MackayGuy
Well-known member
Here at Wallowa......first drop of the down rigger this morning immediately hooked a 20" koke. They're in here. Wind came up so waiting for it to die down.
2013 Wallowa Lake Report Thread.
- Thread starter DLM
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Here at Wallowa......first drop of the down rigger this morning immediately hooked a 20" koke. They're in here. Wind came up so waiting for it to die down.
Nice going MackayGuy!
Whenever I'm in the piney woods and the wind blows I always think about Clint Eastwood in, "Paint Your Wagoin" singing "They Call The Wind Mariah." NO, I don't know any other show tunes! It's just the movie was set in the Sierra Nevadas where I live and it always blows in the afternoon in the Nat'l Forest. I hope it lays down for you so you can fish...and no thunder storms in the afternoon.
I bet the PMs are 'aflying.
Whenever I'm in the piney woods and the wind blows I always think about Clint Eastwood in, "Paint Your Wagoin" singing "They Call The Wind Mariah." NO, I don't know any other show tunes! It's just the movie was set in the Sierra Nevadas where I live and it always blows in the afternoon in the Nat'l Forest. I hope it lays down for you so you can fish...and no thunder storms in the afternoon.
I bet the PMs are 'aflying.
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azbohunter
Active member
Nice.......
DLM
Oregon Forum MODERATOR
I hate to be nit picky, but I got to stand up for my state! Paint your wagon was filmed in Oregon, may have been "set" in the Sierra Nevada but the scenery came from good old Oregon.
http://www.oregonicons.com/paintyourwagon.htm
Most but not all.
Once you get above 3,000' on the West coast, lots of places look like lots of places.Paint Your Wagon was shot near Baker City, Oregon with filming beginning in May 1968 and ending in October.[2] Other locations include Big Bear Lake, California and San Bernardino National Forest;
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MackayGuy
Well-known member
Update on Wallowa.....just got back from 4 days fishing. First drop of the DR and that first fish was the best. After that everything we caught was either trout or smaller kokes. The kokes seem to be really scattered. We could see some, and a fair size, in the clear water down to about 15' just off from the marina. We threw every thing we had at 'em. Hooked up a couple that seemed to be and felt good size, but lost em about halfway to the boat. From the folks we talked to at the ramp, the best fishing seemed to be slinging powerbait from the shore by the marina ramp. They were catching lot's of trout. I didn't see any size other than I saw one guy throw back what looked like a nice sized trout.
kokaneekid
Well-known member
I would love to see a picture of the 20inch Kokanee. I've been telling people to not waste the gas to fish wallowa lake, and that Wickiup has the biggest fish in Oregon. Any chance you took a snapshot that you are willing to share?
Fish On kokaneekid.
Fish On kokaneekid.
MackayGuy
Well-known member
Sorry, no pix. Yeah, I know "no pix = bs".
azbohunter
Active member
Just left Wallowa Lake after a week of fishing. Had a great time and it is a beautiful spot (3rd year for family reunion there) but fishing has something to be desired IMO. We did catch some kokanee, maybe a dozen between 6 and 8 inches long. Caught lots of planter rainbows with 4 over 16" but mostly 8-9", probably 150 caught and released. Did not see a decent kokanee caught. Will be at East Lake first part of July so hoping they are better there.
Kokaneegal
Well-known member
We found Wallowa to be very disappointing this year too. We won't be going back until the Koks grow up a bit. We too are heading to East lake this summer. Word is the fish are pretty decent there.
chukardave1
Well-known member
I will second that for sure
cromedogg33
Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2013
- Messages
- 9
Anyone have any advice if I head up to Wallowa the first weekend in august? Will the koke be completely off the bite and not worth trying for? What about mackinaw/cats?
Just got back from Wallowa and had hoped to be able to give secret info to those who were kind enough to send me details of their trips but unfortunately my friends boat that we were going to fish out of crapped out almost immediately and we couldn't troll other than about an hour one morning.The boat would run at 5 mph and up speed but I couldn't troll so I could look a little for fish even if I could not fish for them.
I didn't catch a kokanee and most of the few people who were fishing seemed to be content with hectoring the planters at the inlet and weren't fishing for kokanee. We saw a few people trolling along the bank but they were either too close to catch kokanee or were too far out to tell if they caught anything. They increased the kokanee limit to 20/day for fish under 12" based upon there being 900,000 fish in the lake where there is usually 70,000 fish but when I metered around a fair part of the lake there were no clouds of fish indicating lots of catchable fish.
We stayed in lakeside cabin # 35 through the Wallowa Lake Resort which was on the lake and had a dock. I can't say enough about how nice that house was and how great the people at Wallowa Lake Resort were to deal with too. They cleaned the place up early and let us check in two hours early on our first day as an example. It was just a great place to stay at Wallowa!!!
For days I sat on the dock and looked into the lake while "herself" fished with a slip bobber off the dock catching planters. There are a lot of shiners and chubs in the lake about 1 1/2" to 3" long.There were clouds of what I took to be kokanee fry less than 1" long that constitutes the majority of the 900,000 fish figure that ODFW is dealing with. If all those fry mature they will deplete the food source in the lake and the population will crash. By catching the more mature fish while still protecting the really big fish I guess they hope to blunt any potential population crashes.
I metered some large fish in schools in several places but the most shallow of those fish were at 150' depths up to 250' deep so I assume these were Lake Trout as the locator could pick out individual fish at that depth.
As far as I know, every day there were a maximum of about 10 boats on the lake fishing including those anchored at the inlet catching planters. Maybe 3 boats were trolling for kokanee or large trout any day during the 5 days we were there. The 54 degree comfort zone was 35' deep on the day we checked it. Not enough people to be able to get a good reading on what was going on.
If it were closer to my house (750 miles one way) I'd go again for Lake Trout but it's just too far. On the 12 of July the ski boats were really starting to show up so...
Thank you to all that took the time to send me info but I can't repay you with any more than what is in this post. I wish I could.
I can't say for sure the kokanee fishing is poor there now but I think it is and will get worse as the year progresses until they aggregate for the spawn.
I doubt there are many catfish in the lake as it's a real alpine lake with no weed beds that I saw. There are crawdads in the lake as one of the fish she caught had two in its stomach about 1 1/2 " long. There may be Brown Bullheads in the lake as the elevation is right but then...who cares?
I didn't catch a kokanee and most of the few people who were fishing seemed to be content with hectoring the planters at the inlet and weren't fishing for kokanee. We saw a few people trolling along the bank but they were either too close to catch kokanee or were too far out to tell if they caught anything. They increased the kokanee limit to 20/day for fish under 12" based upon there being 900,000 fish in the lake where there is usually 70,000 fish but when I metered around a fair part of the lake there were no clouds of fish indicating lots of catchable fish.
We stayed in lakeside cabin # 35 through the Wallowa Lake Resort which was on the lake and had a dock. I can't say enough about how nice that house was and how great the people at Wallowa Lake Resort were to deal with too. They cleaned the place up early and let us check in two hours early on our first day as an example. It was just a great place to stay at Wallowa!!!
For days I sat on the dock and looked into the lake while "herself" fished with a slip bobber off the dock catching planters. There are a lot of shiners and chubs in the lake about 1 1/2" to 3" long.There were clouds of what I took to be kokanee fry less than 1" long that constitutes the majority of the 900,000 fish figure that ODFW is dealing with. If all those fry mature they will deplete the food source in the lake and the population will crash. By catching the more mature fish while still protecting the really big fish I guess they hope to blunt any potential population crashes.
I metered some large fish in schools in several places but the most shallow of those fish were at 150' depths up to 250' deep so I assume these were Lake Trout as the locator could pick out individual fish at that depth.
As far as I know, every day there were a maximum of about 10 boats on the lake fishing including those anchored at the inlet catching planters. Maybe 3 boats were trolling for kokanee or large trout any day during the 5 days we were there. The 54 degree comfort zone was 35' deep on the day we checked it. Not enough people to be able to get a good reading on what was going on.
If it were closer to my house (750 miles one way) I'd go again for Lake Trout but it's just too far. On the 12 of July the ski boats were really starting to show up so...
Thank you to all that took the time to send me info but I can't repay you with any more than what is in this post. I wish I could.
I can't say for sure the kokanee fishing is poor there now but I think it is and will get worse as the year progresses until they aggregate for the spawn.
I doubt there are many catfish in the lake as it's a real alpine lake with no weed beds that I saw. There are crawdads in the lake as one of the fish she caught had two in its stomach about 1 1/2 " long. There may be Brown Bullheads in the lake as the elevation is right but then...who cares?
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