Late Wickiup Report 5/9-5/11

Well I finally made my way down there this year and was pleased with the quality of the kokes. Fat and very feisty. More often than not you knew you had a fish on because it was immediately breaking water jumping and splashing on the surface. Had a young osprey come by thinking he could grab a cheap and easy meal but that particular koke decided to run deep and take his chances with me. He still lost.

I arrived friday mid morning, set up camp and just relaxed and settled in. Saturday I was on the water and fishing by 7 around the Davis arm area. Pretty foggy morning. I had heard reports of the fish running shallow so I just long lined a green WR behind a 4/0 dodger with a Gulp egg. That produced 2 fish for the cooler and 7 long releases. Marked fish deeper and tried the DR but to no avail. I was feeling humbled by only catching 2 but from what I saw on the water and conversations at the ramp I did about average. The fish had just gone off the bite. Maybe a big bright moon phase? Sunday was a repeat of saturday (started 6am) with what little bite there was ending as the fog cleared and the sun hit the water. Monday I was up and at it at 5 am. No fog, cloudy and the breezey. Slooowwer, 2 bites 1 fish. The wind started picking up and I headed in to finish packing for the 4 hour trip home.

Had a relaxing time and met some good people. Threw the tackle box at them but all fish came on the green wedding ring. Kokes ran 14.5 - 16 inches.

Thanks for the report. Those fish sure keep you coming back for more. I don't know what it is about Wickiup, but those fish seem to have more fight in them than fish from any other lake I fish.

Way to go Splash. Sometimes you can stay busy just by throwing anything you can at them. As for an Osprey, I saw one take a dive about 50ft from my boat and come up with a fish good enough for the frying pan for my standards. Its amazing watching these birds. Unfortunately, I'm not quick enough with a camera. Great report, thanks for sharing.

Wickiup...

Love that lake, caught my first Koke on that body of water; and have been hooked ever since. Learned how to cast and retrieve through a school and became very adept at it. Then learned jigging then came trolling...man I miss that lake, Browns,Rainbows,Brookies and best of all the Kokes. The Wickiup sundea comes to mind, many of fatties have come by way of this presentation.
So much water and so little time......good to be alive.

Chuck