TURQUOISE LAKE
fishing reports
Turquoise Lake is connected to Crown lake via a small channel and is located in the Marble Canyon provincial park. Turquoise is stocked annually with kokanee and rainbow trout.
October 11, 2023
This lake has been on my radar for some time now. It has been stocked annually with kokanee since 2012. It is a little farther than the lakes I usually fish, but today was the day. It was very calm, the sun was shining, the leaves were turning, and the temperature was perfect. When I arrived I found crystal clear water. I could hardly wait to get started!
It isn't the easiest place to launch a boat. I had to navigate down some stairs with my small boat and then take a few trips up and down to load the rest of my gear. As I was setting up I saw some action on the water right out in front of the camping spots. I headed out to this spot and scanned the water and found several marks at 35 feet deep. I put my gear down to 35 feet and began trolling. I continued around the lake to scout the depths. The majority of the lake was deeper than 30 feet and reached 65 feet in spots.
It didn't take too long to get my first bite, but I missed it. Within 45 minutes I caught four 14 inch rainbows at 35 feet in depth: two on a pink wiggle hoochie and two on a pink and glow spinner hoochie. I decided to try a top line to see if I could find some kokanee. I pulled the spinner hoochie from the downrigger clip and returned the rod to the holder. Before I had the downrigger wound up the rod was bouncing and I reeled in my first kokanee in Turquoise Lake! It was a decent sized fish, but a spawner, which I quickly released back into the lake. But I was stoked- I now knew for sure that there were kokanee in the lake! I trolled a little longer with my pink wiggle hoochie down at 35 feet and the spinner hoochie up top. The surface rod was getting hit frequently and I caught two rainbows, and then finally a nice chrome kokanee followed by another. I took the wiggle hoochie out of the downrigger clip and fished it near the top as well.
Things got busy! I had multiple double headers catching both rainbows and kokanee and losing several others. They seemed to like a very slow troll. I was finding 1.1 MPH to be the best speed. I was catching fish all over the lake but the side along the highway in 35 to 40 feet of water was by far the best. While trolling in this spot I began to expect double headers! It was an easy limit of kokanee, and I released 11 rainbows! I was using my new Swing Tail dodgers which are heavier than many dodgers on the market making them a great choice when you are fishing near the surface. At 1.0 to 1.3 MPH and with 75' of line out, these dodgers will go down to about 8 to 10 feet without adding weight.
the Strategy
Rod one: A chrome swing tail dodger with 16 inches of leader to a Chrome's pink wiggle hoochie.
Rod two: A chrome swing tail dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's pink and glow spinner hoochie
THE CATCH
What a day! Filled with double headers and an easy kokanee limit!
kokanee: 6
rainbows: 11
PHOTO GALLERY
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