Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 26 to 50 of 72

Thread: Merwin "2015 "

  1. #26

    Default

    Launched a bit later than hoping.....had to jump start a boat on the ramp at LMCH. Headed over by the rope swing and had 3 on ice before 9:00 after losing a few to a first time kokanee fisher girl. Then my 9 yo son and 8 yo daughter of a neighbor needed to find shore and some trees after too much hot chocolate.

    We found a few more biters after that using silver and blue colored terminal behind a variety of Dodgers. With the bite being slow, I tried some new stuff including a spin-n-glow my 7yo daughter built up (or picked the items out). Speed seemed to be the factor today versus colors.....had to get the right action. Didn't see any schools on the fish finder but they were out there.

    Also did our best to get away from the crowds. First time I've seen two 'guide' boats on the water...especially on a Sunday. I also liked the kayak flotilla between LMCH and Speelyai ramp as we motored out towards the dam.

  2. #27
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Battle Ground, Washington
    Posts
    41

    Default

    went out today with yimmie today got 3 for 3 took my son with with us had an epic time beutiful day to be on the water.

  3. #28

    Default

    Went out yesterday morning for a few hours by myself. Lots of strikes and I finally learned to be patient and make sure a hook connects first. Lost many at the boat while trying to hold rod and get the net in water but overall I met my quota. Found they liked the Arrow dodgers and a Crystal Basin mini hoochie along with a new this year Kokanee Special hoochie from RMT. Colors varied as both rods were getting equal action irregardless of the color differences. Fish were found between 6-18' with the majority around 10' just off LMCH.

  4. #29
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    West of Oly
    Posts
    47

    Default

    Flash if you need some ballast and a netter let me know, I am boatless at this time....... Just sayin.....

    Jim Sr.

  5. #30

    Default

    I usually have my 10 y/o son (and other kids from the teams I coach) but he did the right thing by going to church. I have been limited on time to go so I took advantage of my chance. PM me your contact information and if/when I get an opening I'll get a hold of you.

    I have about 12 kids/dads that I rotate on a list but sometimes none of them are available.

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Kelso, WA
    Posts
    85

    Default

    I was up on Easter Sunday. Only about a dozen of us on the water. Got 10 and lost 7 at the boat trying to long arm net with 1 arm. Nice fat fish this year.
    Last edited by plugs; 04-08-2015 at 04:10 AM. Reason: no pic
    Grab yourself a Koke

  7. #32
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    West of Oly
    Posts
    47

    Default

    Nice going!!!! I may have a boat Saturday!!! Then will search for DR's!!! I'm so excited, can't cha tell???

  8. #33
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Vancouver, WA
    Posts
    576

    Default

    Good work everyone. I'm hoping to get out starting in May.
    Take a kid fishing make some reel memories!

  9. #34
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Vancouver WA
    Posts
    128

    Default

    Fishing was great today and the catching wasn't bad either. My buddy and I put 20 in the boat in about 5 hours. We were 20 for 21, the loss rate went way down this trip and I think it was do to the new way I rigged the weight. Since I don't have down riggers I have always used banana weights, 1 to 3 ounces depending on the conditions. That said I decided to go with a cannon ball slider system this trip and it worked great, catch rate was better than I have ever experienced so I'm going to stay with it. Today we used hoochies pink or orange seemed to work the best, red eye sling blade or the nickel with gold herring bone were the best today, 3 ounces out 50 feet put them in the zone it seemed. Marked most fish around 35 to 50 feet but saw no huge schools, they still seem to be a bit scattered. All our fish were clones 13 inches and fat!

  10. #35

    Default

    Went out on Sunday, on the water by 7:00 am. Water temp by Cresap was about 55 and dropped to 52/53 down by the dam. Brought a boy from our soccer team out for his first time fishing along with his dad. Found a few on the surface right away. Dropped a few lines on the DR's down from 5-15' as the sun started coming up. Had action on the top lines all day on each end of the lake but went a bit deeper with the DR's as we hit late morning and early afternoon. Those Arrow dodgers in nearly any color worked best at a slightly fast pace than last month.

    We stayed out of the main flotilla as my 10 y/o son and I were trying to teach our guests how to get lines reset. After a couple of crossed lines and birdnests (no lost gear!) I pulled in a couple rods. Figured fish were all over so I seeked areas with no crowds so I didn't have to worry so much about the other boats too.

    Finished up by 1:30 or so and bumped into another familiar/knowledgable pair as they were closing in on their limit. Crazy number of boats out there and I bet the folks in their Moombas showing up in the early afternoon must have been wondering where to boat....

  11. #36
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    32

    Default

    I am obviously doing something wrong, I was on the same water same day, same time, did half as well. Still learning the trade..................

  12. #37

    Default

    I'm a relative newbie too having had a boat for less than a year. What I have learned is that the action is one of the most important elements, close behind putting your presentation a bit higher in depth above the fish. Speed is a key to the action as some flashers/dodgers have 'prime' action at certain speeds. If you can put a presentation in the fish zone without getting any hits, try a slighty faste or slower presentation; somewhat correlated to water temp.

    In Jan/Feb, a good speed was 1.2-1.4. The last couple months, speeds have been slightly faster and while getting pushed downwind before I could slow the kicker, we were still getting strikes at 1.7-1.9. I used Poulson Arrow dodgers and the Yakima Fast Limit which I feel can be run through a wider range of speeds. Shasta Sling Blades or the Rocky Mtn equivalents tend to need a slight bend or less of a bend depending on speed to get a good action.

    I seemed to believe the color matching of dodgers/lures or using a color at a certain depth as described in some books/videos. I had the fortune this January to fish with some others who offered a differing opinion. I have had equal success with a wide variety of colors at the same depth across multiple rods as all had similar action. Before letting your line play out, take a look at what its doing next to the boat. Watch some of the under water kokanee strikes on YouTube (Search for SpiltMilk) to see the action on his tackle.

    Sunday I had a blue spin and glow in front of a white hoochie, orange hoochie with silver blade, pink hoochie, charteuse spin and glow behind various colored dodgers. All leaders were 8". As the sun came up, 2 rods were long lined, and 3 on DR's at 5, 10, 15. It helps having licenses allowing me to put out six rods! As the bite moved to the deeper lines with the sun coming up, we watched the speed and depths. When we lost the bite at one depth, I went deeper while watching the electronics. We were still catching some big ones on the surface but that tended to be when we turned and went downwind from the dam (faster...).

    Bait was nothing more than corn in tuna oil, plain corn and no additional scent.

    I'm hoping others will provide their thoughts as I have much to learn. I'm expecting someone may offer something contrary to my experiences and depending upon the lake, it sounds like tactics can vary. I am by no means an expert so remeber this advice is free! 😉

  13. #38
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Vancouver WA
    Posts
    128

    Default

    I have been a kokanee fisherman for the last 20 plus years and I have a comment here that I know will not be well received by the manufactures of bait scents and for that I apologize to you all, I mean no disrespect and my intent here is not to rain on all the research and hard work these folks have put into building their product lines because I know it can't be easy but from my stand point I have found that I just don't catch any more kokanee using these scents in a bottle than I do from simple tuna oil from the grocery store. I can't speak to whether or not it increases to bite for spring or fall chinook but I would be hard pressed to use anything but good ol tuna oil out of the can to help catch kokanee. I would appreciate hearing other comments in this regard.

    I should also mention I am a walleye fisherman and there again a plain ol night crawler works just great without scent. I'm really struggling with this because I know that the scent market has really grown over the years so it must work..... right?? But personally I have not found that to be a fact. Has any one else had these results? Like any fisherman I'm always looking for an advantage to catch more fish perhaps it's the way I apply these scents that is the issue????

  14. #39
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    203

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kokaguy1 View Post
    I have been a kokanee fisherman for the last 20 plus years and I have a comment here that I know will not be well received by the manufactures of bait scents and for that I apologize to you all, I mean no disrespect and my intent here is not to rain on all the research and hard work these folks have put into building their product lines because I know it can't be easy but from my stand point I have found that I just don't catch any more kokanee using these scents in a bottle than I do from simple tuna oil from the grocery store. I can't speak to whether or not it increases to bite for spring or fall chinook but I would be hard pressed to use anything but good ol tuna oil out of the can to help catch kokanee. I would appreciate hearing other comments in this regard.

    I should also mention I am a walleye fisherman and there again a plain ol night crawler works just great without scent. I'm really struggling with this because I know that the scent market has really grown over the years so it must work..... right?? But personally I have not found that to be a fact. Has any one else had these results? Like any fisherman I'm always looking for an advantage to catch more fish perhaps it's the way I apply these scents that is the issue????
    My observation is that when fish are in a good feed they much don't care about scent so long as you do not have 'bad" smells on your hands(i.e.:gas, greasy food oils, etc.), but when fishing is slow or bites are light then it can matter. As far as diff. scents you are prob. right as a lot of the scents have tuna oil in them. They can make a diff. in numbers caught as well. I use scents on hard lures when bites are thin (smelly jelly, mike's scent,) but do not scent nightcrawlers. Bob R

  15. #40
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Spokane, WA
    Posts
    331

    Default

    I have experimented with scented shoepeg corn while night fishing for kokanee on Loon lake. I have found a huge difference using Pro-Cure Korn magic in the pink/purple color over plain unscented corn. Then I furthered the experiment by adding Pro-Cure Annis/krill oil. I have had people parked next to me not doing so well until I tossed them some of my cured shoepeg corn. In this application it works fantastic! PS Maggots were on there too.

    Tuna oil is great, Chicken of the Sea packed in oil seems to be the oiliest. We use it extensively to catch King salmon with Brad's Super Baits.

  16. #41
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Vancouver WA
    Posts
    128

    Default

    I forgot to mention when using plain ol tuna oil right out of the can........................ I can then make my self a sandwich out of the tuna .... so it serves double duty...haha
    Thanks for the feed back, good info!

  17. #42
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Spokane, WA
    Posts
    331

    Default

    Sometimes we take two cans and mix the oil from two into one can of tuna for salmon fishing. That leaves one to make sandwiches for lunch. Great plan for sure!

  18. #43
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Vancouver WA
    Posts
    128

    Default

    better yet downrigger
    al haha

  19. #44
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Kelso, WA
    Posts
    85

    Default

    Spent the day with a good friend up at Merwin. It was tuff right off the bat with fishfinder taking a dump. (Thanks to team Wildchild for telling me how deep the fish were) We scratched out 17 before calling it a day
    Last edited by plugs; 05-10-2015 at 10:28 PM.
    Grab yourself a Koke

  20. #45
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Woodland Wa & LMCH
    Posts
    263

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by plugs View Post
    Spent the day with a good friend up at Merwin. It was tuff right off the bat with fishfinder taking a dump. (Thanks to team Wildchild for telling me how deep the fish were) We scratched out 17 before calling it a day
    Glad you found em!! We were marking fish from 10-50 feet but the only ones that seemed to want to play later in the morning were the ones in the 30' range.

    Kind of funny, Shawn was asking me if I knew who you were and "How do they know my name ??"
    Team Wild Child Follow us on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMeIbuRWhobsmMmpM4xQayQ?feature=watch

  21. #46

    Default

    Scott: Last Friday we were sucessfull at 49 feet deep on the downrigger.
    GET THE NET

  22. #47
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    7

    Default

    I don't get to troll much since i don't have a boat, but I do fish off the bank quite a bit this time of year. This year has been a little better for kokanee than the last 2 or 3 years as I have actually caught a few along with the trout and other species. Then on Friday 5/15/15, I hit the jackpot!! A school of kokanee came in and boy, were they aggressive......in a span of 45 minutes, I landed 2 nice trout, both over 16 inches, and limited on the kokanee. Amazingly, they were the same 12-14 inch fish that I have been catching the few times I got to go trolling this year.
    The funny thing is, I ran out of worms after the 3rd kokanee, so I started just throwing out white corn on my hook under a bobber (6-7 feet depth) and they still bit it literally within seconds of it hitting the water. I realize this was probably a fluke incident, and I was extremely lucky to have been at the right place at the right time, but it was definitely an experience I will never forget.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	5.15.15 Kokanee limit and trout.jpg 
Views:	152 
Size:	531.9 KB 
ID:	8054  
    Last edited by Koka; 05-20-2015 at 11:35 PM.

  23. #48
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Oh, and then on Sunday, I got to go trolling with my buddy, and we were able to pick up both our limits down close to the dam. We don't have downriggers, so we were using 2oz at 50-60 feet back with red wedding ring spinners and plain white corn or pink corn. They were all pretty nice fattys too.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	5.17.15 Kokanee limit.jpg 
Views:	162 
Size:	815.2 KB 
ID:	8055  
    Last edited by Koka; 05-20-2015 at 11:35 PM.

  24. #49
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Has anyone been having success near Speelyai? I have a buddy that only has a small motor on his boat, and doesn't want to venture too far from the launch. I haven't been fishing close to the bay, so I don't know.

  25. #50
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Woodland Wa & LMCH
    Posts
    263

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Koka View Post
    Has anyone been having success near Speelyai? I have a buddy that only has a small motor on his boat, and doesn't want to venture too far from the launch. I haven't been fishing close to the bay, so I don't know.
    There are fish there, we scratched out 3 limits running mainly between Speelyai and Campers Hideaway on the 17th. I also know of another boat that starts dropping lines in before they even get out of the bay. This weekend we fished down by the dam mainly to try to avoid the crowds but the fishing seemed to be a bit better as well. For some strange reason the fish seem to be more toward the surface than deep right now. In years past when the water was this warm we were starting to have to go deep to find them, but the last two trips everything has come in from the surface down to 20'.
    Team Wild Child Follow us on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMeIbuRWhobsmMmpM4xQayQ?feature=watch

Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •