Spinners, there again a gob just big enough to cover the hook. I personally prefer to troll with worms or some other sort of meat because it hold up better. With PB you normally get one strike and the bait is gone. Just my experience.

The trout defiantly dies down come summer but they can still be caught. I usually switch over to walleye, pan fish and salmon in these months. I will catch all my trout in the summer months from about 10pm - 6am, and don't really fish during the hot hours of the day. Power bait I wouldn't troll its too fragile but if I were to troll it I would use one of those power bait hooks. You know the treble hooks with the spring wrapped around them to mold the power bait on to. But 2 weekends ago my cousin caught a trout while trolling with a power egg and a worm. I would recommend trolling a power egg over power bait, just because a power egg is indestructible. Chumming is a very good idea where permitted. We either use condensed milk, cream corn or a mixture of rock salt,oat meal and salmon roe. But just try to get your lure deep and use a little bit bigger presentation, not huge but go up a size or 2. During the summer trout get hot and lazy, so instead of chasing after 10 smaller meals they would much rather go after 1 or 2 larger meals. I really like using my leaded line during this time. Also one of those lights that you submerge into the water will get ya some fish as well

The other day my sister caught a nice 14"er off of some three month old power eggs:-& ....I guess it was the spinning action the eggs had in the water.

I've read articles on Lake Washington and Sammamish cutts. They suggested trolling as deep as 70' for cutts in July.

I just posted a method on Lake Washington forum that may work.

do people anchor, chum, and them drift back a piece of chum with a hook for trout? I do this for striped bass in my home port.

Not around here. That could land you a big fine and loose all your fishing gear. If you want trout, troll slow and get your gear down alittle lower and lower till you find where they're at.

Xiphias Gladius wrote:do people anchor, chum, and them drift back a piece of chum with a hook for trout? I do this for striped bass in my home port.

Chumming is only permitted in a handful of lakes in WA state. But when I'm in a water where it is permitted I make sure to take advantage of it. If they allow it where you are at I would recommend it. There is a lot of stuff on the net about it. Its a little more complicated than it looks. Its really easy to over chum and totally shut down the entire bite, because you can basically fill the fish up, so a little research will help.