Hagg Lake fishing

[305to503fishermen]

I went out to Hagg lake yesterday 04/12/2023.

It started out with a bang, rods out and within minutes i was getting bites. 3 short bites later finally one sticks for me to take the rod out of the holder. Start bringing it in and lose it. It felt like a good one too. Put it back out few min later another one sticks, few seconds later i lose it too. I am like 8 bites in and two loss fish. Trolled around for 30 more min with no bites. So i change out the wedding ring since it has not had a bite yet. 10 min later i get another short strike. I had 3 more fish stick but loss them all within the first few seconds of fighting them. Only one jumped to spit the hook.

Any suggestion on not losing so many fish. I get a ton of short strikes, so if anyone has a remedy for that, that would be great. I run gamakatsu octopus hooks, size if very small. I run a Snell rig with the trailing hook just past the top hooks bottom. I run a dodger and typically a 1/8 to 1/4 oz weight. When i am reeling in i just try to keep constant pressure but not horsing them in.

It was a very frustrating day, have all those bites in a hour and half and have nothing get to the boat.

 

[O. mykiss]

It sounds to me like you’re doing everything right, possibly back off the drags a little bit and stop trolling. Changing hooks is usually the biggest thing. Maybe try the owner mosquito hooks or drop shot hooks. Try watching the “Land more kokanee” video by spilt milt productions on YouTube.

 

[bass]

I have posted on here before but I add a trailer hook to my roostertails when I troll and >95% of the fish I catch are only hooked on the trailer. I tie about 2-3" of 10lb mono to a size #4 or #6 Gamakatsu octopus hook. I thread 1/2 nightcrawler onto the the trailer and up the mono and nose hook it on the treble to hold it in place (mono is inside the nightcrawler and trailer is sticking out the torn end). This works great for me.

 

[Fishnsleep]

One thing you may try is speeding up a little bit, the fish will not have as much time to decide to react or not, can result in more aggressive strikes, which can mean better hookups and more fish in the boat. For example, I am sometimes amazed at how fast coho will strike, I have hooked them at 3.5 to 5 mph when they will not bite.

I have caught trout in streams reeling in a worm on the surface, no idea how they saw it, or actually got ahold of it.

 

[Fishnsleep]

The dog had a blast, I can tell that

 

[305to503fishermen]

It was his first time fishing with me. He enjoyed him self very much.