2013 Dworshak Fishing Thread

[amxerhull]

Any recent reports from Dworshak?

 

[jumperzee]

Went a week and a half ago and caught nothing but trout. I'm a complete newbie though (never caught a kokanee yet!). Was trolling wedding ring spinnners (all colors) tipped with corn about 12-18" back off a dodger. Everywhere from shallow to 10' down or so on the DR.

Mostly fished by the dam across from Big Eddy.....seemed to pick up lots of fish on the FF going across the points. Fish looked to be suspended 10-15' deep.

Any thoughts, help or otherwise appreciated. Have heard reports of guys doing real good on the same days we were there, so I'm either not finding them or not doing something right, or both.

 

[kenbarb]

jumperzee, I am by no means a expert kokanee fisherman, but my guess is that you were too shallow, I would start in the 30' range. If you see several boats in a general area, try that area, especially if you see fish being caught. You might get close enough to ask what depth they are fishing at, just tell them you are new at fishing for kokanee, they will probably be very helpful.

 

[onemorecast]

My son and I went out on Wednesday the 3rd of April. We trolled for an hour and a half with no luck. We switched our rigs to ford fenders and wedding rings and caught one in 15 minutes! It ended up being the only one for the next hour and a half. 3 hours total and 1 fish. There were several other boats and we didn't see anyone else catch anything. The fish we caught was in the widest part of canyon creek. The ford fender had one gold and one silver blade with reflective prisms on each, 1 oz of lead, and a wedding ring with a silver blade and green beads tipped with a bit of night crawler. It was a gorgeous day I wish the fish would have cooperated better.

 

[elkbowhntr]

Fished Dworshak on March 21 and 22. Weather was not the best with rain and some wind, but we did manage to put 25 in the cooler over the two days fished. The 21st we fished at the dam then headed up to the State Park for Saturday. Fishing was much better near the park. We used several different styles of pop gear and found that silver was best. We fished with Kokabow spinners and found that blue and green were the hot colors. Depth we cought the most fish was in the 20 foot range.This was our first trip to Dworshak and was very enjoyable. Will be back.

 

[kenbarb]

Thanks for your comments elkbowhntr, makes me want to hook up the boat and head over there. Three questions, how far are you running the spinners behind your pop gear, what size were the kokanee, and were you able to mark the fish on your fishfinder?

 

[elkbowhntr]

We run the spinner about 16" behind the pop gear (not including snubber). Fishfinder picked up plenty of fish and we spent a majority of our time about 100 to 200 yards from land. We also found that speed played a key role and varied from .5 to 1.5 mph and made plenty of turns. The fish seemed to like the faster speed that weekend. Size averaged 10 to 11 inches but we did pick up a handfull that were 14 inches or so.

Hope this helps.

 

[kenbarb]

Thank you for the information elkbowhntr, that was very generous of you. I ordered some of the Kokabow spinners, and can hardly wait to try them out, sounds like they are top quality, and best of all, the Kokanee like them, had never heard of them until I read your comment, so thanks again. I recently spooled our two Scotty downriggers with Spectra 150# braid, so with that and the Kokabow spinners it should be fun. The fish you caught were really nice size, looks like another good year for Dworshak, it is such a beautiful unpopulated place to fish.

 

[fishingmom]

I missed some good spring break weather last week to fish but had some other things come up, back to work and now iam antsy to go and watching Sunday's forecast closely...glad to hear of some good catching,,,will put a report up as soon as I go...

 

[kenbarb]

I have been anxious to read your fishing report fishingmom, have not been able to get out yet, first I got a horrible cold, with a terrible cough, just as I was getting over it my fishing partner and wife caught it. Can hardly wait to get on the water, new braided line on the downriggers, new Chamberlin Releases, and a nice assortment of Kokabow lures to use, lot of exciting stuff to try out, just hope we do as well as elkbowhntr on his last trip.

 

[fishingmom]

No I still have not gone,,, but, looking now at next Friday/Saturday, we don't have school and hoping the weather forecast holds as it shows sun and 70's- ready to try a few new things,,,soaking some corn in green fire trout bait and also anxious to try graybills Kokanee scent. There will be better fishing days/weather coming and the Kokanee are only growing as we wait

 

[fishslayer13]

Fishing Dworshak has been extremly slow with the snow melt off bringing some of the water temps to 39 to 42. Plus they have been letting a lot of water out of the dam. When it warms up next week, if it holds, the week after will produce fish, fast and a lot of them. By that I mean you should put 50 fish in the boat in around the 2 to 3 hour mark. A friend was just here in the shop and went 2 days last week and 3 days this week. I know he knows how to catch kokes. He said his best day was last week with 27 in the boat and his worst was yesterday with no hits. Said he talked to several other guys and they were done fishing until the weather changes.
He did hang some good bass later in the day last week trolling a walleye rig with a night crawler on the bottom. One topped 6 pounds.

 

[fishingmom]

Thanks for the report,, good to know and looking forward to some good weather and fishing.

 

[fishingmom]

Fished yesterday, beautiful sunny day,,, painfully slow fishing - we ran 4 rods, changed depths lures dodgers and bait with 1 nice fat 11" to show in canyon creek, had a double in indian canyon and lost both,,,,fish hit at 45' line out and 65' with an ounce weight....talked to 3 other boats who had 0, 0, and 3 Kokanee who also tried everything...we also ran up and fished across from dicks creek - heard the fish are up around Magnus bay already, water level is very high already would that make them move so early?

 

[fishingmom]

Dworshak reservoir associations website has a new trawl survey from Evans creek area above Magnus bay, they found more Kokanee in that area then anywhere down from there, fish are bigger as well....

 

[amxerhull]

Fished yesterday, beautiful sunny day,,, painfully slow fishing - we ran 4 rods, changed depths lures dodgers and bait with 1 nice fat 11" to show in canyon creek, had a double in indian canyon and lost both,,,,fish hit at 45' line out and 65' with an ounce weight....talked to 3 other boats who had 0, 0, and 3 Kokanee who also tried everything...we also ran up and fished across from dicks creek - heard the fish are up around Magnus bay already, water level is very high already would that make them move so early?

We were there Thursday with pretty much the same results. Surface water temp was 53 degrees so we thought we might get into a few but it was slow.

 

[jumperzee]

Same results here. Fished Canyon Creek for half the day yesterday and no luck. Saw two caught, everyone else I talked too was having no luck either. Sheriff's boat doing safety checks siad that he only talked to one person who had any luck. Plenty of fish on the FF though.

Had quite an adventure putting in at the Canyon Creek ramp. Wow. Not something I plan on doing ever again. Got all sorts of lost getting there and then backing down a long ramp barely wider than the truck. I was so stressed out by the time I got there I forgot to put the drain plug in the boat - DOH!. Yep, that was me, the doomass bailing with my battery box first thing in the AM if anyone got the show. Got a flat tire on the truck on the way out to boot. Next time I'll stay on pavement....

 

[kenbarb]

Thanks for the reports fishingmom, hard to believe the kokanee have moved that far uplake, but it sounds like they have, guess we will be going to Dent Acres, and fishing from there. Elk Creek might be a good place to start.

 

[kenbarb]

Thanks for the heads up jumperzee, thought that might be a good spot for a quick trip, but not so. Some days are just better than others, but it sounds like yours started off bad, and went downhill from there. Thanks for sharing, reminds me of a few I would like to forget.

 

[fishingmom]

(Water temp was 50-52 Friday),,,friend was up yesterday and caught 1 around canyon creek, one boat they spoke to was doing well on the surface with no weight.