Preview of Our May Feature on Spring “Dollies”

After painfully slow action for the last few hours of Dolly fishing on Kootenay Lake on the last day of the spring 2013 fishing derby, the downrigger weight and plug were brought up from 60-feet deep to 50. The rod tip looked like it may have hammered twice, but the action was inconclusive. Something was amiss; the fishing line was straight out from the boat. The cable and weight of the downrigger was trailing back closer to the stern of the boat, as they should. From setting the hook after pulling the rod out of the rod holder, there were a few vicious head shakes and the fish started a steady, hard-pulling, run, steadily away from the boat. Slowly working the fish in from about 600-feet back took a good 15 minutes or better. Like most fish when they come close to the boat this fish made another run, peeling line once again, so it was another five minutes to actually net and boat the beautiful  12-pound, four-ounce Kootenay Lake Dolly.

Stay warm

Fishing on Kootenay Lake in March is often times a very chilly endeavour. By the time the above Dolly was in the boat some 20 finger-number minutes had elapsed. It was an extremely rare, dead calm, day with virtually no wind, but it was cold. It’s been said before and is worth saying again: losing a fish is disappointing, but losing it due to cold hands or fingers is monumentally worse…