Are you having fun? If so, then you are doing nothing wrong, because that it what it is all about. Just being on the water and away from the stresses of life.

However, I'll try to answer a couple of your questions as best I can.

"db smelt white in color 6 colors on the led"
This refers to a DB Smelt (locally available lure) and its white in color... being trolled behind the boat on six colors of leadcore line. Leadcore line changes color every 10 yards... so 6 colors is 60 yards of leadcore... add to that the length of leader material, which can range from 25 to 100 feet depending on personal preference.
Leadcore line is designed to fall deeper into the water column to present your lure to deeper fish. You try to adjust your depth to locate the feeding fish. This time of year, you would most likely be searching for the thermocline.

The depth of water you fish depends on the water temperature. You're trying to catch cold water species, so you're looking for colder water. There is a thermocline set up in the lake this time of year. You will want to fish just above, in or below that thermocline. If you go too far above it and into warm water, the cold water fish will not come up to grab your lure. They would expend too much energy in an uncomfortable environment to make it worth their while.
In spring, you would find cold water species even at the shoreline, as the surface temps would be cold enough for them.
If you do not have the gear to show you where the thermocline is, you can ask at the local baitshop, ask on the vhf while fishing or ask here. That will give you a very good depth to start your search. You can then weed out a lot of territory. Say the thermocline is at 35 feet... you now know its not worth fishing in water less than 30' deep. You also know to put your downrigger lines at the neighborhood of 35' or to let out 6 to 7 colors of lead (assuming that the leadcore drops 5' per color at the speed you're going).

Lures work great and are easy to use. Many people use nothing but lures and have great success. Use what Alan (at AJs) shows you and you can't go wrong.
Most lures (db smelt, nh guide, top guns, mooselooks, etc) work well in the 2.0 to 2.5 mph range. Using a gps for speed control will give you a precise measurement of your SOG (Speed Over Ground - or water in this case). If you're going by a paddle wheel on the stern, the speed given won't be as accurate.
If you go slower than 2.0, your chances for catching a larger majority of lakers increases... faster than 2.5 and you will have better success on rainbows but less on salmon and lakers (generally speaking for Lake Winni). Staying between 2.0 and 2.5 seems to allow a good chance of bites from all three species.

My guess as to why you had success with the bursts of speed is this: That speed increase caused your lure to take off - forward and up - from a fish that had been following it. It created an impulse strike. You'll hear a lot of times (from guys with video cameras attached to their downriggers) how a fish followed a lure for a long time until something erratic happened to the lure... whether it sped up, slowed and fell or darted sideways... and then the fish hit. Its an instinctive hit. The fish is thinking that his lunch is getting away.
For this reason, you'll see many people purposely trolling S patterns or speeding up and slowing down their troll. They are trying to cause a hit. Way more effective than trolling in a straight line at a constant speed.

Lastly... your catch this morning was great! Be happy to have caught those fish. I am certain there were other folks out there that didn't catch a single one.

Hope this helped. Best of luck, Craig

First of all, Craig, I am VERY impressed! Great detail. Chris, I'd try your white perch fly with out a dodger? I enjoy fishing alone very much. But, one rarely mentioned disadvantage, is you are only able to try two colors or set ups at a time. Those with 6 or 8 lines out can distinguish what is working a lot faster, and then it often times is not fast enough.
I agree with the others that you seem to be doing a good job.
Richard

Everything Craigs said is good info. If you caught that many fish this morning trolling with just 2 lines out, you did well.

Sounds to me like you're doing fine. I was out there from 5:30 till 8, lost 2 and boated 1 small laker. Have fun and enjoy.
Finaddiction (Dave S.)

Thanks for the detailed response Craig. Very helpful and it makes me realize I am and have been fishing in the correct manner. I think part of my problem in the past is I have been too deep 50-60 ft. in the dead of summer. Also I used to use a larger 21' cruiser boat. It was to big, powerful and fast for trolling.
Thanks again everyone for the responses. I am going to try a few different things tomorrow morning including a silver Dodger with a White Perch Streamer behind. I also picked up a set of flashers to attach to my riggers weights for some added shine.

Great Advice!!! That's what I love about this site. People take the time to answer any questions you may have. I've learned soooo much this year just by asking on this site and reading everyone's advice. My family and I are having a blast this year. Thanks.

Rick

Super post Craig, I was going to reply but you got it all and then some.

Chris, don't rely 100% on spoons as many do, tandem and single flies will do a good job, I've been doing well with darker flies, Perch fly works super on Winni.

Big John

Well I took my wife out this morning and we got skunked. Nothing, not even a hit. Fished for 2+ hours in 25-45 foot range using spoons and a white perch streamer traiing a Dodger flasher. I also had some flashers on one of my riggers main lines. Nothing. Where did they go?

Not sure where you are fishing the lake. Personally I wouldn't waste anytime in 25ft of water at this time of year. 50ft to 70ft would be where I would start. If you are anywhere near Welch Island, the south east corner is a good bet at this time of year.

You need to rely on your fish finder If your not seeing fish. Move till you fine them.If you see a bunch. Go thought the area several times. If you have gps you can follow your trails. Also areas with a lot of bait take several passes thought these areas also.Usually the fish are near by. Baits the key usually the salmon ,laketrout,rainbows hang around where the food is . Which is usually points, humps near deep water.And at times also in the deep water.

50-75ft huh. Ok. I didn't get out early this morning but I'm heading out now. Maybe one of the problems is I don't use a fish finder. I have one but it's annoying to use while trolling. It picks up on the rigger weights so it's hard to distinguish between weights and fish. I will hook it up again though and give it a shot.

skunked again. I used my Eagle fish finder but it didn't seem to help. I was using a Dodger flasher trailed 36" by a White Perch streamer on one setup. The other I had a basic orangypink spoon with spots. I was seeing alot of "fish" in the 20-40ft range. Not much of anything showing up more than 45 feet. I fished in the same area for two hours doing a figure eight type pattern trying to go in and out of what appeared to be schools of fish. I was moving my riggers up and down to get the spoons right at the fish but still no luck. This is more typical of my fishing luck. I have been fishing Meredith Bay by the way. Not the best time of day to fish I know (9-noon). Where are you guys having luck?

2 Quick things. If the fly was 36" behind the dodger that is to far. You want the fly about 10 inches behind the dodger. Also, some guys like to use a heavier line between the dodger and fly (like 15 test) because the stiffness of the line helps move the fly. Spoon sounded good but it sounds like you hung with it for your 3 hours. If I troll a spoon and it does nothing after 20 minutes I change it. They can be very selective to a certain color/speed sometimes. Also, on the rigger adjust the length of setback. Sometimes they hit 10ft back sometimes they hit 100ft back.

I run my streamer fly's on my leadcore setup naked only the fly 5 colors in 50-60 ft of water last weekend this is where we were seeing all the bait with big fish chowing on them.Ran the riggers with spoons at 35 ft and caught plenty on all set-ups speed varied from 1.8-2.6 mph...good luck,polebreaker

Thanks again guys for all the tips. Great site. I will shorten the length behind the Dodger as well as behind my rigger weights. I have always run about 50' back from my weights/releases. I never really adjust my setup at all but I guess I should. I have about 1/2 dozen different spoons so if nothing hits within 30 minutes I guess I will change out. I'm going to try again tonight. Wish me luck.

Some days it's just a boat ride and a tackle wash lol!!! BARRY

To catch salmon. Unless it a cloudy overcast day.You need to be on the water at first light.Rainbows aren"t bothered so much by sun light. Most of the fish will be caught in the first two or three hours.Today with the full sunlight would generally be hard to catch fish passed 9 oclock. Off your riggers if your running dodgers. The best thing to run are flashers called cow bells. They are 3 or 4 large blades on a wire. attached to your downrigger ball .AJ can set you up. If you don't already use them. Then just stack your line 3 feet above the ball. And run your lure 5' to 15' back.We have caught a lot more fish using this set up.

Chris, you said you picked up a set of flashers... once they are in position on your downrigger cable or ball (depending on the style you bought) you need to keep your lure within sight of them to achieve any help from the flashers. If a fish comes up to look at the flashers it may tag along for a while watching/hoping one of those bait fish (which your flashers are mimicking) will drift out of the school. Now, if you have a small spoon or fly trailing your flashers, where a fish can see it, the fish will think the single lure is a lone smelt and hopefully bite it.
When your lure is 50 feet back, the fish cannot see it when looking at the flashers and thus will never bite it. You may as well be fishing without flashers at that point.

Your problem of seeing the rigger balls on your fishfinder...
The deeper you fish, the more your balls will drift behind the boat and the less you will see them.
Also, if your fishfinder has two frequency settings (50 or 200) try switching to the opposite of what you are using. The difference in cone size will also help reduce the sight of rigger balls. It will also limit the area you're seeing fish, but at least you'll see fish and not just riggers.

You can catch fish mid day... just be prepared to fish a little deeper for them. They are following the bait, which usually goes deeper as the sun goes higher.

Keep fishing the areas you know. Just remember where the fish come from and keep circling those spots. From the sounds of it, you did all right the other morning. The fish won't be too far away.

Best of luck to you.

I've been spending my time fishing stripers at night... so haven't even been on the lake in a while. But, the info I'm giving you is proven intel from previous years and I'm sure it still works.

Not much luck this morning. 2 1/2 hours and only a small Salmon down at 95'. I had the vertical flashers with my lure about 5-10' back. Then another line about 5' up the rigger. Same setup on my other rigger except no flashers. We ran for an hour from 5:30-6:30 at 30-45 feet with no luck. We saw some fish down real deep and did 30 minutes of 85-95' when we caught that one Salmon. After no more luck there we came back up to about 25-40' where we were seeing the most "fish" on my finder. Nothing at all for the next hour. My finder is a cheaper Eagle about 15 years old. It appears to work I guess the fish just don't like what I'm offering. Alot of boats by the Weirs this morning. Hopefully they had better luck than us. You have all gave me a great deal of help and info and it's much appreciated. All I want is to get my wife a decent fish. Or at least have a little fun. She's been bored out of her mind the last few days.

If you only have 1/2 dozen lures, you should talk to John. He must have at least a thousand too many.

Louis

So frustrating watching/hearing of others catching 10+ in a morning when my wife and I are lucky to catch one. I only have one day left as I am heading back to Colorado but I don't know what to do differently. I am at a good depth 25-45', good speed 1-2mph, good spoons (according to AJ's) and a white perch streamer, flashers at my rigger weights, 5-10' of line after the weight. What am I missing or doing wrong? Live smelt? Maybe next year I'll do a charter, learn something and figure out what I am doing wrong. 20 years of fishing for Bows, Trout and Salmon with very little luck is really starting to get to me.

Don't give up sounds like your doing everything right. Just need a little luck.And a charter would help a lot. They know all the tricks. This hot weather makes for tuff fishing.

Sounds like you're putting waaay too much pressure on yourself.

In your last post you said you were "at a good speed of 1 to 2"... I'm not sure who told you to stay between 1 and 2... but its not helping you. I am dead serious when I say you are going to catch a bigger quantity of fish if you go between 2 and 2.5 mph. A wider variety of fish are going to bite a lure at that speed AND you're going to cover a bit more water which means presenting your lure to more fish. The speed was the main concern to me, when I posted a reply right after you first asked what to do to catch more fish.
Some people will fish slower than 2 for salmon... but generally they are targetting big fish. YOU want quantity and to get a bigger quantity you're gonna have to go the speed that the majority of fish will hit. That means covering a speed range that all three species of cold water fish will be interested in.

I may have missed it, but I don't remember you saying that you are trolling leadcore. A lot of people are catching their majority of early morning fish on leadcore right now. It imparts a completely different action to a lure, especially a fly. I never run a bare fly on a downrigger, as it has no action, it just travels straight. Your best fly action comes with the erratic movement of leadcore. It causes the fly to pulsate in the water and trigger strikes.

You've got one day left... my advice would be to start as early as possible, use white, orange or glow spoons the first hour of the day and then start swapping stuff out every 15 to 20 minutes until you find what works. Speaking of which... I don't know how you were able to only buy 6 lures. I can't walk by a bait shop without six lures jumping into my hand (each time).

You know... you never did say what you're using for leaded or attachments. The lighter the leader, the less the fish will see it. I use at least 15' of 4 or 6lb seaguar fluoro carbon leader between my main (mono) line and the lure. I put a very small swivel at the main line/fluoro intersection and a very very small snap to the lure. If you can't find an ultra small snap, just tie direct to the lure. The fish in Winni really are line shy. The lighter the better.

Other than that I don't know what to tell ya.

Good luck.

slipknot makes a good point on line size. While changing up my lures and dialing up a good speed have make a big difference for me, the biggest single factor increasing my success was putting on a high quaility leader of 6# Seagar "leader material". #8 leader does no where near as well and 6# anything else doesn't work as well for me.

Question for you early morning guys, do you start right off at first light with 6 colors and 32-25 feet of depth or do you start more shallow then go deep after the sun pops up? I know fish are rising at first light but don't know if they are taking up near the surface.

Thanks again for the great tips and taking the time to help a guy. I don't know the exact speed as I am in a tiny boat and my finder does not do speed. I am not using leadcore. I have been using a Dodger with my White Perch fly thinking that would give some action. I have a swivel at the rod side of the Dodger and then a 12lb leader tied to the streamer end as well as the streamer. I am running 6lb line with #12 snap swivels at the spoon. I have never run leader before except when I'm fly fishing. I didn't know I was suposed to. Would it be better to tie direct to my spoons and have the swivel 5-6' up the line?

Thanks everyone for the excellent advice and help. I didn't have time to go out this morning as I had to pack all my gear away and leave for home. My family that lives here doesn't fish so it all goes away when I leave. Anyway I will be back to try again next summer. Thanks again and I'll post again next year and let you know how I did, and more questions I'm sure.
Thanks,
Chris