The destination was French Meadows Reservoir and I had no idea what to expect . I ’ ve had exceptional trout fishing at the lake in early summer and very good action in early fall , but it was August , the height of the warm weather doldrums . Since it was the dog days of summer , I brought my Labrador Lucy along for the adventure . She ’ s like any other girl , she likes to swim and she likes to lay in the sun on the back of the boat . Except in this case we wouldn ’ t be in a boat , we ’ d be in my Hobie Pro Angler 14 kayak . I wanted to arrive at the lake just before sunrise in order to take advantage of the key post dawn window prior to the sun hitting the water . I figured I ’ d allowed plenty of time for the drive to the lake , but I hadn ’ t . In fact , when I pulled up to French Meadow ’ s rear launch ramp it had already been light for an hour . Well when presented with a basket of lemons what do you do ? My answer is to bake a lemon meringue pie , but Lucy and

To work the water column while trolling from his kayak , Cal employs a compact lightweight Scotty Lake Troll downrigger .

Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Snfifer Staff .

I didn ’ t have time for baking , there were trout to be caught ! Running around the truck like a mad man , I rigged the kayak , strapped Lucy into her PFD and quickly shoved off . Over the years , I ’ ve done a lot of bank fishing at French Meadows , but I ’ d only fished it from a boat one time . I was torn between turning right heading out to the middle of the lake to work deep water or hanging a left to work the area where the river channel enters the lake . I ’ d done well while fishing the channel from the bank , so I turned left . While there are some dandy browns in the lake , I didn ’ t expect to catch any . My thought was that I ’ d probably be able to catch a few planter and / or holdover rainbows . With this in mind , I decided that a bright orange Ex-Cel spoon in the small size would be a good lure to get started with . I spooled the naked spoon back about 50 feet , clipped it to the small Scotty downrigger and positioned the lure 15 feet below the surface . I ’ d covered a hundred yards or so when I encountered the edge of the channel . Watching the sonar unit as I peddled along at 2.5 mph I saw the bottom falling away and then suddenly arches started to appear along the edge of the channel down about 30 feet . The arches looked big and my heart sped up ! Turning parallel with the channel I

Ex-Cel Spoons ( left ) and Speedy Shiners are top choices for kayak trout trollers . These spoons work well at brisk and slow speeds alike .

Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Sniffer Staff .

By Cal Kellogg

Fish Sniffer editor Cal Kellogg and his dog Lucy teamed up to land this sleek French Meadows rainbow while trolling from Cal ’ s Hobie Pro Angler Kayak . The trout smacked a copper Speedy Shiner trolled 25 feet deep .

Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Snfifer Staff .

scrambled to drop my spoon down to 30 feet . A beat after reaching that depth the rod began to dance . Snatching the rod from the holder , I kicked on the cameras and started fighting the fish . The trout didn ’ t feel massive , but it put up a determined battled . I was thinking rainbow all the way , so I was surprised when a beautiful brown trout broke the surface next to the Pro Angler . It wasn ’ t the biggest brown I ’ d ever caught , but at 16 inches it was a great way to start the day . Believing that I ’ d found a pattern and a willing group of trout , I wasted no time releasing the brown and getting the gear back into the water . The sonar showed that the fish were still along the channel edge , but the next pass and the pass after that didn ’ t produce . On the third pass , it seemed like I marked fewer fish and on the forth pass there were fewer still . Within 45 minutes with the sun getting brighter , all the marks had disappeared . What to do ? My philosophy when trout trolling is , when in doubt troll fast . That ’ s exactly what I did . I knew I had to be off the water by 11 , so I put a copper Speedy Shiner down at 25 feet and proceeded to troll up lake tracing the river channel . The first hour produced nothing , but around 9:30 I hooked a fish and lost it instantly . A few minutes later an angler fishing from a small skiff landed a rainbow off my port side . Maybe a late morning bite was developing …. Coming back around I hooked up again and this time I got the fish to the boat . It was a dandy holdover or wild rainbow that fought hard and looked like a small steelhead . I ’ d like to say I rounded up some more fish , but that wasn ’ t the case . After a little more trolling , Lucy and I took a swim and headed home . The fishing hadn ’ t been red hot , but we ’ d beat the dog days of August and put a couple high country trout into the ‘ yak . I can ’ t wait for the fall feeding period . I ’ m going to give some big trout , black bass and stripers a tour of the PA 14 !

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