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Thread: 2017 Dworshak Reservoir Kokanee Fishing Report

  1. #26

    Default

    A friend was at Dworshak yesterday and ended up bass and trout fishing. No kokanee on the graph he said. Anybody else hear of any catching?

  2. #27
    Join Date
    May 2014
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    39

    Default Picking up?

    Went out yesterday just to try out my little boat. I had read that the kokanee were not on the bite &, so, was not expecting much. After launching at Bruces Eddy around 10 am, I let out long lines & headed into Merry's Bay. My first hit was about 10 minutes after launching with quite a few more soon after. As usual, I lost about twice as many as I netted. I took home 3 and lost 6 in the 3 hours I fished. Fish are good in size and hit hard. I think it's on the upbeat. Time to bring out the big boat!
    Last edited by stevec; 05-10-2017 at 10:53 AM.

  3. #28
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Dayton Wa
    Posts
    14

    Default

    Sounds like it may be about to start. Were you fishing on top or on downriggers??? If you don't mind sharing.
    JD

  4. #29
    Join Date
    May 2014
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    39

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JDfisher View Post
    Sounds like it may be about to start. Were you fishing on top or on downriggers??? If you don't mind sharing.
    JD
    I was long lining using 3 oz at 50 feet. I was in my 12 ft boat using my electric trolling motor so I don't know how fast I was going. Plenty of fish in the lake to share when I have good luck. You just have to find them!

  5. #30
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Hell's Canyon, WA
    Posts
    102

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by stevec View Post
    Went out yesterday just to try out my little boat. I had read that the kokanee were not on the bite &, so, was not expecting much. After launching at Bruces Eddy around 10 am, I let out long lines & headed into Merry's Bay. My first hit was about 10 minutes after launching with quite a few more soon after. As usual, I lost about twice as many as I netted. I took home 3 and lost 6 in the 3 hours I fished. Fish are good in size and hit hard. I think it's on the upbeat. Time to bring out the big boat!
    Thanks for the report stevec, we will give it a try next week glad you had some kokanee to take home. We were going to fish Dworshak this week, but the dismal reports changed our mind, will let you know how we do. KenBarb

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    North Central ID
    Posts
    36

    Default

    Got a local report yesterday that things are picking up. Guy caught 17 in Merrys Bay. That's enough for me to give it a try this weekend. Didn't hear any specifics about what he was using though.

  7. #32

    Cool Gonna get better

    yesterday when I was bass catching I saw several koke's jumping and popping at the surface. First time in a while. They aren't in mid lake but closer to shore. Every bay had some going off. Most of them were very nice!

  8. #33
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Posts
    1

    Default

    Fished hard for 2 days, 14 hrs a day and caught only one limit each day. It was tough, hard to find fish, marked very few. Deffinetly tough still, usually we get 2 limits a day very easy, sometimes before noon. A lot of small sticks in the water still, a real pain for jet boats, we sucked sticks whenever we moved locations. Gonna be awhile before we go back.

  9. #34

    Default

    Hey Lee,
    How deep were you fishing? Do you use downriggers or longline and weight? I'm pretty new to this and never have caught a limit so that sounds like pretty good success to me.

  10. #35

    Default started biting

    Quote Originally Posted by Elkchaser View Post
    What will it take to change the bite? Pretty new to fishing for kokanee on Dworshak.
    Hey Elk chaser, they finally are starting to hit! Had good luck early in the year, but things went cold. We could only catch about 10 or 12 a day mostly about 11 inches. Went out Wednesday and we both limited out at Indian Creek. We were about 40 feet down. water was kinda murky and roamed around 58 degrees. Day was partly cloudy and a little windy at times. We started at 6AM and had our limit by 2:30PM. There were 7 or 8 - 12 inchers, but most were 10 - 11 inches. Fish looked nice.
    Good Luck!

  11. #36

    Default

    Anthony, I went out yesterday and fished about 6 hours between the two marinas and caught 10. I had 2 poles out and twice I had fish on both poles. I was fishing with corn on one and maggots on the other, didn't seem to make a difference. 3 oz. lead out about 60 ft. Went 2 hours at one point without a bite. Talked to some other folks who had not done as well. Not familiar with the reservoir all that much, where is Indian Cr? I would like to get enough to fill my smoker. Also, curious about what everyone uses for gear up there. My buddy that showed me how to troll last year for kokanee uses a 3 oz. hunk of lead to a gang of spinner blades and then a wedding ring spinner tipped with maggots. Anybody jig or have another method for catching these fish in Dworshak? Also, what is the ratio of lead to line length to reach a certain depth? I saw that graph somewhere and can't find it again. I don't have downriggers.
    Last edited by Elkchaser; 05-21-2017 at 12:34 AM.

  12. #37
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Grangeville, Idaho
    Posts
    150

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Elkchaser View Post
    Anthony, I went out yesterday and fished about 6 hours between the two marinas and caught 10. I had 2 poles out and twice I had fish on both poles. I was fishing with corn on one and maggots on the other, didn't seem to make a difference. 3 oz. lead out about 60 ft. Went 2 hours at one point without a bite. Talked to some other folks who had not done as well. Not familiar with the reservoir all that much, where is Indian Cr? I would like to get enough to fill my smoker. Also, curious about what everyone uses for gear up there. My buddy that showed me how to troll last year for kokanee uses a 3 oz. hunk of lead to a gang of spinner blades and then a wedding ring spinner tipped with maggots. Anybody jig or have another method for catching these fish in Dworshak? Also, what is the ratio of lead to line length to reach a certain depth? I saw that graph somewhere and can't find it again. I don't have downriggers.
    That gear is pretty much how I started. I never run 3 oz weight on long lines any longer, lose too many fish with that kind of weight considering how soft a koke's mouth is. So I added a cheap clamp on downrigger. Ran that until I could afford a couple nicer downriggers. You can pick up used ones pretty reasonable, people switch around downrigger models quite a bit and they are often on Craigslist or ebay.

    You can see all the creek names on the Dworshak maps.


    I haven't fished yet this year. Got my boat ready yesterday though, so soon. Very soon.......

    Rick
    Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!

  13. #38

    Default Maps

    Rick,
    Thanks for the map link. Found my next destination. Anxious to fish that Indian Creek area. Canyon Creek boat launch open yet?

  14. #39
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Grangeville, Idaho
    Posts
    150

    Default

    Should be open. Water level's at 1561.
    Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!

  15. #40

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Elkchaser View Post
    Rick,
    Thanks for the map link. Found my next destination. Anxious to fish that Indian Creek area. Canyon Creek boat launch open yet?
    I can't verify that it is true but I heard that the road into the Canyon Creek ramp is closed. ???

  16. #41
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Dayton Wa
    Posts
    14

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    I went exploring last Thursday, visited with a couple of guys launching at Freeman and then drove around to Indian creek. There was some areas of the road that had some erosion and a couple of county guys were marking areas to be repaired. The road was open at that time but will probably be closed when the work starts. The launch was closed but it was a great place to eat lunch and just sit back for a while.
    This was last week so who knows if they have completed the repairs on the road.
    JD

  17. #42
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    Mar 2013
    Location
    North Central ID
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    36

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    Quote Originally Posted by amxerhull View Post
    I can't verify that it is true but I heard that the road into the Canyon Creek ramp is closed. ???
    Regardless - don't bother. Unless you're running only an electric motor you'll not save any time by putting in at Canyon, even if you can get there. You're time ahead to put in at Big Eddy and just motor up there. I put in at Canyon ONCE and won't ever do it again. Just fining the correct roads was an adventure, not to mention they're all steep and windy, slow going.

  18. #43
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Hell's Canyon, WA
    Posts
    102

    Default Great Kokanee Fishing.

    Barb and I finally made it to Dworshak Monday. The highway from Gibb's Eddy to Orofino has a lot of road construction going on, at one point we were held up about 45 minutes, took much more time than usual, but is going to be a very good highway when they are done. We took the Kendrick/Juiieatta route coming back to Asotin, it is a beautiful drive, the next trip we will take this route, and put in at the State Park.

    Now for the fishing: We launched the boat at Bruces Eddy. Thought about fishing Merry's Bay, but there was a lot of woody debris on the surface, so we went straight to Indian/Canyon Creek. The plan was to long line three rods using 1.5 to 3.5 oz banana weights, a string of Jack-A-Loid spinners, trailed by a squid type lure with a 3 hook setup that I tie up, have found that using 3 hooks really increases the catch ratio, setback was 60'

    Put three lines in and immediately started catching Kokanee, it was non-stop catching, and baiting, had many doubles and triples, the fish were all in the10"/11" range, very nice and plump, beautiful fish. We limited out around 11:00AM, would have cleaned the fish on the water, but the surface temp. was 75*F, so we kept them on ice, and cleaned them at home. The bait was Shoepeg Corn, started with white & red, but the red was getting the best bite, so we went all red, all the corn used was marinated with scent. Next trip we will try the downriggers, will be a little slower operation, but can use lighter gear, and have more fun playing the fish. It was a gorgeous day on Dworshak, sunshine, and just a light breeze, what a day to be on the water, and best of all what great fishing.

    Tight lines..... Ken & Barb

  19. #44

    Default Way Cool

    Thanks much for the good report Ken! And the scoop on the road condition is helpful too. Hoping to be on the water early this Saturday to watch the sunrise and rod tips bounce. All the best!

  20. #45
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Grangeville, Idaho
    Posts
    150

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by icelander View Post
    Thanks much for the good report Ken! And the scoop on the road condition is helpful too. Hoping to be on the water early this Saturday to watch the sunrise and rod tips bounce. All the best!
    Me toooo! See you there.
    Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!

  21. #46
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    39

    Default Me too

    I'll be out too on Saturday with the rest of the holiday herd. Taking the blue fin & deck dollies in tow. We will NOT be out early! Tight lines everyone!

  22. #47

    Default Indian Creek

    Quote Originally Posted by Elkchaser View Post
    Anthony, I went out yesterday and fished about 6 hours between the two marinas and caught 10. I had 2 poles out and twice I had fish on both poles. I was fishing with corn on one and maggots on the other, didn't seem to make a difference. 3 oz. lead out about 60 ft. Went 2 hours at one point without a bite. Talked to some other folks who had not done as well. Not familiar with the reservoir all that much, where is Indian Cr? I would like to get enough to fill my smoker. Also, curious about what everyone uses for gear up there. My buddy that showed me how to troll last year for kokanee uses a 3 oz. hunk of lead to a gang of spinner blades and then a wedding ring spinner tipped with maggots. Anybody jig or have another method for catching these fish in Dworshak? Also, what is the ratio of lead to line length to reach a certain depth? I saw that graph somewhere and can't find it again. I don't have downriggers.
    Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Indian Creek is the inlet between Marys Bay and Canyon Creek. I would think 3 Oz would be to much, ( just my opinion). 1 oz. should be plenty- just let more line out. I fish with just the basics, Ford Fender and a green single hook wedding ring. (and of course a good snubber) I agree with whoever said more weight = more fish lost. We never use a net, just haul them in the boat. I believe they hit different with a single hook compared to double whammies and tend to get a deeper bite with single hooks. and treble hooks seem to be the worst of all for losing them. We will be going out again this week, they should be growing fast with the Nutrients they are adding to the reservoir.
    Good Luck fishing!

  23. #48
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Posts
    1

    Smile fishing for blueback at dworschak going up to try june1-5

    Quote Originally Posted by kenbarb View Post
    Has anyone fished Dworshak this year for Kokanee (2017) ?
    i'm going up to dworshack june1-5 will report on fishing, i start fishing 20-30 feet early in morning, and deeper as upper water warms will give report when i get back , I love at lewiston,idaho if any can add today or tell may 31 please let me know thanks smartingale

  24. #49
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Grangeville, Idaho
    Posts
    150

    Default

    Dropped in at Bruce's on Saturday at about 6:40 AM. Cruised on up to Indian Creek. Came across Icelander right off, in fact got right in his way as my son Tyler and I dropped a couple lines in the water and proceeded to get an instant tangle. While working that out we were worse than a derelict as every once in a while one of use would toss the kicker tiller left or right to correct the dizzying random twists and turn of a driverless powered boat. Most fun you can have at 1.2 MPH :D Afterwards, looked up and we were within talking range of a tinny that reminded of a post here, apologized for being a hazard and got to introduce ourselves and ask if he was a forum poster. Sure nuff, Icalander introduced self and we said our hello's and went to trying to be less of a hindrance to safe boating while we fished.

    We marked some nice clumps around Indian. Dropped a couple of long lines in and went to work on rigging the downriggers. Wasn't long until we had several nice 12 inch fat boys in the ice, all on long lines. I noticed the fish were in small clumps and you could hit them in the same area and go hitless most everywhere else. We were also losing LOTS of fish. I have never lost that many. As well, lots of times get solid hits that never turned into hook up. Really weird day.

    With marking fish around 35 foot we stuck the downriggers at 28 and 32. Never once, in the entire day, did we get a hook up on the downriggers. Nada, nuthin. Up, down, different gear. Even running identical gear as the longlines and working the depths up and up. The long lines ruled and the downriggers were silent.

    On the long lines we ran chrome, brass, scarlet, green, black, UV, whatever. Most hit was fancy multihued taped up 4 pop with a half green half red wedding ring with a scarlet smilie. At first red dyed corn was best, later on no dye with Mike's kokanee lotion. As the day went by we swapped our pop gear to shiny and bright as we could and kept hitting fish. We ran mostly 3/4 to 1 ounce weight on 60 foot of line. Largish and bright for the pop gear, the littler pop gear was pretty quiet. The dodgers and squids and super light gear hanging on the downriggers never got a hit, as far as I could tell. And I tried almost everything I own.

    Trolled on up to Canyon to see how the circus was doing. Generally I won't join the circus, I'd rather find a quiet place and tempt fate my own way. But saturday everyone was going kind of around each in random directions, no order at all, which is always amusing as long as you don't get run over. So we stayed for an hour or so to see if anyone had a wreck, ran aground or got sunk. Next the sheriff boat showed up and pulled up next to almost everyone for a check, which kept making things even more chaotic. Nothing extraordinary happened though. What finally drive us off was the fish we were catching were significantly smaller than what we were catching down at Indian, so back down we went. On the way, watched another boat pull a couple nice ones out about 100 yards off the big rock pile beach 3/4 of the way back to Indian, so headed in ourselves and hit all three long line in the water simultaneously. One of those was a 14 incher. Nice. Made a second pass, got one, kept going to the dock and pulled everything out and headed back before noon. Total catch was 16. Lost at least twice as many, which is something hasn't happened to us in a long time. And had dozens of hits that only amounted to cardio workouts with no fish on the line.

    A beautiful day on the water. Nice to meet ya Icelander, thanks for being so forgiving.

    Rick
    Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!

  25. #50

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
    Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Indian Creek is the inlet between Marys Bay and Canyon Creek. I would think 3 Oz would be to much, ( just my opinion). 1 oz. should be plenty- just let more line out. I fish with just the basics, Ford Fender and a green single hook wedding ring. (and of course a good snubber) I agree with whoever said more weight = more fish lost. We never use a net, just haul them in the boat. I believe they hit different with a single hook compared to double whammies and tend to get a deeper bite with single hooks. and treble hooks seem to be the worst of all for losing them. We will be going out again this week, they should be growing fast with the Nutrients they are adding to the reservoir.
    Good Luck fishing!
    Thanks Anthony, I will try all of that next time up. I probably can't get much more than 5 mph out of my motor and boat, so going to Indian cr. from Bruces might take a while. I would hate to get caught back there in a wind storm.Looks like a short distance from Canyon cr. but sounds like there are road issues getting to that launch.

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