end of season

[Propnut69]

Well, fellow koke chasers another season has come and gone for kokes on the gorge. I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were, as to what kind of a season they had. For me it was a strange kind of season. My numbers were down ,compared to years past. The up side was i caught a better quality of fish compared to past years. I caught more heavy 3lbers and 4 lbers this year, with only breaking the 5 lb barrier once. Caught a few to many dinks(12-15 in) but maybe that means in 2 yrs we could have another banner year. IMO I think that a few different things made it the type of year it was.
1. 85% of the lake didn't freeze this year. The farthest south that i seen ice this year was breeze hill, and that ice didn't stay there for long. With that much more sun light on the water, I do think it affected the plankton growth, and caused the fish change their feeding habit's. Also spring rainbow fishing seemed to be slower then normal.
2 The lake came up app 10 ft from may 23-july 16th, with waters levels rising every day, the kokes were confused, and not as willing to play .
3 Surface temps were completely backwards for July and Aug. I remember seeing surface temp into the 70's in July. then they dropped to mid 60's in august. It should have been the other way around. This could have brought on by all the water that was coming into the gorge.
Last time we were out caught a couple of the cutthroat ,that have been planted. They were about 12" , maybe they will find a good home at the gorge, and not become just mack food.

[STLHDR]

I had a fantastic Kokanee season, bought a new to me 18' windshield boat with full top and set it up for Kokes exclusively. I will fish for Coho, Kings and steelhead but just took all the DR gear off today.
I have about 50 fish in the freezer and we have been eating a lot too. I had success on Merwin, Yale, Sutherland and Summit lake here in Washington.
I can't wait to get some property for my boat & RV close to Merwin!!!!

[Bduck]

I didn't get a lot of time on the Gorge as I would have like too. I know the limited trips I made I did catch quite a few dinks myself but wasn't denied some nice quality fish in the 3lb+ class. Joined up with friends from Calif on their boat and one of them brought in a 4.6lber. That particular day I would hook up to a koke on my setup using a dodger and squid having no indication of a hit or catch. Dragging' kokes seem to be the useful purpose of that one rig. Unfortunately not enough time spent there for me this summer to draw any perspective thought of what was happening to this years success & failures. But, I did get a wanting taste of the thrill & excitement just being at the Gorge. Looking fwd to next year with hopefully more hydrotherapy.

[ducksfresh]

I had a great year. This was my 2nd year staying all summer at the Buckboard RV park and I spent a lot of time there. I took my 5th wheel up May 10th and launched the boat at noon that day. By 1 pm I had my limit of 3 nice 3# Kokes. This is how my year started and pretty much how it ended.

This year I used a RMT dodger with a pink spray painted stripe, a pink haze or cotton candy squid tipped with one kernel of corn. I used this all year and did not catch very many shakers. I think I only turned loose 6 fish all season!!! I did not fish any farther south than the ranch. My son tried lots of different combinations but the pink set up was very consistent. I consistently caught high quality big kokes. I fished a lot and ate a lot of salmon. I put on 10 pounds eating fish this summer.

I talked to lots of other anglers and heard lots of analization of the fishery AS IS and whats they think is coming. From what I heard some had consistent good success and some had consistently poor success. The worst news I heard a lot was that turning loose Kokanee salmon especially when the water is warm kills them. I seen a lot of floating dead salmon. I personally ate some smaller fish and I am proud that I am passing on good ethics to my children and anyone who fished in my boat.

I love the Gorge and I love Kokanee fishing. I also feel lucky to be out there on the water with some of the most friendly, helpful, courteous and ethical anglers on this planet. If you don't feel this way about the fishery and the other anglers on the Gorge please go somewhere else and screw up another fishery. LOL

Best wishes for good health and a safe return to all next season.

Mike Fresh

[D-Weed]

I think Tim hit the nail on the head, it was a different kind of season, for sure a kind of season that were not accustomed too. water temps were way different than last year, I only saw the water temp break the 70 mark once or twice all season, and I fished a lot if areas that I usually don't. Not to say I didn't catch fish, caught plenty,alot of small fish though, from early in the spring up until it closed. I think the lake level coming up as fast as it did, didn't help matters much. I started fishing fairly early in the spring, I think I had better success earlier this year, versus later as the season wore on. There were several times myself and maybe one or two other boats were the only ones out. I had most of success from upper marsh creek south to middle marsh. OH WELL that's why they call it fishing not CATCHING, LOOK OUT RAINBOWS HERE I COME.

[TRUBBS]

I didnt get to fish it nearly as much as i hoped to, to form a good opinion, plus im still learning the gorge so its even harder for me to say.
that being said, I had pretty good luck most the times I went out, Some of the early season was spent up north, the others were down around lucern/kingfisher.

got some new to me mag 10's to run for next year, replacing our older than dirt digitroll 2's. hoping that should save me a few headaches and Weights this coming year & going to add another sonar unit at the back of our cabin cruiser so I can see the fish (or lack of) while im bck by the poles and steering