2016 Wickup Reports

[chukardave1]

Fishing has been pretty slow as of late. I have a feeling the low water of last year put a dent in the population. Was back up on Friday and found a decent bite and put 19 in the boat that morning. Including a few nice fish up to 20". Was hoping that was a sign things were going to turn on a bit. Went back yesterday with my son. Cold and foggy to start. Fishing was definitely slower than Friday. Miles landed 6 of our 8 fish including 3 that were over 20", biggest in photo weighed 2# 15ozs. He had a blast fighting those fish. Taking line and lots of aerials made for epic battles.

Water temp was 69 two weekends ago and then back down to 63 yesterday. Water is dropping fast and on pace right now to be lower than last year

All but 2 or 3 fish came on hootchies. No pattern really but pink, orange, and red variations all got time and caught some fish. No one rig really produced more than a couple fish at any given time so keep changing.

 

[chukardave1]

Fathers Day

Father's Day. Took my son out early around 6 and then had my wife and daughter meet us up at the lake at a bit more respectable hour. Very foggy for the first couple hours. Mom and Karli showed up at 9:30 and we ran to pick them up at the dock with 18 fish in the cooler. Went back out and found another 13 with the whole clan on board. Shook off a couple dinks but overall a nice grade of fish. Only 1 over 20" on this trip. Loaded up at 12:30 and headed over to South Twin for a fathers day lunch. Perfect day in my book, my wife is thankful she doesn't have to do it again for another year

Great bite considering how it has been. Water has cooled significantly(58*) and fish were up in the water column around 18' up to the surface. Orange, white, and yellow hootchies and flies were the ticket today. Only went through about 4-5 gear changes all morning. Tried the new water wolf camera and hope there is something to look at when I can finally figure out how to download and view the video. Biggest fish of the day came on the camera rig so I am really hopeful there is some decent video and I deployed it correctly.

 

[chukardave1]

Fishing was good last weekend. Fished Friday through Sunday in the mornings. Boated 92 in the three mornings. Highlight was my son on Sunday made a homemade lure he concocted out of a couple different rigs he found snagged in the stumps the day before. I never thought it would work well but put it out and had a fish on in the first 5 minutes it was out. The second fish it caught was a "warthog" as my son called it because thats bigger than a pig. 22.5" and 4# 1oz after bleeding. New boat record for us. That same rig continued to catch fish the rest of the morning too. Fished averaged 18". Most came on gold dodgers and pink hootchies about 15' on the rigger.

 

[WGS55]

Well I normally fish LBC or Simtustus, and have done fairly well with kokes and trout, but still learning. I fish these lakes as I live in Culver. I would love to go up to Wickiup, didn't realize there were larger kokes up there. but not a clue where to start. I have most of my luck using Kokanee trolls with wedding rings. Haven't done so well with dodgers and hoochies. I don't use down riggers as my boat just isn't made for them, but I do use banana weights to get down some. SO, with out giving up all your favorite secrets can someone give me a little help on this lake to get started. If you would rather just e mail me info that would be fine. [email protected]

I've already learned a few things on this forum. Thanks!!

 

[chukardave1]

Without down riggers I would stop by the south twin store and pick up a few of the Paulina Peak gold big eye dodgers. They have a few different colors of tape on them but you want the gold base, tape color doesn't seem to be an issue. These are the skateboard style not the teardrop style. Also grab a few of the Paulina peak hootchies in shades of pink, pink/white, red and orange. Tie about a one foot leader for the hootchies. Also make sure you have 1/4 oz and 1/2oz weights(no more than this or you will just constantly be snagging bottom). Tie on the weight and then about an 18-24" section of line and then tie on your dodger and hootchie. Add tuna corn and put this back about 120'-140' behind the boat. Speed is 1.4-1.6. With this setup you will be getting down about 15-20'. When you find yourself in the shallows, and you will, reel in the rod then make your way back into deeper water and redeploy. That should be enough to get you into some nice sized kokanee. Be warned though once you catch one of these fish the ones LBC will just seem boring by comparison.

 

[WGS55]

Thanks chukardave1, that's a lot of help!!! Gets me in the right direction.

 

[Dr. Matt]

Likely last trip to Wickiup for 2016

I fished Saturday with my buddy Todd. We started on the Deschutes and fished the stretch to the confluence - not a bite. So I pulled up stakes and we headed up the Davis arm and we netted 8 fish. The largest was just over 3 lbs. They were still very bright and in great shape. I trolled gold Paulina Peak dodges and a variety of hoochies. Pink/Clear, Yellow/Orange splatter, Clown and a few others. The only hoochie to hook more than one was the pink/clear. With the water as low as it is and likely to be 25% of pool or lower by labor day weekend it's unlikely I'll be able to get my boat in again this season. 2016 was definitely (in 9 years of fishing Wickiup) the most prolific in terms of size. I hope to see those large koke's next year.

 

[DLM]

I fished Saturday with my buddy Todd. We started on the Deschutes and fished the stretch to the confluence - not a bite. So I pulled up stakes and we headed up the Davis arm and we netted 8 fish. The largest was just over 3 lbs. They were still very bright and in great shape. I trolled gold Paulina Peak dodges and a variety of hoochies. Pink/Clear, Yellow/Orange splatter, Clown and a few others. The only hoochie to hook more than one was the pink/clear. With the water as low as it is and likely to be 25% of pool or lower by labor day weekend it's unlikely I'll be able to get my boat in again this season. 2016 was definitely (in 9 years of fishing Wickiup) the most prolific in terms of size. I hope to see those large koke's next year.

Did you notice a water temperature difference between the two arms?

 

[Dr. Matt]

Did you notice a water temperature difference between the two arms?

DLM, I fished the confluence for one pass with not hits and the water temp was 66. I spent the rest of the morning on the Davis arm and the water temp over the course of the day. When I left the water it was pushing 70.

 

[DLM]

Interesting. I had heard there were some cold water springs up the Davis arm and I thought maybe that area would be running a little cooler than the other parts of the lake.