MONTE LAKE
fishing reports
Monte Lake is a popular fishing lake year-round, with kokanee in the 1lb range . Learn more about Monte Lake here.
Fishing report from readers
June 29, 2023
Jarrett had a successful day at Monte with his dad. Thanks for sharing your tips, Jarrett! Jarrett writes,
"Knowing it was supposed to be a beautiful day today I was finally able to talk my dad into journeying to Monte from Ashcroft. We arrived at the highway launch just before 9:00 a.m. and were fishing by 9:30.
Heading straight across the lake we were rewarded with fish showing on the finder right from the start at 10 feet all the way down to 40 in 90 feet of water. I dropped down to 30 feet with a 10 foot setback while my dad sat at 10 feet down with 70 feet or so of line out (weight plus speed and amount of line out). By 9:45 I had my first fish in the boat after numerous nibbles. Over the next 45 minutes the fishing was hot as I landed 3 more and my dad lost 1. It started to slow down on the bite after that but not on the screen as multiple schools were all over the water column. I was still able to land 1 more after losing 1 for the limit while my dad lost another but landed 2 including the hog for the day a 1 and 3/4 pounds.
All the landed fish fought with a fury and the acrobats displayed by them was awesome, including a 4 foot leap right into the boat, no net needed. By noon we were off the water with 7 landed and the memories of yet another great fishing day between father and son. 25 or so degrees out, with a little cloud cover that kept the sun away and made an almost perfect fishing day. 58 Fahrenheit water temp.
I stayed the course for the whole time at 30 feet down with a 10 foot setback while my dad varied between 10 to 20 feet down. Trolling 1.1 to 1.3 mph criss-crossing the lake from one side to the other by the highway launch."
the Strategy
Rod one: First, red with silver bendable 4 inch dodger, 14 inches of leader to a green and orange smile hoochie.
Rod two: red and white bendable 4 inch dodger, 14 inches of leader to a home tied orange hoochie.
The bait: Homemade fire cure and garlic shoepeg corn
THE CATCH
I caught 5 and lost 1, while my dad caught 2 and lost 2. All fish between 1.22 pounds and 1.75
kokanee: 7
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
Thrilled to hear about your great day, Jarrett! Thank you for the great report. Hope you enjoy your free fishing lures.
June 21, 2023
I knew time would be limited before the rain came today, but I wanted to take advantage of my day off.
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Recent reports out of Monte have been good. The fish are of good size and are extremely scrappy! My last outing to Monte provided some of the heathiest looking kokanee that I have caught this season.
I was on my way to the lake when I realized that I had forgotten my scented shoepeg corn at home and I had gone too far to turn around. I did have some Berkley's synthetic pink maggots which also work, but not as good as scented shoepeg.
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I arrived at 9:20 a.m. and was fishing by 9:45. I started at the north end launch just off the highway and headed south towards the middle of the lake. I was marking fish at 20 and 25 feet but all attempts at that depth were unsuccessful.
I noticed several fish rising so I pulled my gear up to 7 feet and the success started to come. I caught one scrappy kokanee on the wiggle hoochie in the middle of the lake. Moments after landing that fish my other rod that was equipped with a pink spinner hoochie was bouncing, but it got away. The action was coming in waves, likely every time I got near schools that were on the surface. By noon I had caught three kokanee and lost 4 others.
I used 70 foot setbacks and trolled at 1.2 to 1.3 MPH. Both the spinner hoochie and the wiggle hoochie seemed equally productive. I stayed in front of the middle pull out and went back and forth from the west to the east. I am quite certain I could have caught my limit today, but the lightning strikes that came in at noon prompted me to quickly get off the water.
the Strategy
Rod one: First, a Chrome's pink and chrome bendable dodger with 18 inches of leader to a pink Chrome's wiggle hoochie
Rod two: a Chrome's pink and chrome bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's pink spinner hoochie
The bait: synthetic maggots
THE CATCH
I caught 3 and lost 4. Not bad for a couple of hours!
kokanee: 3
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
June 5, 2023
Yesterday there was a fishing derby on Monte Lake and I saw several posts of nice kokanee being caught. It looked like the participants had a fun day and I was looking to go and have a fun day on the water myself!
The forecast today called for moderate winds. This always makes trolling a little more challenging, but I was hoping that the bow mount would mitigate some of the problems while trolling in the wind.
The forecast was right: for much of the morning the wind was gusting around 15 to 20km. The bow mount did well, although while trolling directly into the wind I was sometimes down to 0.9 mph. This speed would be ok for the smile spinner I was using but it is a little slow to get the proper action on a wiggle hoochie, which I had on my other line. The fix was easy. I trolled diagonally or downwind often and when I did troll against the wind I put my 9.9 kicker down and put it in gear at idle speed to supplement the trolling motor.
My trolling rods were still set up with the same gear that I had used at Paul Lake and it worked well there so I used the same gear today. I began the day fishing the north end and was marking most fish around 15 to 20 feet in depth. I did laps on the north end trolling at around 15 feet deep for the first hour and a half. I caught one kokanee and lost three others. Fishing was ok, but I figured there must be a better spot- and there was!
I trolled down the west side of the lake and turned toward the middle across from the middle highway pull out. This is when things picked up. When I reached the middle I had a bite on one rod and then I got into a fish on my other rod. I landed one fish on the Chrome's smile spinner and as I was getting the fish in the cooler the other rod went off and I landed another nice kokanee.
I marked several fish straight out from the middle pullout all the way to just past the middle of the lake. It was a very productive area to fish. The fish were 10 to 20 feet deep so I kept my gear at 15 feet deep and used 75 foot setbacks. I followed up my 3rd kokanee with a series of losses. I did eventually get my last two. While reeling in what would be my limit fish my second rod went off. Fortunately the first of the two kokanee flipped off about 30 feet from the boat so I didn't have to handle any to release one. This has happened to me so many times I am considering running only one rod once I already have four kokanee in the boat.
It was tough to keep them on today. I lost far more than I caught, and others I talked to were having the same experience. It is hard to know why, but I wonder if sometimes they are swiping at the lure but not fully committed to biting it, resulting in a very shallow hook set.
I also tried a little bit of jigging earlier in the day but it was unsuccessful. The kokanee I caught today were very thick healthy looking fish. All of the kokanee I caught were over 1lb, with the biggest weighing in at 1lb 5.9 ounces.
the Strategy
Rod one: First, a Chrome's pink and chrome bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a pink Chrome's wiggle hoochie
Rod two: a Chrome's pink and green bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's pink and orange smile spinner
The bait: scented shoepeg corn.
THE CATCH
Fishing was good today! I lost more than I caught, but sometimes that is the way it goes.
kokanee: 5
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge