2013 Dworshak Fishing Thread

Anybody fishing Dworshak yet, any information on the size and population?

Dworshak's Facebook page has a recent report of Kokanee being caught with some 12", it's going to be a good year again when they fill out....

Its been slow so haven't been in a while but , its a few fish at best a day. Good news is there good size, some hitting 13 or 14 inches. Talking with the F&G sometime these big fish that didn't spawn, winter kill for some reason. Hopefully not. Last summer was a spectacular koke year. We were hitting 75 fish limit for 3 people in the boat in 4 hours or less.

Do the fish tend to be at the dam area this time of year?

Yes most of the time until about the end of May. Try straight across from big eddy and troll to Bruces eddy in about 125 foot of water. Then Hit the ridge in Indian creek closest to the dam and head slightly in and the direction of canyon creek. Then if no, go to the first bay above canyon creek and do a circle in there in as shallow as 60 feet bottom. If no luck head to the entrance of Elk creek and fish the bank on the Dent bridge side from the mouth in about 300 yards and back. Make sure you have a bottom under you of 80 to 125 feet.

Thank you fishslayer13 for all the good information. Several years ago my wife and I camped at Dent Acres quite a few times, fished Elk Creek, Dent Bridge area, Cranberry Creek, Magnus Bay, and on up past Grandad Campground, but have never fished from Elk Creek to the dam. What terminal tackle are you using this time of year? We used to have a hard time locating schools of Kokanee due to heavy alge which interfered with the fishfinder signal, when we fished back in the bays, we could mark fish, but in the main body of water it was hard to locate fish where the alge was present. Our go to terminal tackle was was a "Jack-O-Loyd", which was a string of four or five spinners, and a wedding ring attached to a 18" leader. It worked great, but the drag was so heavy it was sometimes hard to tell if a fish was on. Once again, thanks for the reply.

Thank you, fishslayer. I have fished Canyon Creek and Elk Creek a lot but didn't know much about the dam area. Also, I always fly right past Indian Creek so I will make some passes there.

For the first time last year I fished the apex lures which wound up being the go-to favorite,,,,I also took apart my jack a loyd flashers and made smaller strings that fished well with less drag - an older gentleman up there said to get copper colored blades and use a 3m pad to take the shine off and rig up a flasher with them, that worked really well also

Thanks for the information on the Apex Lures fishingmom, have a pretty good assortment that I used with success at Wallowa Lake, and will try them at Dworshak. I noticed Bruces Eddy Campground located near the dam, looks like a good place to stay overnight, and also the shortest drive, does anyone have any first hand information on this campsite?

Heres some of our go to for fishing gear for dworshak.

These are 19 inches or so long . Less drag when fishing. The bottom one is my best producer, its a luhr jensen model T, I think. 2 blades,
the larger blade in front. The others are a gibbs type the copper is the better producer.






These sling blades work from time to time. The agitator produces earlier in the year. But you must set your spinner back 3 feet or more from the agitator. I like it because it can be trolled at .5 or .8 of a mile per hour. Very slow. Great at this time of year when fish can be slow. The sling blades are very large 7 inchers. The middle one is actually pink.







These are my favorite spinners for Dworshak copper when its slow. The middle 2 are the same lure red on top of blade, green under side of blade. 80 percent of the fish I catch in Dworshak come off the red green spinner. The white with sparkles seems to work when others wont. But some time you cant give it away. The pink can be very good .





I do fish with down riggers and gps. Find your fish and beat them to death until you find what they like. Corn soaked in anise smelly jelly or pro cure carp spit helps also. It can be slow this time of year but your fish finder can help. They are some what scattered this time of year.
Hope this helps.

kenbarb said:

Thanks for the information on the Apex Lures fishingmom, have a pretty good assortment that I used with success at Wallowa Lake, and will try them at Dworshak. I noticed Bruces Eddy Campground located near the dam, looks like a good place to stay overnight, and also the shortest drive, does anyone have any first hand information on this campsite?

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Neither Bruce's Eddy nor Big Eddy allow overnight camping. There are a few camp spots about a mile from the dam off the entry road. The main campgrounds are Freeman Creek (State) and Dent Acres (federal) but I am not sure they are open this early in the year.

Big eddy actually has a small area just off main road as you drive in....

http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/DworshakDamandReservoir/DamViewCampground.aspx

I talked to Ranger Charlie per telecon at Dworshak today, he said Dwarshak state park, and freeman creek campground are open year round, he also mentioned the very small camping area on the road to Big Eddy, said it is closed now but will be open in about a month. Charlie had talked to several fisherman that said the Kokanee fishing is good, they were running around eleven inches, and fat, he said they were catching them in the Big Eddy area. Thank you fishslayer13 for sharing the information, and the great pictures, it was really nice of you to do that.

Early in the year with the reservoir down might check if the ramp is open you are headed to, sometimes big eddy is open before others....also, try a container of corn soaked in red or pink power bait,,,,mix a couple tablespoons of power bait in just enough warm water to dissolve and soak corn overnight. All the ridges that come down to the water, if you use your depth finder the tops will be very shallow, if you go straight in towards shore on either side where it drops off and work those areas you can find stacks of fish!

Thanks for the information fishingmom, I will get some corn colored up, hope to be going over there soon. When I talked to Ranger Charlie yesterday he said the launches at the park and Big Eddy were both open. Barb and I will be traveling from Asotin, Ranger Charlie gave us the best route to get to the park using the Kendrick route, the distance from our home to Big Eddy via Orofino, is the same as getting to the Dworshak Park using the Kendrick route. That was a pleasant surprise, we have always driven to Dent Acres, and the down hills were always a problem with surge brakes on the boat trailer, last fall I replaced the surge brakes with electric brakes, now the long slow downhills are not a problem. If anyone out there has a similar problem the brake changeout cost about $400.00 if you do it yourself, it is well worth it, you will not have any more blown grease caps and overheated bearings.

Gave it a go last Saturday. We were surprised by the number of boats chasing kokanee. We fished the Big Eddy/Bruce's Eddy and Canyon Creek areas. We caught one and saw one caught.

Thanks for the comments amxerhull, sure thought it it would be better fishing. Did you fish the ridges like fishingrmom suggested? Last Sunday a friend from our church said a couple of guys he knows caught about ten each last week in the Canyon Creek area. as soon as I shake a cold I aquired Barb and I will give it a try, plan on staying at the Freeman Creek Campground. We will probably fish the Freeman Creek inlet, then head toward Canyon Creek, Indian Creek, and on up to the Big Eddy area. For us that are Senior's over 62, camping is half price at the Dworshak State Park, Monday thru Thursday, just thought I would throw that out there for those that did not know.

kenbarb said:

Thanks for the comments amxerhull, sure thought it it would be better fishing. Did you fish the ridges like fishingrmom suggested? Last Sunday a friend from our church said a couple of guys he knows caught about ten each last week in the Canyon Creek area. as soon as I shake a cold I aquired Barb and I will give it a try, plan on staying at the Freeman Creek Campground. We will probably fish the Freeman Creek inlet, then head toward Canyon Creek, Indian Creek, and on up to the Big Eddy area. For us that are Senior's over 62, camping is half price at the Dworshak State Park, Monday thru Thursday, just thought I would throw that out there for those that did not know.

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We were unable to find any concentration of fish including the sides of the ridges. Let us know how you do when you get out.

Saw a nice report with pictures from the wkend of hit and miss fishing near the dam with Kokanee 12-14"....plan to wait and go the first week of April if the weather is good. (for 'snubbers',,,,,started making them out of narrow elastic, quite a bit cheaper then buying the rubber tubing ones, you do need to watch them for wear)

Sounds like good news fishingmom, especially the size, soon as I shake this darn cold we will give it a try. I have been using the elastic snubbers for several years, really like them and they last a long time.