Barb (my wife) and I got away last Wed. with the motorhome and boat in tow, headed for Dworshak State Park & Freeman Creek Campground, from our home in Hell's Canyon it's a two hour trip, and a very scenic drive using the Kendric route. After launching the boat and getting things situated at the camping spot we went out Bass fishing for a while, the fishing was really good, catching fish along the shoreline in the bays.
Thursday we fished for Kokanee late in the afternoon, using two downriggers and one long line, hits seemed to be a little better on the long line. We did not get into any big schools, and quit fishing after catching ten. We were using ultra lite spinning rods with the downriggers, flashers attached to the ball, and the terminal lure 30" above the flashers, with a setback about 2' behind the flashers. The long line had a string of flashers, 3oz. banana weight, we used a 60' setback.
Friday was the day we had chosen to fish hard for Kokanee, was on the water at 7:00am, had the lines in at 7:30. Started at the Indian Creek area, and was into fish right away, the long line is the best producer , it is much quicker to pull a fish in, re-bait and get the line back in the water compared to the downriggers, so we decide to quit using the downriggers, and put out 3 long lines. The bite then really turned on, and it was a Kokanee frenzy, there was very little time between fish, several times getting triples, and a lot of doubles. We pulled the lines in and motored to the Canyon Creek Campground for lunch break, then it was back after Kokanee, we kind of lost the exact count on the fish, and decided to quit fishing at 3:00pm, we knew we were near our 50 fish limit. We pulled into a secluded cove and set up a production line for fish cleaning, turned out we had 49 Kokanee.
The weather was some overcast for short periods, a little breeze now and then, water temp. 64F to 68F, ambient air temp. around 80F. We used dyed scented corn, the best color was red & pink, with red being the best.
When we got back to the Park the weekend people were really coming in, with most of the camping spots filled, we are both retired and usually only go camping Mon. thru Thur., so it seemed pretty crowded, but was still really nice, and a lot of fun watching the little kids play, brings back a lot of memories. Stayed overnite, then drove home Sat. morning.
We have reservations for #14 campsite at the park for this Wed. & Thur. , so if any of you are in the area, stop by for a cup of coffee.
Ken & Barb