With the boat put away for the winter, the time has come here in Calgary to switch to shore fishing. Winter has arrived indeed, but we are blessed to get those chinooks that break up the severe cold winters in Alberta. This past week, I headed out on a mild winters day to target those big winter Brown Trout.

Before I headed out for the afternoon, I made sure all my lures were organized, split rings were attached to the lures, and of course, the hooks were all sharp. This is the first tip! I also made sure I had a variety of lures in the tackle box. After organizing my tackle bag, I made sure my reel had plenty of line for long casts. I recently purchased a 7-foot, medium heavy rod, which gives me even more casting distance from shore.

After a short drive to the river, inner city, I stepped onto the banks at 11:30AM and heaved my lure out hastily. Slowly retrieving my 3.5-inch crank, I saw a fish come right to my feet but would not commit to the offering. I fired the lure back into the same zone, slowing the lure down even more, and same result, a huge brown right to my feet but no take. I repeated casting two more times with the same thing happening. I clued in and thought to myself, I need to use a lure that is suspending with lots of pausing in the retrieve. I walked several yards back up the river and changed lures, pulling out the Robertson Tackle Sunrise Samurai. This lure has a hard rattle that suspends in the water column, a 4.5-inch jerk-bait.

This change was critical and turned my day around very quickly. This is the second tip! Try different lures at different speeds to turn your day around. After changing lures and using hard cranks, followed by long pauses, letting the lure drift down the river, I put ten fish in the net from 11:30 till 3:45.

It was a fantastic afternoon fishing the banks once again. I will be back out soon as the weather warms, to put more fish in the net.

~Mike