Merwin 2013 post it here

[washingtonlakes]

We're heading to Merwin this weekend. Couple questions if you don't mind answering. Is Merwin Park located up by the dam? How large were your Yale kokanee?

Thanks!

[Mudinchev]

We're heading to Merwin this weekend. Couple questions if you don't mind answering. Is Merwin Park located up by the dam? How large were your Yale kokanee?

Thanks!

Woodland park is about 2-3 miles east of Speelyai on the North side of the lake. Only place on the lake where the houses/cabins are on the waterfront. I didn't measure the Yale fish but I would guess close to 10", laying across the bottom of a gallon zip lock nose to tail they didn't touch or if they did it was by just a little bit and laying flat those bags measure 10 1/2". I have heard of 11-12" fish but we have only fished the lake for a total of 1/2 hr this year so there might be bigger fish around in other areas.

Correction: Merwin Park is by the dam Woodland Park is where the houses on the lake are my bad.....Thanks Kokecatcher!

[Strike Zone]

Mudinchev;
Hi Scott. Happy fishin to ya. Looks like the fish gods have been good to you and Shawn. I am a little confused about where exactly you have been finding the kokes at? Have you been doing well just west of Woodland Park where all the houses are on the north side of the lake, or are you down by the dam near Merwin Park? Also when you talk about the speed you're trolling, at is that GPS speed or is that water wheel speed from your fish finder?
Had our grandson and another boy up there a couple days ago. We ended up with a few, but it was nothing to write home about. I think they are alot more spread out now than they were two months ago.
Denny

[Mudinchev]

Mudinchev;
Hi Scott. Happy fishin to ya. Looks like the fish gods have been good to you and Shawn. I am a little confused about where exactly you have been finding the kokes at? Have you been doing well just west of Woodland Park where all the houses are on the north side of the lake, or are you down by the dam near Merwin Park? Also when you talk about the speed you're trolling, at is that GPS speed or is that water wheel speed from your fish finder?
Had our grandson and another boy up there a couple days ago. We ended up with a few, but it was nothing to write home about. I think they are alot more spread out now than they were two months ago.
Denny

I have been calling Woodland Park, Merwin Park, I have not ventured down all the way to the dam yet this year, our last couple of trips have been in front of Woodland Park (houses on the water). I use GPS for my speed(not the one in my Humminbird it doesn't work with a darn) , the little water wheel was not accurate enough for my taste either. I have been tempted to get the luhr jensen speed indicator because that accurately measures your speed in the water and not "over land" like the GPS does. And they are only about $60, but so far my GPS is doing what I need it to. I always try to look at my speed right after getting a fish in the boat to see how fast we are going and then try to maintain that speed, we have had days where 1.3 was the magic number, 1.1 or 1.5 meant no fish. Or days where 1.5 was it and 1.3 or 1.7 meant no fish. Its amazing how just a little breeze can affect your speed. I think using a dodger and hoochie type set up is more speed sensitive than using flasher type trolls because it affects action of the lure so much more. Where as with the old ford fender and wedding ring type set up they spin a little faster but not much. Depth is another key point, I was marking fish from 20' down past 80'(have my lower range set at 80) just because there are fish there doesn't mean they are the "acitve" ones. On the 4th we were picking up fish from 40-60 feet pretty evenly spread all day with a mixture of big and small fish at all depths. On the 6th our first two fish came at 55 and 60 and they were both BIG so we concentrated our gear from 55-65 feet and it produced big fish all morning, early the ones at 65 caught more fish later in the morning the ones at 55 did better.

If you want to take the grand kids out for an exciting time go to Yale! The fish are WAY smaller but they are a lot less picky than Merwin's fish. The same rules still apply up there but once you find what they like you could put 30-50 fish in the boat and still have time to take them out to lunch on your way home because they will be tired hungry (no time for snacking). Like I said in my earlier post 12 fish in the boat for 1/2 hr of fishing, it is CRAZY FUN for the kids!

[Strike Zone]

Scott:
Thanks a bunch for the help. We will give Yale a try next time we get up that way for sure. Also, I thought you were near Woodland Park area. I just wasn't sure. Thanks also for the info. on speed. I've been using the water wheel for speed calculation on my Ray Marine fish finder. Sounds like I should be using my GPS instead. We were getting a few fish at around 39 feet depth, but not a whole bunch. Sounds like we weren't deep enough.
We are headed to Brewster for 3 days at the end of the month to fish for sockeye on the Columbia and maybe a king or two. Should be a good trip. Then we'll be fishing for fall kings near Longview the first two weeks in Sept. Then around the middle of Sept. we are headed up to Seiku for 3 days to hopefully get a few silvers. Fun times ahead.

[Kokecatcher]

I had a very good morning at Merwin. I got my line in the water at 0545 and by 0700 I had seven kokanee. I caught my tenth at 0815. I also lost a couple, had a hit that did not hook and sent a squaw fish to heaven. Eight of my fish were 14-15 inches, one was 13 3/4 and one was 11 1/2. The small fish was a this year's fish. All hits were at 55 ft. I used glow white wedding rings behind UV sling blades. It was a nice cool overcast morning. Probably won't see that again for awhile. The ruler in the picture is 15 inches.

[avid_outdoorsman]

Nice bunch of fish!

[Strike Zone]

Kokecatcher:
Way to go out there. I'm making up some kokanee wr for next week at Merwin. Can't wait to give it a try. I'm not sure if it's right or not, but a guy from Kalama told me yesterday that the wdfw had reduced the daily limit back to 5/day at Merwin as of last Friday. Have you heard anything about this? I'm not sure if he was serious or not. Tight Lines
Denny

[Kokecatcher]

Kokecatcher:
Way to go out there. I'm making up some kokanee wr for next week at Merwin. Can't wait to give it a try. I'm not sure if it's right or not, but a guy from Kalama told me yesterday that the wdfw had reduced the daily limit back to 5/day at Merwin as of last Friday. Have you heard anything about this? I'm not sure if he was serious or not. Tight Lines
Denny

I just checked the Washington Game Dept. web site. There are no emergency regulation changes for Merwin. The limit is still ten kokanee plus five trout.

[Strike Zone]

Kokcatcher:

Thanks. You are right on the money. I am headed up there in the morning. I'll be in a black, open air, 16 foot Lund with a white 30 hp. E-tec on it. Stop by and say hi if you are there. I will have an American flag on the back as soon as we get our first fish. Just something I do.
Denny

[MackPrince]

Sounds like another good season at Merwin.

[Mudinchev]

Another stellar morning on the lake! We shipped the kids off to my parents for a 2 week say at the cabin in Priest Lake Idaho. So this was a rare (like only one a year rare) occasion Shawn was not fishing with me. So I got to spend the day with my wife and fish too! Started off the morning landing 2 out of a triple (only running 3 rods) and then it was a game of "try to keep the all the rods in the water". The fishing slowed down a little about 9 am but it was still very good, I am leaning to use the new camp oven and made my first ever batch of NON BURNT cinnamon roles this morning ! By "still good" I mean we had to leave all the rods in after catching fish to have time to eat. We had a little bit of a lull after getting back to fishing but it didn't last long, we were back to catching by 10am. Fun day GREAT weather and even better fishing. Still finding the willing biters from 50-65 feet, but watch out if you get east of Woodland Park running that deep, I snagged another tree top again today.

[Strike Zone]

They are west of Woodland park too. The other guy in my boat snagged up on a tree at 65 feet deep in 142 feet of water and lost all his rigging. He was also fishing at that depth when he caught a 6.5 lb rainbow. We ended up with our 20 kokes plus two larger planted rainbows around 11:00 on wedding rings with corn. I was only at about 40 and 42 feet deep tho.
Strike ZoneAttachment 6563Attachment 6564Attachment 6565

[washingtonlakes]

They are west of Woodland park too. The other guy in my boat snagged up on a tree at 65 feet deep in 142 feet of water and lost all his rigging. He was also fishing at that depth when he caught a 6.5 lb rainbow. We ended up with our 20 kokes plus two larger planted rainbows around 11:00 on wedding rings with corn. I was only at about 40 and 42 feet deep tho.
Strike ZoneAttachment 6563Attachment 6564Attachment 6565

I think we got that tree, too. Lost my favorite dodger. :-(

Our trip we did "OK". Fished all over. For us the afternoon bite was better than the morning bite. Here's a posted report:

JoAnn and I went on our much anticipated trip to lake Merwin. We left early Saturday (arrived and boat on the water by 9:30am) and stayed until Monday 5pm. I was running numbers in my head, making grandiose hopes/predications, and talking about hitting Yale to catch the additional fish allowed there. JoAnn listened to my excited fishing talk with patience and told me to just wait and see how it goes. Considering last year’s success I figured two day possession limit of 40 kokanee was practically already in the cooler. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself…

We fished four rods, stacked and staggered depths. I started out with wedding rings and hoochie rigs, and used corn on all, plus either shrimp or mealworms. Ultimately as the trip progressed I weeded out the wedding rings and the meal worms, and settled in on hoochie rigs with shrimp. I used small dodgers or sling blades in various colors. I had forgotten my gps handheld and my phone app was so-so, but I would say we trolled 1.0-1.8 for the trip.

Saturday I figured even with the late start we’d get some in the morning, take a break, and catch more in the afternoon. Well, the morning was pretty brutal and discouraging; to the point that I wondered if we would need to go somewhere else. I saw little action around us. We caught one 12” fish and that was it. Ouch! We took our 3 hour siesta and got back at it at 3pm, fishing until 6:30pm. The PM bite was actually better and we caught another four fish, making it five for day one. 35 fish to go, I was feeling better and thinking that the crack of dawn bite would be back to the Merwin lake fishing I knew and loved. I did note, the fish seem to be running a bit smaller, more in the 12” range, a few 14” and a rare 15”. Maybe Chelan spoiled me!

Sunday morning – lines in the water at 5:20am, fishing hard. Lot’s of fish on the fish finder. And lot’s of pike minnows. Yuck, more than last year that’s for sure. And smaller kokanee. We fished depths ranging from 35 to 70 feet, covering the water column well with our downriggers. Ended up with three fish – are you kidding me? Last year we did 10 by noon and done, gone to Yale. This year the limit is ten each. OK, a nice on the water lunch at our favorite little cover we duck into, take a siesta break, and back on the water from 3-6pm. Wow! Another nice evening bite, especially around 4:3-5pm. I was jumping from rod to rod, handing them off to JoAnn, netting away… we caught another 9 fish – and some good, quality 14”. I found it interesting that these bigger fish, so quiet in the morning, became very active late in the afternoon. The bite totally died off at 6pm and we headed in. Fish count now 17.

Monday, our last day. I now knew the pattern the lake was fishing, and locations that seemed to be a bit better, and where there was little action. I knew the morning would be marginal and that we were waiting on the afternoon to save the day. As expected, Monday morning it was again slow, maybe a bit better, but mostly smaller 10-11” fish. Not keepers, back they went to get bigger. I knew I was waiting for the afternoon bite. We did hit one nice 14” fish up by the Marina at noon- what was he doing biting at that time? Break time and then back at it at 3pm. I should mention a word about weather. We had sunny, pleasant (low 80s) weather the whole trip. It was really nice! But about noon each day, the wind would start coming up and blowing hard, to the point of white caps. About the only easy way to troll at this point would be with the wind at your stern. Which worked out really well as our cove is at the far end of the lake. So we would get back out on the water, point toward the boat launch, and let the wind propel us down lake, using the kicker to keep us on track. I almost at one point decided to put out the sea anchor to slow us, but we never got above 2.0mph so I decided to let us drift/troll. It keeps the stupid pike minnow at bay, but the koks still would hit the gear, even with a bit faster troll. Fishing this way we covered from the upper lake boat marina back to the Speelyai launch in about 3 hours.

For some reason, Monday broke our pattern. We got a couple 12” fish and lost a nice fish, but it was quiet. With a long drive ahead I decided to call it a day at 5pm.

Our final tally for fish caught was 21 keepers, including two very nice 14" trout. We probably caught our limits in released smaller fish. As you can see from the pictures, the hot hoochie color this trip was black. BTW< I also tried an apex and a thin blade needle rainbow colored spoon and got a few that way, just to try to keep of the pike minnows. I don’t know, maybe I was spoiled from last year. We got a nice mess of fish, but I came away somewhat disappointed. My expectations were way too high JoAnn told me.

In summary, Merwin (at least on this trip) is fishing tougher, but still there are quality fish swimming around. Oh, one post note. I spoke with an old-timer lake regular who informed me that he did very well and asked if I had gang trolls, stating the fish wanted more flash. So I did at one point try some smile blade gang trolls I had. And, I did see others using the gang trolls and catching fish. That said, I absolutely HATE the way gang trolls kill the fish fight. It’s like pulling in a bunch of hardware and barely feeling the fish fight. I won’t fish that way. I’d rather catch less and enjoy the fight more.

Attachment 6566Attachment 6567Attachment 6568

[Strike Zone]

Mike: Hi Wish I had known you were there on Saturday. I'd like to have visited with you. I'm headed back up there this Friday. For some reason I am unable to open the three attachments in your post. Not sure why. How heavy a leader material were you using? I tied up some rigs like you show in your video on Lake Chelan this spring on 8 lb. leader and tried the rose colored one on Saturday morning early. I caught 2 little guys on it. So I switched over to my wedding ring thing about 8 inches behind a Dick Nite pink spatterback dodger and did quite well. I think it accounted for at least 20 or so kokes. The others we released and some just came off, but we did catch 2 bigger rainbows also on the wedding ring rig.
Sounds like you had a nice time up there and that's what matters. That lake like any other has it's good days and some bad days.
Strike Zone
Denny

[washingtonlakes]

Hi Denny, I'm using 12 pound leaders. Yup, we did have a nice trip. Always a treat to fish the lake. It's a bit far for us so with gas being the way it is this will likely be our only trip for this year there.
Attachments opened for me ok. huh. The pics are on my report over at the Washington site.

[Strike Zone]

Mike:
Thanks . Glad you had a nice time at the lake..I have enjoyed every time I've been up there this year also. Sure beats sitting out on the Columbia day after day not netting anything. I'm not sure why I can't open your attachments, but I will try on the Wash. site. I was planning on going to Merwin again tomorrow, but I strained my back somehow and I'm supposed to go fishing for sockeye and kings at Brewster. We are leaving about midnight on Sunday and are coming back next Wednesday so I may just take it easy and rest my back till we leave.
Best of luck to you and Jo Ann in your fishing adventures.
Denny

[washingtonlakes]

Brewster - don't forget the sunscreen and an umbrella!

[KnotWorkin]

Fished Sat 7/27. What a great day on the water! We started at 7 and had our limit by 1. We caught fish starting at Woodland Park, but kept trolling towards the dam and the fishing got better and better as we went. 50-60ft on downriggers, silver dodgers and pink hoochies tipped with scented corn. 1.4 to 1.6 on the gps. Lots of waverunners and ski boats running around.

Attachment 6581

[southside]

I fished solo 7-28 from 6:30 til 1. The wind was on the water all day.

Started outside the launch and got blown all over. Wind settled for a while and the bite turned on. Stacked 50 to 65ft. down, 10 to 15ft back small uv sling blade with clear and pink uv hoochie modified green wedding ring got me a very nice 15" hen.
The other rig that did the most damage was a 000 silver dodger with a small glo spin glo tipped with shoepeg and a piece of worm. .8 to 1.3 knots with most bites comming on the turn/speed change.

Hooked over 12 of this years feisty fish to boat 6. Many squawfish and small trout.
Peace, Tom

[Kokecatcher]

I fished Merwin yesterday morning. I caught a koke here and there. I had five in the cooler by 0800 and then my rod bent over , poped out of the release and line started going out. My first thought was that I caught bottom or a tree. I checked the sonar and I was in 135 ft. of water and only down 55. As soon as I picked up the rod I knew that it was a fish. I use ultra light rods with 8# line and 6# leaders. It took about twenty minutes to get the fish to the surface next to the boat. Fortunately I had put a larger net in the boat last week along with my kokanee net. As I netted the fish I saw the bright red stripe. Not counting steelhead, this is the largest rainbow that I have ever caught. It measured 24 inches and weighed seven pounds. The fish was very thick. The meat is a bright orange like that of an ocean salmon. We plan to bbq some tonight.

[KnotWorkin]

Nice fish kokecatcher, what type of lure were you using? I'll bet that fish eats real good!

[Kokecatcher]

Nice fish kokecatcher, what type of lure were you using? I'll bet that fish eats real good!

I was fishing with a glow white wedding ring that I assemble. This one had a silver wedding ring with a #2 hammerd nickle Indiana blade. This lure has been very effective for me in the early morning hours and when fishing deep. I do not know what this rainbow ate but it did not tast like any other trout that I have eaten. It was full of oil and just melted in your mouth like spring chinook.

[washingtonlakes]

Wow, nice fish and good job catching it!

[redosprey]

Quick report on Merwin. My wife and I have been there for the past couple of weeks staying in the Cougar RV Park. Have fished all weekdays (avoid the weekends due to the "circus") and have averaged 17 fish per day. The last two days (Wed. & Thurs.) we limited before noon. Most fish in the 13 to 15 inch range with a few at 16 or a7 inches. Lost more than we caught and have only hooked 4 pike minnows so far! Running Rocky Mountain Tackle Co. 5" dodgers in the "Hyperplaid", "Glow in the dark" and "Bahama Mamma" patterns, trailed by a 12" leader with pink hoochies or, better yet, a small bead lure that we string up ourselves, made from a white, glow-in-the-dark corkie with a red wedding ring segment below it. That's been the killer lately! Most of the time we've fished both downriggers at 55 to 65 feet, behind the boat from 25 to 30 feet. Trolling at between 1.25 and 1.50 MPH (or close to it). We'll be back on the lake on Monday the 19th and I'll provide an update. Judged by what we've done, and what I've been seeing others do, I would classify the fishing as "hot". I've attached a couple photos, including one showing the entry to Speelyai Bay I took about a week ago. Hope to see you on the lake. Stop by and say "hello". We'll be in the red Alumaweld with the black top. Name on the boat same as our Forum name "Red Osprey"

P.S. Don't seem to be able to use the "Manage Attachments" link below, so can't send photos until later. Will do though.