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Thread: Merwin 2014 Post it here!

  1. #51

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    I putzed in there, saw no fuel dock.

    Chelatchie Praire General Store
    42411 NE Yale Bridge Rd
    Amboy, WA 98601

    Its south of Cresap on 503.
    "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

  2. #52

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    How is the bite folks?
    "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

  3. #53
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Vancouver, WA
    Posts
    576

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    Got up to Merwin this morning. It was s-l-o-w fishing but a nice boat ride.
    Take a kid fishing make some reel memories!

  4. #54

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    Quote Originally Posted by MackPrince View Post
    Got up to Merwin this morning. It was s-l-o-w fishing but a nice boat ride.
    Slow huh, whereabouts were you?
    "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

  5. #55
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Vancouver, WA
    Posts
    576

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    We were down by the dam. With the water levels being adjusted the fish were pretty scattered on the sonar.

    Looking forward to getting out again soon though.
    Take a kid fishing make some reel memories!

  6. #56

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    Some day I will have everything figured out. Arrived to Cresap gate at 0430 hrs on Saturday anticipating it to be opened at 0500 hrs. Gate guy drove up and informed me Cresap doesn't open till 0630 so camper's can sleep. So had the joy trying to back up and haul butt to Speelyai.

    After forgetting all my pre-tied lures at home (brainfarted) I managed to assemble some hoochies from my stash of lure making goodies on boat. Did very well on white glow Yama$hita micro hoochies with Moonglow Arrow Flash dodger and Pink UV Yama$hita micro hoochies with Gold Arrow Flash dodger. Bumblebee Tuna Korn and Smelly Jelly Kokanee feast were the flavors of the day. Caught a few $qawfish, which met a watery demise. Worked two poles and riggers and the boat by myself today, so more work than pleasure...lol. Caught Kokes roughly 50'. Caught quite a few footballs and lost three hawgs trying to muscle them over the stern instead of using the net. Where a deck hand would have been fantastic! Ended up with 6 footballs and 3 snack fillets by 0900 hrs.

    Then it got slow for me. Threw out a baby Simon cause I had it. Ran to other pole, fought and lost a Koke then other rod went bam! and that poor Okuma Tormenta started screamin. I thought I snagged a stump. Nope, fish on! This bad boy jumped out of the water like a salmon. Fighting it with ultra light gear was so awesome. Fish went around my boat, had to raise rod over hard top. Fish managed to wrap itself around the other downrigger cable and I managed to get my rod in the water and undo the line. Managed to one hand net the monster. I think a lot of bystander boats got a funny show out of it lol. 4.5# Rainbow...wow is what I thought. It inhaled that Simon! Turns out a lot of boats landed these bad boys. Oh well, I normally don't keep bonus trout, but this ones going on the grill!

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    So couldn't rember regs for Merwin except the 10 Koke limit, & my phone doesn't get doodoo for reception out there so hollered at another boat, showed Gigantor to them and then asked about the limits. All good, fished for last Koke which took its time inhaling pink UV hoochie. Then the joy of loading up at Speelyai. Drove home to Lacey to get my stuff and then back to Woodland to my Motel. Will be back tomorrow. See you folks on the water!

    Attachment 7545
    "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

  7. #57

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    Sunday fun, but expensive day on the lake for me. Managed to be first out of Speelyai at 0500 hrs. Chatted with a feller and two boys as they came in soon after. They were launched and ready to go before I could out as I was a one man show again.

    Raced mach o' Jesus to the dam, and threw out white glow Yama$hita hoochie with Arrow Flash Moonglow Dodger and a experimented with a UV pink Yama$hita hoochie with a Rooster Tail 1/4 oz silver blade in front of it. Gold Arrow Flash dodger in front of that. Went with Bumblebee Tuna Korn for the morning bite. Caught three footballs right off the bat. Watched the boat I launched next too get a hold of one of those monster trout. Unfortunately they lost it at the boat. Pretty sure they hooked into 3 or 4 of those beasties, but not sure if one was landed.

    To the life of me, I hooked a fish and my reel bird nested something fierce and I still don't know how it happened. Pulled line in to salvage MoonGlow Flasher and a friggin $quawfish was at the end of it.

    Attachment 7546

    Pulled it in and the other rod went off, another football. Got my working rod back going and I started cutting line on the disabled rod. Luckily I had a spool of Maxima 8# stashed on the boat. Trying to spool a reel while fish biting and trying to steer was a joy. Caught 9 Kokes by 1000 hrs. majority with my Rooster Tail butchered Hoochie. Herzog may have been right about those 1/4 oz size silver blades.

    Attachment 7547 Attachment 7548

    Caught another monster trout, luckily both riggers were up this time and she didn't go around the boat, up the river to Grandmother's house. Fighting a 3.5# trout on UL gear is so awesome....netting one, one handed, not so much....lol.

    Saw quite a few people hooking these monster trout, and losing them. A lot of them at the boat. So I felt pretty good I one handed netted that beast...lol My net isn't a one hander...lol I was horsing all my Kokes over the stern.

    #10 wasn't biting anytime soon and the wind picked up and made for sloppy trolling. Around 1400 hrs I snagged what I think was either a giant rock or an upright tree with my downrigger ball, tried everything to unstuck it. Contemplated diving in 57 feet to unstuck it, but thought better of it since I was by myself. Had to cut cable. Need to get those pipe style weights I hear. Anyone know who readily stocks those? Without $45 s&h lol

    So down to one downrigger and water still sloppy, talk about dedication for 1 more Kokanee. Decided to start trolling towards Speelyai and around 1530 the wind settled down a bit and bam, another football. Packed up, hauled butt to Speelyai, then wind picked up there making docking and loading a treat. Backed Ginger in and let wind parallel me to the dock. Looked like I've done this before...lol. Got big red, then loaded Ginger up. 10 Kokanee and 1 monster trout. Repeated Saturday.

    Attachment 7549

    Going down 503 by the yard with the two scarecrows in lawn chairs is a gnarly dip in the road. The force from hitting it cracked the windshield on my boat. So if you see two scarecrows in lawn chairs to your right headed towards Woodland, SLOW DOWN!!

    BigEars nice to chat with you as well Saturday. Recognized MudinChev's boat. I like that logo. I was gonna try to troll your way and chat, but you disappeared on me...lol I apologize if I didn't recognize anyone elses rig. I am the Ginger in the red boat named Ginger...lol

    Great weekend haul!
    "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

  8. #58
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Posts
    8

    Default August 2014 at Merwin

    Fished Merwin 9 times between 8/5 and 8/15 with great success. All fish caught between 55 and 65 feet on downriggers. Used sling blade style dodgers with short (12") leaders to a mini-squid (anything in the pink range seemed to work best. Trolling speed between 1.25 and 1.50 mph. White corn, marinated in Smelly Jelly crawfish anise Sticky liquid and dipped in Smelly Jelly Crawfish Anise Glow paste. Averaged more than 15 fish per day with nothing smaller than 13 inches (most 14 to 16 inches and an occasional 17 inch fish). Had several "doubles" which is always a "Chinese fire drill" (see photo) Scales are already beginning to imbed and a few were changing color. We only averaged about 4 hour on the lake, beginning between 8 or 9 and finishing up by noon or 1pm, in an effort to avoid the "crazies". Merwin continues to be a "hot" kokanee lake and is far and away our favorite. http://www.kokaneefishingforum.com/f...bup_smilie.gif
    Last edited by redosprey; 08-22-2014 at 05:47 PM.

  9. #59

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    Awesome! Would to see a pic of a 17" Merwin koke. Have never seen one.

  10. #60
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Posts
    8

    Default Merwin Kokes

    BonkinKokes ........... Click image for larger version. 

Name:	DSCN0395.jpg 
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ID:	7635I've never taken a photo of a fish beside a tape measure, but as I recall the fish on the left in this photo is 17". Seems like most Merwin Kokes grow bigger around than longer, but occasionally we catch one in that 17 inch range. I've heard stories of 20" plus Kokes in Merwin, but we've never come close to that! Someday, I hope!

  11. #61
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Redmond,Wa
    Posts
    59

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    Our last overnight boat camping trip of the year, and JoAnn wanted to go back to Lake Merwin. I can’t blame her. It’s pretty lake and as summer ends and school starts back up the crowds thin out a bit. Not to mention, we’ve found the fishing to be quite good for kokanee and bonus, there is actually quite a bit less angler pressure as guys go off in search of salmon and summer run steelhead. Meaning on a weekday you can find yourself sharing the lake with a half dozen boats.

    We fished Sunday and Monday. Sunday was a “boat ride” as we started across from the Speelyai launch and I trolled us all the way up the marina. The weather was perfect for us. A bit overcast, a light breeze (that picked up around noon which is normal on Merwin) and temps in the upper seventies.

    We fished four rods, standard kokanee gear. I brought both mealworms and scented small chunks of prawn to see what the fish would want. Of course we had shoepeg corn. Based on what I was seeing on the fishfinder I decided to run rods deep from the start (6am), ranging 55, 50, 45, 35 feet deep. We had an “OK” morning, hitting 9 fish and catching 7, plus several missed bites. A black hoochie with spinner and mealworm did the most damage, with pink hoochie and a red wedding ring also being productive. With the wind coming up we ducked into our lunch cove and tied up for a siesta. After lunch we fished from 3-6pm and managed to go 3/5 as we used a sea anchor to control our trolling speed. One thing of note – the farther we got from Speelyai the smaller and brighter the fish got. I was surprised to be catching fish in the 10-12” range all day, and the biggest was a 13” colored fish that came first thing in the morning. I was disappointed. “It is what it is” I thought.

    Monday I had to decide. Should we run down to the dam and catch bright shiny little fish, or should we stay around the launch bay and see if we could find bigger fish? We decided on no long boat rides. I had never worked certain spots in the upper end of the lake so thought it would be a good experiment. Glad I did!

    Gear , same as Sunday, but in short order the shrimp was put away. It was pretty obvious they wanted mealworms so that’s what we went with. The bite started immediately, and unfortunately the first two fish came off at the net. Deep was again the word – 45 to 69 feet and the fishfinder was never without fish on the screen. We had steady, constant action all morning, hitting fish every 20-30 minutes until a slight lull around 11am, perfect timing to allow an on the water snack of cheese and crackers. Then all he** broke lose.

    You know how sometimes the fishing is so good you know that within minutes of setting your gear you’re going to get bit? Well, for the next hour that was our experience. As soon as I would bonk, bait and send gear back down, we’d have another fish. It was like “fishing in a barrel”. Unreal, we caught 7 fish and lost a few besides, and only stopped because we ran out of bait. Truly, one of the better bites for kokanee we have ever had. Also, the fish on Monday were all back to the size we were looking for, 13-15”. Some were turning, but most were still pretty bright.

    What more could you ask for? Sunny, calm waters, a beautiful lake, minimal recreational boaters, and cooperative fish – a perfect morning of fishing!

    I know, everyone is after those Buoy 10 chinook. But hey, if you’re looking for some late season kokanee action, head on down to Merwin and fill your cooler. We ended up bringing 24 fish home for the two days. It’s a ten fish limit and the fishing is great so don't put away that kokanee gear just yet!
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    Angling the Northwest one fish at a time.

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