Two limits of nice, bright, fired up chromers right at 15" plus. Half that many wiggled off at the boat. 20 ft and up all colors of triple teasers with stink and corn going 2mph-2.3mph. They are on to the larger size spoons now. Equals better bite and hook rates. Finally got dead calm and it was really ON! FUN
July 16th. Kokanee are still hitting hard at Lucky Peak. Fished this morning from about 6:30 am til 1:00pm. Trolling near Spring Shores where everyone else was :). Doing about 2 mph, using beer cans, a snubber, and a Rocky Mountain Tackle Assassin I was hitting them hard. Live worms for bait on both hooks. Wedding rings seemed to do well too. Worms were bringing in bigger kokes than the fire corn. A great morning.
Trolled about 15 to 20 feet down. Got a couple 17 inchers, some 15", some 13".
One of the 17":
Last edited by diatonic; 07-16-2010 at 09:18 PM.
Reason: Added depth and picture.
Thanks for that report. Might have to get up there. We fished Anderson last weekend and had a field day. Didn't get any over 13' but man, that Reservoir is just full of 12-13' kokes. They wouldn't touch my Dodger/Squid set ups on a downrigger but my gal was just killing them on a lead line & beer can with a green/red wedding ring - no scent and double corn. I finally switched over to her set up when the ratio was about 7 to 1 and we filled the cooler. Hooked most at 15-18 ft. They were biting just as well at 11am when we left as they were at first light just after 6am. We launched out of Curlew ($5) and fished straight across just off shore in about 90 ft.
Just got back today from L.P., and had to work for a limit a bit more than last week. The big guys were all coming from 25'. The 20 and the downrigger caught all smaller fish. Caught on 19" lunker, my first 19 of the season, and he was getting fairly pink. More so than I have seen with the big guys. The clock is ticking!! Mike
We hit LP at first light Sunday morning off Spring Shores and did really well until about 8:30. Found a really nice concentration of fish but I guess the net was coming up too often and enough boats horned in and they dispersed. We moved further down toward the dam and found another little pod about 9:30 but my gal was snake bit all morning and shook off a few more at the boat.
We hung it up about 11:00 but got out of there with three nice 16"+ and given how pink they are getting I gotta agree with Mike and say there ain't much time left for the big guys. One of the bigger hens had well developed eggs. Still looking for Mr. 19" this year.
We hit all the big guys at 25-30 ft off the downrigger and a lot of the 11-12"
up around 15 feet, on the lead line especially before sun-up. Only one hit off the dodgers and squid - everything else on the beer cans and wedding rings. Nothing on the Apex either. Same pattern we found at Anderson last week. I've just about given up on kok-a-nuts in LP. Usually fish them behind a Sling Blade but LP fish don't seem to excited about 'em. Anybody else have any luck with those things? Nick
Interesting about what you were catching them with. Our experience was just opposite. All the big ones except one came off a sling blade (UV) and a micro hoochie with Pautzke Nectar soaked shoepeg. The one exception was with a Jack Lloyd and w.r. However, now that I think about it, the sling blade was at 25 and the pop gear was at 20. But, they sure seemed to like the sling blade. Go figure, huh? Mike
Most were hooked on "medium sized" pop gear with a silver bladed wedding ring, double shoe pegged with Pautzke's Gel Krill. This is the gear we had on the first two hours of daylight and did well. When things slowed a bit, I started mixing things up and experimenting like I usually do (Purple Haze Hot Spot flasher/uv Apex, straight triple teaser/Berkley maggot, straight mini flatfish no maggot, etc).
I'm usually not surprised when I don't hook much during experiment time because the fishing is usually pretty slow. I usually have on the tried and true pop gear or mini hotspots or Sling Blades with mini squid or hootchies when the bite is hot. My question wasn't so much about the Sling Blades which I know are effective, but more the Kok-a-nut and Sling Blade combo and why they don't seem all that excited about it. I know Kok-a-nuts are good in other places - just don't know why they seem ineffective @Lucky Peak. Maybe it's me.
At any rate - will be out there tommorow morning straight out from Spring Shores at first light. Maybe Friday morning too. 14 foot yellow Mirror-craft with a black 25 horse Merc/electric trolling motor. If you're out there swing over and say Hi/compare notes. Might be alone if I can't convince my neighbor to rack out at 4:30. Thanks for sharing your tips/tackle-helpful. We found fish at roughly the same depth at you but did have a little success at 30ft as well. Thanks Mike. Nick
We did good on Kok-a-nuts up to about three weeks ago. Ever since then I have been catching them on squid. Saturday the 17th we caught 18 nice ones and Sunday 10 big ones 16" plus and then it turned off at ten. We fished till the ski boats started playing lets see how close we can get to your boat. Those guys are either jerks or don't know any better. This weekend is probally the end for L.P. Are the fish in good shape at Anderson?
Maybe I'll hang on to the Kok-a-nuts for another year. We hit Lucky Peak Friday morning. Fished from about 5:45 too 9 a.m. We picked up one 17', a 16' and about a half dozen in that 11-12' range on squid/flashers and pop gear w/ wedding rings. The seventeen's jaw was kyped and he was somewhere between pink and spawning crimson. Yeah, there ain't much time left.
We fished Anderson two weekends ago and they were dime bright. We were thinking of trying to get back there one more time too. If it's the same conditions your going to ice a cooler full. Hooked most @ 15-20 ft.
Yeah, those idiot boats really push it sometimes. Had a boat load of kids rip by our bow, full throtle last season. Could of touched them with a spey rod. Lucky I was armed with Lamiglas and not Ruger. Morons.
While there are still a few people reading this thread - does anybody know anything about crappie in LP? I've heard rumors they are in there and we've farted around a little looking for them but no luck. Heard they hang in one of the creek arms. Any info would be welcome.
Never heard of crappie. I have another puzzle. For the last few years, I have been graphing large schools of fish in the narrows, close to the big bend area, at approx. 150 feet in about 160 175 foot depths. No, I am not picking up bottom stuff, because I have watched them move to other areas. Thely are typically close to the sheer drop-offs, but I am not picking up dual readings either. Any clues?? Mike
Guess crappie was a longshot. I don't know Mike. I graph a lot of stuff hanging just off bottom all over that res. and we spend half the day wondering what it is. What would hang at that depth and suspend off bottom like that? If memory serves, F&G has tried planting Chinook in there and some other large salmonid hybrid - Splake? I think you can go to the IDFG website and see what they have tried in there over the years - a few of them failed - or did they?
I know my buddy nails big whitefish fishing deep in Pend Oreille. Would NPM's hang that deep? I hear there are channel cats in there but then again, I believed there were crappie in there too. I was thinking of pestering a biologist and picking their brains about these deep dwellers are. If I find anything worth reporting I'll pass it along.
I did catch a koke last year that was raked pretty good by something that had some decent teeth. Looked a lot like a cut-plug herring that comes back after getting hammered by a big ocean spring with no hook-up......Makes you wonder.
I'm sure some of the deeper blips are Northern Pike Minnows, and perhaps trout, but I can't imagine either of those hanging at 175'. They did plant lakers years ago, but it was not successful. Oh well, nothing like a good mystery! Well Blueback, I guess we have to have something to think about while trolling out there. Mike
Trolled LP this AM and limited by noon. Had to work for them a little harder. Seemed to be all over. A couple of boats were doing well on the surface, we caught most of our fish at three colors on lead core, and the two downriggers were slower, but the 25 outproduced the 20. When we arrived the kokes were jumping like crazy between the two docks. Must have been 50-60 breaking the surface at any one time. Then they just shut down. Obviously gathering at the spot where they were planted, but it seems earlier than last year. None of the larger fish caught this morning had any color to them, as they did last week. Go figure. Mike
I had a hunch We should have been out there instead of hiking - sometimes you gotta keep the better half happy. I hate hiking.
Here's a wierd little list of what they have tried to plant in LP in the last decade or so: Coho, Fall Chinook, Lake Trout, Smallmouth (Ditch Pickles) and Cutthroat.
Glad you iced some Kokes. Probably Strike next weekend, then kick-off for fall Steelhead and catch and fillet season on the lower Clearwater next. Interesting factoid: they are planting way more koke fry in Cascade than LP or Arrowrock this year....but why? It's like 3 to 1.
I am sure L.P. will provide a lot more good fishing. Next year's generation of spawners are hefty and plentiful. If you don't think kokanee fishing is growing, I stumbled across a kokanee specialty tackle shop in Meridian today. I won't mention the name, so as not to cause a conflict with the site's sponsors. The point being, the fishery is growing!!! Like you, I will be heading over to C.J. later in the year. I love the fall trout fishing there. Mike
Two limits of nice, bright, fired up chromers right at 15" plus. Half that many wiggled off at the boat. 20 ft and up all colors of triple teasers with stink and corn going 2mph-2.3mph. They are on to the larger size spoons now. Equals better bite and hook rates. Finally got dead calm and it was really ON! FUN
Thanks for your imput on Arrowrock...the biggest kokes in Idaho are there, but having to deal with the squaw at 10 to 1 is getting bad. How deep were you? I usually fish the opening between the main channel and the
camp ground. I have never heard of that many cops there, you must have been on a weekend..I like to fish there because no cops, w-skis, and those
crazy ski-do's.
I spent a week at Odell in Oregon...what a education for me. I always thought I was at least a average koke fisherman, but to watch those hard core guys made me look like a beginner.
Hello,
I got sick of shaking off all those NPM's myself up in Arrowrock. But you're right - there are some piggies in there. Wallowa has to be the new mecca though - back to back U.S. records with the world record in the cross hairs. Not that far a drive for the LP faithful.
Mike, koke fishing mania just keeps growing in this Valley......3 or 4 years ago it was on the down low......I caught wind of that koke specialty shop.....need to check it out.......low battery....gotta go
20ft and as is typical they were in the same area up in the river arm..river mile in from the barn. AR is infested and is pretty much a waste of time because of the squawkers.
We also caught quite a few decent trout as well but pretty much consider them shakers as well. These bigger kokes in LP and AR just keep us fired up for the upcoming steelie season up north.
LP yesterday afternoon really slow...a couple small fish boated..fish that we found were spread out and at various depths. Our normal couple of hot spots for the last three weeks cooled right off. Few boats out working but most guys were saying not much going on. Quite a bit of false releases. That has seemed to mean a slow down coming and being in the smaller fish. Nice to be out and traffic was not that crazy.
Last year we caught a small perch trolling for kokes, then this year for work I was doing a demo on a ROV and we ran into a school of perch. It was up the Mores Creek arm. Not sure how many are around, but they are in there.
Lucky
I have no idea about perch, just know that I was at LP on Wednesday and still don't think that I have gotten my land legs back. It must have been blowing 30 huge rollers but we still boated our limit by about noon. We used dodgers and squids at around 50 feet.
I have no idea about perch, just know that I was at LP on Wednesday and still don't think that I have gotten my land legs back. It must have been blowing 30 huge rollers but we still boated our limit by about noon. We used dodgers and squids at around 50 feet.
Fished LP Thursday..started about 7:00 a.m. nothing, about 8:30 the bite was
on..Fished the narrow arm that goes to LP Dam about a 1/2 in. Using just
blades and wedding ring with corn, had our limit in 3hrs. Fish were brite and no signs of turning yet,,will be back Monday.
Fished LP this morning, landed 8 all 13"-15" with two starting to turn pink. Ran our divers 20'-30' in the cove area between Spring Shores and the narrows toward the dam. We probably lost as many as we caught with most of the fish caught between 10-12noon. We were using hoochies and wedding rings with fire corn.
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