• Loon Island Outdoors
  • About Loon Island Outdoors
  • Bird Watching
• Canoe Trip Reports
  • Algonquin Spring Fishing 2005
  • Algonquin Spring Fishing 2011
  • Algonquin Canoe Trip 2009
  • Booth Lake, Algonquin
  • Bell Lake, Killarney
  • French River Delta
  • Frontenac Provincial Park
  • Joe Lake, Algonquin
  • Petawawa River, Lake Travers to Lake McManus
  • Ragged Lake, Algonquin
  • Shirley Lake, Algonquin
• Loon Island Boatworks
  • 16' Chestnut Prospector
  • 17' Endeavour Sea Kayak
  • The Paddle Project
• Loon Island Bookstore
• Fishing
  • Bottom Bouncing for Trout
  • Canoe Rod Holders
  • Favourite Bass Lures
  • Favourite Trout Lures

Fishing

Bottom Bouncing for Trout

Canoe Rod Holders

Favourite Bass Lures

Favourite Trout Lures

OK, I've been fishing trout for 10 years. Learned a lot over the time, but from day 1 I've always heard that Williams Wablers were a classic trout lure. Catch was that they never worked for me. I tried them periodically, but no luck.

Well on the May long weekend we were trying some bottom bouncers. The water surface temp was up to 18 - 20C so the trout were going to be starting to head deeper. It's also getting close to Bass spawning season so we wanted to make sure we weren't disturbing and bass that might already be nesting. So I figured if we're trying a new technique for getting deeper, might as well try one of those lures that hasn't worked before.

Jackpot! We managed to pull in 6 Splake within about 2 hours on Sunday afternoon and they all hit on a gold hammered Williams. That was trolling with the outboard at the cottage, but now I'm really looking forward to a July long weekend trip with my younger son to see how well the technique will work up in Algonquin.

Oh, and we ONLY caught Splake, nothing else. No bass, no rock bass, no perch, no sunfish. So we definitely did a good job sticking to the deeper water and leaving any nesting bass alone.

Since the bottom bouncing technique had worked so well for us in May, Peter and I made sure we packed a couple of bottom bouncers for our July long weekend canoe trip to Shirley Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park. We already pack enough fishing gear that I spend more time thinking about what to leave behind than I do thinking about what to add, so we only took 1 bottom bouncer each.

Of course since we only took 1 bottom bouncer each, I managed to snag and lose mine within 15 minutes of setting out on Shirley Lake. I still had lots of trout lures including more Williams Wablers and I also had some 1 ounce bell sinkers. So as a backup plan to get my lure deep I tied on a bell sinker about 5' up from the lure. You can also try using a 3-way swivel approach, but I've always found that to be really awkward when fishing from a canoe because you have 2 lines hanging down from the swivel to get tangled around each other. The 3-way swivel approach seems to work OK when you are trolling with a motor but I find the simpler approach with the bottom bouncer is a lot easier to manage from the canoe.

The rigging for the bottom bouncer was pretty straight forward. I normally use a swivel on the line to start with and the bottom bouncer just hooks on to the swivel. Then I make up about a 5' leader with a swivel on each end. One end of the leader hooks to the swivel and the other hooks to the lure.

Well since I had managed to lose my bottom bouncer so quickly, we now had an unplanned experiment set up to see whether the bottom bouncer was really helping or not. Peter still had his bottom bouncer and I had my backup rig with the bell sinker tied inline. I did manage to snag some weeds, some rocks (almost landed a big one ;-) - rock that is) and didn't quite get skunked. Peter on the other hand only managed to snag his lure on fish. Given the time of year it was a lot of fish. Over the course of about 2 days fishing on trout lakes (2 half days and 1 full day) he pulled in 5 Lake Trout and 2 Splake using the bottom bouncer. My 'backup' technique didn't work out nearly as well and I only managed 1 Lake Trout and 1 Splake.

©Loon Island Outdoors 2003-2011