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Have recently been up as far as Hodson cr. The biggest concentration of koke's I say was at swamp cr. The last few weeks they have been pushing their way up the lake. at swamp we were catching them at the surface, no weight needed. about 30' behind the boat.
Sue, when are you going back up?
jeff...
 
If anyone is looking for a boat mate next weekend let me know. I live up the Lochsa a little ways and would love to get down on some Koke action, but I just don't have the boat/gear to do so. I of course don't mind chipping in for gas/bait/food/beer etc. Let me know if you are interested! I'm planning on coming down that way to probably fish the mornings for salmon below dworshak anyways and it would be a great alternative to the rest of the day.

Thanks!

Brandon
 
first trip up this year - started in dicks creek, found nice kokanee between floating dock and shore-they only hit going up and right after we crossed a point that came out so made loops thru same area,,,ran to elk river back to the buoys and fished our way back out, again got fish,,,all 10" except 4 a bit bigger,,,,fished 70' out with 3oz and 50-55 in elk river - ran weight attached to slider up on mainline, loved how it worked, landed 13 only lost 1 at the boat and had 3 nice takedowns that didnt stay, last fish of night might of been a rainbow hit hard and broke the leader,,,lure that worked was green apex with pink firecorn and mikes kokanee juice....hi jeff (cch jeff or jeff j??) no more fishing til my boat gets looked at, ran thru a bit of small surface junk at canyon that was all over, engine stuttered then picked back up seemed fine, less then a minute later temp gauge topped out and before i could get things shut down boat did on its own,,,,overheated enough to have radiator fluid bubbling over, kicker got a workout yesterday....
 
Has anyone fished Anderson Ranch? If so, did you stumble into any of the recently planted Chinook? I'd sure like to know what size they are. Mike
 
Fished arrowrock yesterday from about noon to 7 pm. Bite was slow for us. Caught 7 total, lost a couple. 5 of the fish were some of the biggest kok's I have caught out of arrowrock. 2 tipped the tape at 18" and were absolute pigs. We used orange and also pink uv hoochies, trolled behind willow leaf, same colored flashers and divers at about 15 to 20 ft. Had a couple hook ups on our deeper diver at about 30 ft. Not seeing any big schools yet still. Road was "quite pleasant" as usual and the beaches were already covered in garbage and oh how fun it is to troll to hip hop music cranked full boar by 10 different boats! Hope the campers clean up a little as they leave. surface temps were 62 to 66 depending on location in reservoir.
 
Has anyone fished Anderson Ranch? If so, did you stumble into any of the recently planted Chinook? I'd sure like to know what size they are. Mike

Fished Saturday from 9 to 4. Started at the dam and worked all the way to lime creek. Didn't see much on the fish finder. Nothing landed. Was targeting big fish all morning. Switched to Kokanee gear after lunch and still didn't do any good. Had a couple hits, but that was it. My buddy showed up with his boat and fish most of the day for Kokanee. They landed 1 dinky kok.

Surface temp was about 56. Water has been rising over a foot a day so that isn't helping. Maybe worth a shot in a few weeks once the water level has settled down.
 
Hi fishingmom, Sounds like you lost the sea water pump. I assume from the sounds of things you have a fresh water cooled (heat exchanger with antifreeze coolant) stern drive? Usually there is a water pump in the stern drive to bring in lake water to the heat exchanger. They get old and brittle and then ingestion of junk does them in. Hope you can get it fixed soon and back on those kokes! Alan
 
i have a customweld, 4.3 with american turbine,,,,my husband took a look today, oil was good and clean and engine turned over, i didnt get a chance to pull the bowl cover and check if i can see anything up in there but will take it in and have it looked over - while running up in the morning also had something sucked in, stopped and reversed in a circle and ran fine rest of time.....thanks
 
That has been my plan......starting by the dam. Maybe we just have to be patient and let them get bigger. We'll have to stay in touch until we figure this one out. But, this is what I most enjoy about fishing.....starting from scratch and figuring out how to connect. So many variables with Chinook. Unlike kokes, where you can at least narrow down the depth a bit, the Chinooks can be anywhere from 100+ to the surface. Thanks for sharing. Sorry you didn't at least pick up a few stunted kokanee!! Oh well, all the better to fit in the mouth of a Chinook. Mike
 
Fun day on Sunday. Fished between Dent and Elks and lucked into a school. Down pretty deep with 4oz and about 160' of line. Caught 25 in a very fun afternoon of fishing. Lost a bunch, but am still learning.
 
first trip up this year - started in dicks creek, found nice kokanee between floating dock and shore-they only hit going up and right after we crossed a point that came out so made loops thru same area,,,ran to elk river back to the buoys and fished our way back out, again got fish,,,all 10" except 4 a bit bigger,,,,fished 70' out with 3oz and 50-55 in elk river - ran weight attached to slider up on mainline, loved how it worked, landed 13 only lost 1 at the boat and had 3 nice takedowns that didnt stay, last fish of night might of been a rainbow hit hard and broke the leader,,,lure that worked was green apex with pink firecorn and mikes kokanee juice....hi jeff (cch jeff or jeff j??) no more fishing til my boat gets looked at, ran thru a bit of small surface junk at canyon that was all over, engine stuttered then picked back up seemed fine, less then a minute later temp gauge topped out and before i could get things shut down boat did on its own,,,,overheated enough to have radiator fluid bubbling over, kicker got a workout yesterday....

jeff j here
 
thought i might have seen you come thru dicks crk on sunday jeff? will be back up june 17th probably launch at dent this time....said hello to you at gibbs eddy a few weeks back not sure you heard, you were busy getting ready to launch, i was sitting in a friends sled...
 
Fished yesterday also,ended up with 7 total,4 being 18" and 2 at 16" and a small one damaged by the hook. Also kept three nice trout. Fished away from the crowds so it took a while as the fish seem to be scattered. Red was our most productive color,although nice fish caught on pink and green also. Smaller fish, Trout, and squaw fish were caught on riggers. Our big fish were caught on long lines out 100' with 5/8 ounce of weight ,sling blade and uv crappie tubes.
Have a great season. If you see two old farts in a 1972 starcraft Falcon 14' painted bronco orange and blue say hi!
 
thought i might have seen you come thru dicks crk on sunday jeff? will be back up june 17th probably launch at dent this time....said hello to you at gibbs eddy a few weeks back not sure you heard, you were busy getting ready to launch, i was sitting in a friends sled...

I have been on the lake most everyday since early april. There are kokanee everywhere! The biggesy concentration I have found is fall cr to weitas cr. pretty good school! Most of them can be caught at the surface, no need for wieght. kinda nice! The bass catching has been pretty good. The big hens are pouting at the moment. they just finishing up the spawn and when they start eating again, we will start catching. Lots of little males to play with! Looks to be a pretty fun summer coming!

Sue and all: Don't be afraid to ask for a fishing report! Currently i am on the lake 6 out of 7 days. The wife wants to move my posy office box up there.
 
thanks jeff, will be in touch before i go again mid june,,,,not a bad place to spend your time, my favorite....
 
Fished LP this AM 8-11, caught 15, but more trout than kokes. Couldn't keep the trout off. Pretty constant action all morning. Strangely, talked to two boats at the ramp who hadn't had so much as a bite. Different area? Maybe. The other day we landed all the kokanee but one, but today we lost 9 in a row. Part of the problem might be that we took a newbie along!! Beautiful day and little wind. Mike
 
Kodiak, It sounds like a great day at the lake. I think the 20/80 rule applies here, and from your reports, you are one of the 20% who catch 80% of the fish! Nothing like a newbie to help drop your hookup to catch ratio, but it is all worth it when they finally get one to the net.thumbsup
 
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Sawtooth,
Wish that were true, but then again, if you've been fishing for over 60 years, you sure should have picked up something along the way!! I do think the fishing this summer will be better than last year. Seems like there are more kokes in the res. God knows there are more trout! Who went and told them that shoepeg was tasty?! Mike
 
Anytime I take a newb out to show them how to fish I stink, not sure what the connection is but for that reason I dread taking anyone else out. I will be on the lake tomorrow morning running FRS 8.8 or 21.12 if any one is out and wants to chat.
 

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