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David C. Kimble
Use Bucktails for Huge Trout
The author with a nice Okanagan Lake rainbow caught on a bucktail.
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David C. Kimble
Use Bucktails for Huge Trout
Jim Sutherland’s 12.3 kilogram (27-pound) rainbow fell for a bucktail trolled on Okanagan Lake
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David C. Kimble
Use Bucktails for Huge Trout
This beautiful rainbow took a fast-trolled bucktail in the rain ‘and’ it was quickly released.
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David C. Kimble
Use Bucktails for Huge Trout
A yellow and white bucktail often produces best on bright, sunny days.
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David C. Kimble
Use Bucktails for Huge Trout
This purple and black bucktail is great on dark winter days.
Story & photos by David C. Kimble
Bucktails are fishing flies tied specifically to imitate baitfish and, in the larger lakes of beautiful British Columbia, that means imitating kokanee. Kokanee are the main food source for trout from two kilograms (four-pounds) on up to the giant 12.3 kilogram (27-pound) beast that Jim Sutherland caught on a bucktail fly from Okanagan Lake. Wherever there are kokanee, anglers can bet there are some giant rainbow trout waiting to prey upon them. Bucktails are very simple lures that are really not-so-simple to use. The following tips are designed to make good anglers better anglers.
The colours in the bucktails that anglers should use will vary from lake to lake and from season to season. My best advice is to fish several times with well-known guides that you know regularly use bucktails and, while you fish with them, ask lots of questions, especially about what colours work best in certain conditions. The general rule is: the lighter and brighter your day – the lighter and brighter the colours of your bucktail should be: the darker and more miserable your day, the darker the colours of your bucktails. Examples: bright sunny spring day – use light green, light pink or yellow combined with white sides and finished with bright silver Mylar (tinsel): Dark, snow-filled winter day – use black back, purple sides and gold Mylar. Some bucktails work best at specific times of the year such as the ‘Root Bear.’ It has a brown back, orange sides and a white belly and is often called ‘the October’ fly.‘ The ‘November’ fly features a black top, dark red sides and a white belly. This is information best learned from a professional guide on the specific lakes you wish to target.
The larger rainbow trout are very sensitive to boat noise. Thus anglers must get their bucktails 50 to 100 metres behind the boat. In order to avoid tangled lines, boats with more than two lines often use side-planers which run up to 30-metres out on both sides of their boat onto which they attach as many as four fishing lines with release clips on each side. During the spring snow melt, the surface of large lakes often have too many weeds and branches to make bucktailing effective. When that happens, after letting the bucktail out the distance you prefer, clip the line to a downrigger cable and drop it one to three-metres. The junk will collect on the downrigger cable leaving your bucktail clean and bitable.
Check your bucktails often and make sure that they are properly tuned. This means that, while in the water alongside your boat which is moving at trolling speed, the bucktail is swimming without rolling or leaning over on one side. A weed sliding down the line or a bite from a smaller trout will ruin its natural action through the water. An old toothbrush can make straightening the bucktail hairs much easier and faster.
The normal trolling speed for bucktailing should be four kilometres per hour (3 MPH). If the water temperature is above 15-derees C (60-degrees F) troll up to one KPH faster. If the water temperature drops below 5-derees C. (40-degrees F) troll up to one KPH slower.
When you’re trolling at these higher speeds and a huge rainbow trout smashes your bucktail while it’s going in the other direction, it sounds like a small explosion in your boat. Your drag needs to be loose enough to let the fish peel another 100 metres of line (or more) from your reel. At the same time, the drag needs to be tight enough to set the hook long before you can get the rod out of the rod-holder and, keep the line from ever going slack.
I enjoy bucktailing because I can control my boat better at the higher speeds and, I can cover much more of a given lake at those speeds. But – what I really love most about fishing with bucktails is that I often catch more and bigger fish when I’m using them.
Troll bucktails, and carry a very large net.