2019 Dworshak Reservoir Kokanee Report

[icelander]

Outflows

I've been trolling this forum as a guest for the past year or so and finally registered. I appreciate the info that has been shared. Only been fishing Dworshak for 4 years and feel like there is a lot left to learn. In the past years May, June, and July have been very productive. Similar to other posts I spent the weekend of April 27th camping at Freeman and fishing the lake/reservoir. Two days of trolling and one bite, fished canyon, indian, merrys, and toward the marina. No downriggers but tried everything from 1 oz to 6 oz sinkers, dodgers, squids, wedding rings, superbait cut plugs, and macks flash lites to no avail. Also had 4 flavors of corn and three different colors. We got checked by fish and game and they said the fishing had gone cold as soon as they started filling the reservoir. I've heard rumor that during fill the fish push towards the shore any truth to that? Did fish one day on Hayden earlier in April and similar to a earlier response fish were scattered but are chunky guys biggest was 13.5.

Welcome Freeheeler! The reservoir has not been filling. Outflows have been 9.8 kcfs til today when it dropped to 4.4. If this remains the reservoir will start filling and fishing should improve. http://www.nwd-wc.usace.army.mil/dd/nwdp/project_hourly/webexec/rep?r=dwr&date=5/9/2019
Does anyone know if F&G has fertilized yet?

 

[Freeheeler]

Thanks for the welcome Icelander. I will have to disagree with you on the fact that Dworshak is filling. While I was fishing on the weekend of April 27 it was filling at about 6" a day and for the month of April it filled over 30 feet. Here's the link for April

www.nwd-wc.usace.army.mil/dd/nwdp/project_daily/webexec/rep?r=dwr&ago=1

(see average forebay elevation). I don't think the hyperlink worked haha "greenhorn". Looking forward to hearing some reports of fish getting caught again.

 

[kgb2232]

Picking up

I've been cruising this forum for a few weeks to keep up on when to go back up after the last 2 trips of nothing so I figured I needed to contribute. We trolled for 5 hours yesterday and out of the 12 or so boats around us, we saw one boat catch one fish. That made it real awkward when everyone kept staring at us while we killed it. We fished 3 different set-ups and all did great. We fished pier to pier at Dent bridge and a couple hundred yards up river to the bridge as the afternoon warmed up. About 12:30 hundreds of small salmon started jumping all over and slowly moved up river and most of the boats just followed but we stayed the same path we had all day. We fished one rig with small pink and silver bells with 1oz at 50' behind the boat. My other rig was a set of large cow bells with 2oz at 65'. Both tipped with garlic corn and maggots. My 4 year old was fishing a dodger with 2oz at 50' with a green wedding ring and Fire corn. He caught 5 fish very quick and for most of the day was ahead of me. We boated 28 fish between 8-12" but I lost 3 at the boat (I don't use a net, just the sling them in method) and had over 30 strikes that just didn't produce. I was marking huge schools all day and when the small ones were jumping on the surface, we would get 3-4 strikes each pass 100' downriver behind those groups.

 

[Freeheeler]

That sounds awesome scales in the boat. From your previous trips did you do anything different or was the bit just "on" for you guys. Can't wait to get back down and try again, thanks for the report.

 

[amxerhull]

Thank you for the excellent report, we are very happy to see that you had a good day. Water flow through the dam was dropped on May 9. Coincidence?

 

[Freeheeler]

Jigging?

Last September I got the chance to jig for kokanee. Their timing for spawn seems quite a bit later than Dworshak kokanee but the tactic of jigging was pretty dang effective. I grew up jigging for bluebacks through the ice so have always been curious about dworshak and jigging. Has anybody had success jigging for kokanee in dworshak? seems you would need one of the terrova gps electric "digital anchors" to be able to set up over 100-400 ft deep water. Pandoras box????

 

[icelander]

Thank you for the excellent report, we are very happy to see that you had a good day. Water flow through the dam was dropped on May 9. Coincidence?

About 7 fish an hour around and above Dent Bridge. Fishing traditional, 4oz 30'; 2oz 60'. Smaller than last year at an average of 10". Liked a little faster troll. Watch for debris; pulled a bunch of mono out of a wad of branches from the lower unit, no damage thankfully.

 

[icelander]

Thanks!

I've been cruising this forum for a few weeks to keep up on when to go back up after the last 2 trips of nothing so I figured I needed to contribute. We trolled for 5 hours yesterday and out of the 12 or so boats around us, we saw one boat catch one fish. That made it real awkward when everyone kept staring at us while we killed it. We fished 3 different set-ups and all did great. We fished pier to pier at Dent bridge and a couple hundred yards up river to the bridge as the afternoon warmed up. About 12:30 hundreds of small salmon started jumping all over and slowly moved up river and most of the boats just followed but we stayed the same path we had all day. We fished one rig with small pink and silver bells with 1oz at 50' behind the boat. My other rig was a set of large cow bells with 2oz at 65'. Both tipped with garlic corn and maggots. My 4 year old was fishing a dodger with 2oz at 50' with a green wedding ring and Fire corn. He caught 5 fish very quick and for most of the day was ahead of me. We boated 28 fish between 8-12" but I lost 3 at the boat (I don't use a net, just the sling them in method) and had over 30 strikes that just didn't produce. I was marking huge schools all day and when the small ones were jumping on the surface, we would get 3-4 strikes each pass 100' downriver behind those groups.

I forgot to THANK YOU! for the heads up about your success. The wife & I had a great day on the water after reading your post!

 

[stevec]

Planning on going out soon!

Will be going out after the holiday once I get my boat out of hock at Miller Marine in Orofino. Would appreciate any updates anyone has on the lake this weekend. I plan on using sling blades & dodgers for the first time ever!
Thanks

 

[icelander]

Interesting

Will be going out after the holiday once I get my boat out of hock at Miller Marine in Orofino. Would appreciate any updates anyone has on the lake this weekend. I plan on using sling blades & dodgers for the first time ever!
Thanks

Well, it appears either everybody's busy fishing, nobody's fishing, or everyone is tight lipped lol! I hope to fish Tuesday and will post results.

 

[amxerhull]

We fished Sunday with good success. Everyone on the lake had nets out. Since 12000 CFS is being released from the dam, I guess we can bury the theory that the bite stops while they are dumping water.

 

[pollackoke]

I've been cruising this forum for a few weeks to keep up on when to go back up after the last 2 trips of nothing so I figured I needed to contribute. We trolled for 5 hours yesterday and out of the 12 or so boats around us, we saw one boat catch one fish. That made it real awkward when everyone kept staring at us while we killed it. We fished 3 different set-ups and all did great. We fished pier to pier at Dent bridge and a couple hundred yards up river to the bridge as the afternoon warmed up. About 12:30 hundreds of small salmon started jumping all over and slowly moved up river and most of the boats just followed but we stayed the same path we had all day. We fished one rig with small pink and silver bells with 1oz at 50' behind the boat. My other rig was a set of large cow bells with 2oz at 65'. Both tipped with garlic corn and maggots. My 4 year old was fishing a dodger with 2oz at 50' with a green wedding ring and Fire corn. He caught 5 fish very quick and for most of the day was ahead of me. We boated 28 fish between 8-12" but I lost 3 at the boat (I don't use a net, just the sling them in method) and had over 30 strikes that just didn't produce. I was marking huge schools all day and when the small ones were jumping on the surface, we would get 3-4 strikes each pass 100' downriver behind those groups.

Hey Ice,

Do you think those small Koke jumping out of the water are maybe being pursued by predators? I mean, do you have big salmon up there like Chinook? THANKS

 

[Getnlucky]

Quick trip

Started at 12:45 today by the dam. Trolled in front of dam and went towards Bruce’s eddy. Found a bunch of schools at about 15-30 feet down. Caught two in an hour on silver Kokanee stringers and a pink spinner with a pink maggot and garlic egg tip. Only fished for an hour.

 

[Elkchaser]

Where are the schools?

Well, it appears either everybody's busy fishing, nobody's fishing, or everyone is tight lipped lol! I hope to fish Tuesday and will post results.

Hope to get out in the morning. Anyone having success and where are the best areas?

 

[Getnlucky]

Hope to get out in the morning. Anyone having success and where are the best areas?

My luck was at Bruce’s Eddy about 60 feet from shore (140 feet depth) and one ounce weight out 50 feet. Near the boat launch. Some experienced (old) guys told me between 7 and 10 they killed it.

 

[Elkchaser]

My luck was at Bruce’s Eddy about 60 feet from shore (140 feet depth) and one ounce weight out 50 feet. Near the boat launch. Some experienced (old) guys told me between 7 and 10 they killed it.

Thanks, we'll stay in close and see what happens. I'll let you know how we did.

 

[kokaneecowboy]

Went Out Memorial Day

We went out Memorial Day and even though we got a late start caught 7 Kokes and two trout. We Put in at Freeman Creek and motored about 9:30 am over to the mouth of Canyon creek. We had been told by a friend they were about 28 feet down and that was about where we stayed all day. We fished two rods with cowbells and a 1/2 oz weight and one chartreuse wedding ring spinner and the other orangeish pink. Both having two hooks on each spinner baited with regular shoe-peg corn on the front hook. We would make a large oval around the floating bathroom and back out to the mouth of Canyon creek. There were about 5 other boats making this circle with us in one fashion or another. I saw a few of them land fish as well. Since this was our first real outing of the year we had to fine tune our reeling in speed and netting technique because we lost 4 or 5 next to the boat. We switched over to the orangeish pink spinner on both after they showed a preference for that color. We quit Koke fishing at 1:45 pm and fished small mouth after that. It was a good day overall. Now we will work on catching more fish.

 

[Elkchaser]

The fish are back

We went out Memorial Day and even though we got a late start caught 7 Kokes and two trout. We Put in at Freeman Creek and motored about 9:30 am over to the mouth of Canyon creek. We had been told by a friend they were about 28 feet down and that was about where we stayed all day. We fished two rods with cowbells and a 1/2 oz weight and one chartreuse wedding ring spinner and the other orangeish pink. Both having two hooks on each spinner baited with regular shoe-peg corn on the front hook. We would make a large oval around the floating bathroom and back out to the mouth of Canyon creek. There were about 5 other boats making this circle with us in one fashion or another. I saw a few of them land fish as well. Since this was our first real outing of the year we had to fine tune our reeling in speed and netting technique because we lost 4 or 5 next to the boat. We switched over to the orangeish pink spinner on both after they showed a preference for that color. We quit Koke fishing at 1:45 pm and fished small mouth after that. It was a good day overall. Now we will work on catching more fish.

Got on the water about 9am at Mary's Bay. Had a hit and a loss within 5 minutes . Another hit and a loss 5 minutes later and then we put one in the cooler soon after. Played around with weight and color of spinners and finally settled in on 2 oz and 40 feet out with an orange spinner blade and shoepeg corn. 2 of us in the boat brought home 28 and lost probably 15. Longest fish was 13" and many around 12". Not a bad day. They slowed way down around 2pm and we bunched it.

 

[Freeheeler]

Like Kokaneecowboy we fished canyon creek on memorial day as well. Kokaneecowboy you would have noticed us two bouncing kids in a tracker not being too quiet. We caught 17, lost 8-10 at the boat and at least 17 or as many short strikes where the rod shook for at least 2 head shakes. We ran laps around the floating toilet and either sides of the canyon creek arm. 2 rods with 2 ounces at 100 ft, macks flashlites (silver and chartreuse), red/green wedding rings nickel blades, with pautkzes fire cure pink corn, maggots, and kokanee smelly jelly worked best, 2 other rods 4 ounces at 40 feet same colored flashlites and wedding rings. Marked several schools consistently 20-30 ft down, did see several fish rolling on the surface as well. Reservoir was very calm and not too many boats or debris drifting around. We got started around 8 and fished til 130, best bite seemed to be 9-11, sunny til 12 then clouded up a bit. Clouds may've affected the bite on our primarily red baits. briefly tried tuna and brads kokanee cut plugs but the wedding rings proved to be the winning combo for Monday anyways. Looking to get back out on Saturday. Love seeing the reservoir so close to full pool looks like a like.

 

[kokaneecowboy]

Yes, we saw you...

We were in the Green Hewescraft and my boys were none to quiet either.