HiTechKoke
Well-known member
I think the Fat Lady has sung for our 2011 Kokanee season as Rachel and I made one more trip to Berryessa to see if any Vampires were around for battle. What we found was an incredible early morning bite where the Kokes, Kings and Trout were keeping us busy for about 2 hours and then it was a scratch bite of mainly Rainbows and Kings. We had fish going 30 seconds into getting the first rod down to the depths. In the end it was 6 Kokes kept for us and we lost a few a the boat and below. It was a fun day where there were only 2 boats out there I could see that were fishing for Kokanee and we saw a few top liners going for trout. The good news is Rachel and I got our personal bests of the season at 18.5 and 19 inches that were 2lb 2oz and 2 1/2 lbs. It was another RMT Assasination morning that did the damage at 65-85 feet just before skiers cove at the mouth of the narrows.
What was a bit disappointing this year was not finding the big schools of Kokanee I have normally seen in that area consistently the last 2 years in September. In fact today we never ran across a school at all but the fish were down there, just scattered. They have to be hiding somewhere and schooling but with all the extra water and a thin thermocline in general it gives them a lot more water to be in this year. I scoped out the dam for about 10 minutes in the morning but did not see anything on the finder that made me stop so it was out to the same area as 3 weeks previous. Here's a few pics of our fish...some video footage to come later.
Sunrise at the not so secret spot...
Rachel wastes no time in collecting a nice 18.5 inch buck that gave her some nice runs.
Just one of the Kings that were just as eager to bite in the morning on our Kokanee gear...... they are fat and look great and were hard fighters.
My PB for the season at 19 inches, 2.5 lbs, the strange thing is it had not absorbed any of its meat so it was very fat even though the color was pinkish grey.
What was a bit disappointing this year was not finding the big schools of Kokanee I have normally seen in that area consistently the last 2 years in September. In fact today we never ran across a school at all but the fish were down there, just scattered. They have to be hiding somewhere and schooling but with all the extra water and a thin thermocline in general it gives them a lot more water to be in this year. I scoped out the dam for about 10 minutes in the morning but did not see anything on the finder that made me stop so it was out to the same area as 3 weeks previous. Here's a few pics of our fish...some video footage to come later.
Sunrise at the not so secret spot...
Rachel wastes no time in collecting a nice 18.5 inch buck that gave her some nice runs.
Just one of the Kings that were just as eager to bite in the morning on our Kokanee gear...... they are fat and look great and were hard fighters.
My PB for the season at 19 inches, 2.5 lbs, the strange thing is it had not absorbed any of its meat so it was very fat even though the color was pinkish grey.
