That's an Elite 9Ti. I got it for several reasons - one, I wanted better sonar performance and had never used CHIRP. For those that don't know, CHIRP combines frequencies and rotates through them to make a display with more information. Well, learned my lesson fast, CHIRP doesn't give you any better information with Kokanee, so I always use the lowest freq which gives the widest (and shallowest) cone. Second, I next want to add a networked bow mounted trolling motor so I can set its path and work my lines. My Honda kicker is nice, but is both off center mounted and takes a lot of tending. A small wind change and I am out making circles. I got the Ti so I could connect all and run from an iPad in the stern. I bought the Lowrance as a factory refurb. Had to send it back since it had some misbehaviors. Other than coming back set to run in russian, it has amazed me with its sonar quality.
Sorry, more than you asked.
Rick
Last edited by ricks; 07-03-2019 at 04:12 PM.
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
I measure bite by what happened to ME recently. I fished a few days ago and stayed busy the whole time reeling in fish. This trip was half as busy and I ran around looking for reasons why. I have very seldom had as good a fishery as this years Dworshak kokanee. This is wonderful. It is all relative. Many lakes with warmer waters the fishermen there would sneer at our 12-14 inch fish. For us, heaven. I am dazzled by the clouds of fish on the sonar!
I didn't even look around at the dam or Merrys Bay. I plopped the boat in and cruised up to Elk at around 35MPH. If I didn't have a boat that made the trip faster than trailering up to Dent, I would definitely trailer up and put in. From Dent, 10 minute cruise and in the fish. The boat I run is an old ski boat that I swapped out the 3.0L 4 banger for a 4.3L V6. I basically rebuilt the whole thing to go kokanee or bass fishing. Hardly enough room in it for three people who get along reasonably well..... but it does cruise well in smooth waters under 50 MPH.
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
I've played with the different frequencies and never got better results than straight 83kHz. Here's a little better shot, I have sensitivity set to auto. I do play with that manually a lot, got the best results on auto that day. I set depth to 100 ft. I don't really care what is below a 100 foot when I am going for kokes. Still tells me where bottom is, in this case 109 ft. And the solid line at 26 foot is my downrigger ball. Kokanee give good arch returns since they have such a massive air bladder along their spine. That arch shows best at 83kHz as well. You will usually see less of an arch when using 200 kHz and no arch at all with down imaging, just a dot. I don't bother with down or side scan with kokanee.
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
I have heard from other locals that Magnus Bay is the hot spot, however, I am going to scope out Elk creek and Dent before I trudge up there. I'll report back, good or bad, manana.
Rick
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
Went up to Magnus from Dent. Fishing from about 9 to 4. Between the 3 of us we boated 2 & lost about the same amount. Never did mark any big schools. We were fishing long lines with 3 oz. out 59 to 69. I started out with sling blades but they kept getting tangled so switched to pop gear. Guess I have to figure out why they keep getting tangled.
I stuck with the plan and stayed right around the point at the west side of Elk Creek. There were loads of fish on the finder, especially on each side of the ridges. We tried a little of everything, downriggers with ford fenders was best. Long lines with 2 oz and bright shiny trolls were OK. For the first time I was playing with a sidewinder side planer board. Pretty neat when it works, PITA when it screws up. Major PITA when it wanders and twists up in other lines. I'm still thinking it is a great way to run lines out 40 or 50 feet from the boat. I'm going to keep working one to see if I can master working it.
Most of the fish came on the fenders set at 26 ft. Also did well at 40-50 ft at times. Caught 26, almost all in the 14 inch range. Today was my son's 19th and he wanted to wakeboard. So we spent a couple hours at that. 26 in 4ish hours, did OK. Fish are still there. The cooler weather has em feeding and growing. This is about the most awesome fishery I have ever imagined. And they haven't stocked Dworshak with any kokanee in 30 years, all self sustaining.
Rick
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
Had a great few days on Dworshak. Some days limits came fast, other days slower. Mostly around 12" with a few 13". S turns and speed changes especially when they were off the bite. Yesterday marked lots of fish at Elk Creek but bite didn't start til sun broke thru clouds. Fished traditional but had to experiment to find what consistently worked. Great year!
Just an fyi that Dworshak has been stocked w/ Kokes during years after large losses over the dam. At least some and perhaps all have come from Deadwood Res. Been there talking to the biologists when they were trapping for Dworshak. It was the only way to save/sustain kokes at Dworshak after massive losses. The Idaho Fish & Game has done a super job sustaining and enhancing a challenging fishery due to huge water fluctuations. Even at that if Dworshak was kept at full pool most of the year, as originally planned, the fish would be muck larger and that without supplemental fertilization.
Last edited by icelander; 07-18-2019 at 09:11 AM.
Yah. I talked to the Dworshak biologist yesterday. He said last time was late 90's, exactly as you stated. They started a new targeted fertilizer program. They've been studying which planktons they can target that improves kokanee. They have to be pretty careful, made a lot of mistakes over the years. I called him just to let them know how appreciative I was of their efforts and how awesome the fishery is this year.
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
Bout that time for the pre spawn migration up the reservoir. Anyone care to divulge their luck the last couple days or how far up you gotta go to get into good numbers now?
Thanks for the tip. I will check out the Chamberlain releases.
This is my first time posting here so be gentle. I discovered Super Dippin Sauce about 5 years ago. I dye my corn with cherry cool aid and put about a teaspoon of Super Dippin Sauce in it the night before. While I'm fishing I dump a little corn into an open container and let it dry a little. It's never failed me.
Believe it or not, never heard of Super Dippin Sauce. There's a lot of stuff out there. Just bought and tried some of Graybills Koke soak. Don't really know if it is great stuff or not, I didn't have that great of a fishing day yesterday. LOTS and LOTS of fish on the finder, just a lot harder work. Almost all my takes were off the downriggers at 60'.
I dropped into the water at Dent yesterday at 6AM. Never even fired up the main, just putted off the dock and dropped lines in the water. There are a lot of fish still down around Dent. Here's a screenshot of heading west off Dent ramp. I was running a 32 ft downrigger and a 63 footer.
Caught 22 fish in the AM between there and the bridge. I found the long lines catching smaller fish that we mostly were able to toss back.
That evening at 5 made a run to Reeds, dropped lines in the water and immediately got to work to where we couldn'ty seem to get the rest of the lines in the water. The fish were really clustered though, several hundred yards short of getting to Reeds and to the north side of the channel. Caught a handful and then nuthin. Worked it over and over for the next couple hours before heading back. Here's a screenshot of what we saw there in the main channel before Reeds Creek.
Kind of frustrating. Others on the water mentioned that the fishing was a bit slower. Lots of fun, and lots of fish on the finder, but I didn't do all that well. I found most of my big catches came at 60ish feet with sling blades bent to give more action and a small pink/white hoochie.
Rick
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
I've always heard that as the water warms the kokes head deeper. I did not know the water temp they like.... I might have to get a thermometer to read temps down deeper, maybe like this.https://fishingandhuntingheaven.com/...nd-depth-gauge. I'm glad you mentioned the temp you heard they like. Have to do some reading.......
Rick
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
This might save a few shekels http://www.nwd-wc.usace.army.mil/ftp...1_2019_07.html but I don't know how accurate it would hold farther up
Probably good enough along with the sonar to get a good idea where to drop a line. I'm going to head up sunday and see what I can do in Magnus. I figure most of the activity will be down around your afore mentioned 54ƒ zone. I had a couple fish in last weeks catch that were starting to blush their skin. Not long now before we lose the 4 year old fishery to the spawn.
Gray/White Bluewater - Stop and say howdy!
Fishing in general and Kokanee in particular are about being in the right place at the right time. Dworshak has been the right place this year I just can't seem to be there on a hot fishing day. We were up 2 weeks ago and spent the entire day in Elk Creek, and only managed to get 10 in the boat. I talked to a fellow fisherman at the cleaning station at Big Eddy and the day before he had caught a limit, that day he only got 8, and several were small. This is the first year I have ever had downriggers, they have been outfishing the long lines and lead. Brad's pink magic kokanee cut plug tipped with scented corn has been my most productive lure. We're planning on being up on Sunday. I'm going to try stacking lines for the 1st time. I hope it doesn't turn into a big birds nest. This may be the last Koke run for us if they don't cooperate. I really don't want to make the journey to Granddad, even though I know that's where they are headed. I've learned a lot this year and am looking forward to next year.
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