Summer Trout

[buck toenges]

just going to add my 2 cents worth on trout fishing at Oliver this summer.  The state put in 10,000 rainbows in March and 2,000 browns in in May.  The rainbows were about 11" and the browns were 8" in length.  The rainbows have grown some.  As of Sunday evening I was catching fish downrigging between 20 and 25 feet down.  Most of the action was in 50-60 fow.  Even with a cold front action was pretty good.  I have caught usually 1-2 holdovers each trip But the hold overs I have caught were only 15" long.  I have had a few 17" sized fish throw the spoon while jumping though.  I usually start in the morning by tight lining over 30-40 fow 20-30' down using shiners and night crawlers.  I usually use shiners since I catch them for free at Oliver. Action is usually good. I will usually down rig in the late afternoon.  My last hit Sunday downrigging was at 9pm. 
 
 I don't believe there is any smelt left in the chain.  According to a friend of mine almost every lake trout he caught at Oliver were stuffed with smelt.  he said he never saw a cisco in a lake trout.  There are thoughts that the smelt may have hurt the cisco since they will prey on cisco fry.  I believe it was a combination of water conditions and predation that caused the demise of smelt and cisco in the chain. 
  Not only did the dnr put in 20,000 lake trout fry into Oliver in 1979 but they also tried putting in Chinook salmon in once. They did this undoubtedly because of the smelt.  I don't recall the numbers of chinooks put in but they only caught 2 chinook out of the chain with one 5" chinook found in the belly of a 25" brown.
Which brings me to my main point:  I think to catch a good brown is going to take more then just your average shiner.  Most big browns I have caught in the chain came from breaks close to the bottom.  I have caught a few 20+" browns trolling deep water but most came from breaks.  I can also tell you I haven't had a big 18"+ brown in at least 4 years.

Buck

[taxid]

Thanks for the imput Buck!

Have you caught any of the stocker brown trout? If so what size are they although you haven't caught any big ones in a while?

It seems for the number planted they don't seem to show up from the anglers I ask. Do you think it's possible some of those guys mistake them for rainbows when they are in their silvery summer phase?

The INDNR identification guide says a brown has NO spots on the tail. I think we all know they usually have at least some on the top of the caudal fin. Some browns I raised a few years ago had a fully spotted caudal find like a rainbow.  Perhaps that means anything with spots on the tail is considered a rainbow by some?

[staubsaugen]

i certainly think some of the browns must get mistaken for rainbows even before summer phase just because people haven't seen enough browns or done their research to know the difference.
i will also add that the many of the new stockers i was catching just after stocking were smaller than 11", more like 8"-9". The current holdovers i have caught run 15-16", but late fall early spring i did land 3 that were over 17". (this all refers to rainbows, not browns)

[taxid]

Been told by a biologist they grow 1/2 inch per month in the Oliver Lake Chain. Definitely not the 1.5 inches per month my trout do that get all they want to eat. I'll bet they'd grow faster in Oliver with a coldwater forage fish. In fact I know they would as I've seen surveys in other states that say a coldwater forage base will produce faster growing trout. Zooplankton and invertebrates only gets them so far so fast for trophy potential. The few large browns I'm mounted for customers in the 21 to 22 inch size range out of the Oliver Lake Chain were build like stream fish. Should have been stouter.

I had a Michigan biologist tell me that lake trout in Michigan lakes with only zooplankton never get over 4 or 5 pounds. That's small for lake trout.

[taxid]

Talked to another taxidermist in the Goshen area that hits Oliver at night a couple of times in the summer. Said he always gets one or two browns but they are close to the bottom while the bows are up higher suspended. That's been my experience too.

I need to get over there and do some back trolling during the day following the 23 to 28 foot contour line outside the weed line. May be some large untapped browns.

[staubsaugen]

Parking really depends on when you go... most weekdays haven't been too bad, but weekends definitely fill up.

[taxid]

we did a fair amount of trolling there last summer.  no problem getting fish but most were small.  trolled small cranks, like crawdads or tiny traps, with weight in front a few feet.  kinda like pushing for panfish but more weight and more speed.  didnt seem to matter where we were, we got hits.  picked up several over the very deep water in the middle of nowhere.  seems they just roam around at the 20ish foot zone. bright colors like orange or fire tiger do the trick.  

what is hard to do is release them unhurt.  they go ballistic most times in the net. the runts are best unhooked in the water beside the boat.

how is the parking been there lately?  it got pretty packed there last year.

Try sewing on a shiner about 18 inches behind a chrome dodger for the larger fish. I've seen out east (Massachusetts)  where the larger more wary fish shun artificials after being released a few times. Had a rainbow get off on Olin one year that was easily 5 pounds. The dodger shows up really good from quite a distance down there.

Another ol' standby for bottom hugging trout is a cowbell and sewn on minnow with a dipsey sinker tied on about a foot  or two of mono under the rudder of the cowbell. Drop it back until you feel the sinker tap bottom and them crank up a couple of turns. I also caught lake trout on this rig when their were lake trout in the lake. Lake trout were crammed with smelt btw. You want to troll slow enough you feel the blades ticking. Unfortunately you need a stouter rod for this and longer is good too. I used to mark the line every 60 feet for reference too by tying on different colored yard.

Believe it or not I talked to a guy that was picking up browns up to 8 pounds back in the early 80's by fishing on the bottom with small bluegills.

[taxid]

i dont have any dodgers.  i should still have some cowbells though.  maybe some split creekchub flowing behind them?   i have some bottom bouncers too, i coould dig out.  i used to troll a lot more in my youth.  anymore i like the thump or the set on a float going down.  it is a very productive way to fish them though.

give these browns a few years to grow.  mite have to run trot lines with chubs off the island. lol  really though, i hope the browns do grow big.  those lil 16"ers only fun for a while.

Isn't this the third year in a row they've planted them?

[taxid]

i dont fallow that like i should.  if so then maybe 3 more years.

Used to be it only took 3 years to produce a 4 to 5 pound trout in Oliver. Now without the smelt and the huge numbers of trout they plant, due to less being planted elsewhere, I'm not so sure. Seems to me we are back to put and take management vs. put and grow.

OTOH perhaps there is enough pressure to keep the numbers down enough for good growth.

I almost went to Oliver Sunday. Unfortunately had some things that needed to be done on the ponds. I have two Great Blue Herons that are driving me crazy. Had to put up some staked lines on the biggest pond. Fortunately my trout pond is staked well and they can't get in.

Edit: I have one pesky young GBH that is now targeting the trout pond. He or she has figured out how to fish just over the staked line in one place that became shallow due to Chara. I raked out the Chara this morning and there ar now three rows of staked lines to get past. I feel like Wile Coyote and the Roadrunner! 

I'm not crazy about losing fish but I actually respect the intelligence and perseverance if these birds. I used to whack a couple a year with a federal permit, but refuse to do that anymore. They were here first and are only doing what comes natural. They have to eat too. If you kill one it's only a matter of time before a new one takes it's place. And we do have something in common: We both hate all the loud bositerous human activity on the local lakes.

[taxid]

Just talked to a customer that brought in a large musky to mount. He caught a 6 pound brown BELOW the dam on the outlet pond on Oliver Lake this spring. Said he saw it splashing around and cast to it and caught it. He released it back into the same place.

Dallas Lake used to get stocked with trout that receives water from Oliver. One of the chinooks that was planted in Oliver was caught on Dallas way back in the 70's. So it's possible the fish could have come up or gone down to Dallas and made it through the summer. Or the fish was an Oliver Lake resident that just happened to go over the dam board recently. If so I wonder how many go downstream and end up expiring in less than optimum conditions in the summer or late summer?