Payette Lake

[BonkinKokes]

Anyone fish kokes or trout on Payette? Was thinking of taking the boat over but don't know if its worth it. Thanks for any information.

[kodiak1]

Should be good, considering how many they have been planting, plus the natural reproduction. I can remember when we regularly got 15 kokes a day...the limit then...out of there. Nobody knew about shoepeg corn or hoochies back then. We always used triple teasers...silver with a red head...single hook. They wouldn't touch a treble for some reason. Good luck and let me know how you do. We are heading up in a couple of weeks. Mike

[BonkinKokes]

What size kokes did you catch? That lake is super cold even in July when we go have our family reunion. I would imagine the kokes and trout will be pretty shallow. Any part of the lake you would recommed we start at?

[kodiak1]

I always preferred the northern part of the lake, and the Pilgrim's Cove area, but only because that is where our cabin was. They will certainly drop to 20' at times. We have caught more than one big mackinaw with a dinky little triple teaser while koke fishing. We often let one line just drop while fighting a koke on the other. Then, when we popped it in gear again, there was the mack. That's fun on light line and the smallest of lures!! Oh, to answer your question, they don't get that big. The average over many years was probably 10-12". Mike

[BonkinKokes]

Thanks again for the info. Now to decide if I want to take the boat or let my son drive his down from Montana. Then there's my son-in-law's Dad's boat in Boise. Hmmm so many choices.101chromefish101

[idahowolverine]

Hey Bonkinkokes, I fished Payette lake last year in August. I was only up there for one day but we went 4 for 5 for lake trout. My son had a hockey camp so I took him out after his camp was over. We just went out past the big island and set our downriggers at 60 and 70ft. My graph was not working so we were fishing blind. We only trolled for a couple of hour but had a great time. Our biggest fish was around 15lbs or so with the other ones around 10 or so. We are headed back up at the beginning of aug. for another camp but this time i am going for all 4 days and a new graph

[BonkinKokes]

That was a productive few hours of fishing. Thanks for the info.