sawtooth
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Best of luck to all the Deadwood fishermen this year.
2020 Deadwood Reservoir Kokanee Fishing Report
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pollackoke
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- Jun 6, 2018
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Though Sledding
Fished Cascade yesterday. Met a guy in the campground who said he tried to get in to Deadwood on Thursday. He drove a Tacoma with over size tires and high clearance. He reported that he drove in from the Warm Lake road and made it as far as the Deadwood Res. sign near the top of the res. He said the amount of mud, snow, and downed trees made him turn back at that point for fear of getting into something he could not get himself out of.
Fished Cascade yesterday. Met a guy in the campground who said he tried to get in to Deadwood on Thursday. He drove a Tacoma with over size tires and high clearance. He reported that he drove in from the Warm Lake road and made it as far as the Deadwood Res. sign near the top of the res. He said the amount of mud, snow, and downed trees made him turn back at that point for fear of getting into something he could not get himself out of.
Battleship Oakes
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June 5 trip
Did a rush trip to deadwood. Bruce meadows is the only road open and it was a little rough. Lots of pot holes in the first 10 miles. Got up there Thursday night at 10pm and camped by the ramp at the inlet. Figured it would be ok considering there were only a few people camped. Unfortunately some stupid clowns next to up were up ALL night drinking culminating in an all out brawl at 5 am because apparently that wife of the trash that showed up at midnight just to drink decided that it was a good idea to sleep with her father-in-law. We went over to break it up, but once we determined the children were not the ones getting beat we left the drunks to themselves. That went on for 45 minutes before they finally got them and their kids packed up in the car to head home. I always thought it was a **** show around the ramp with all the people crammed in there, but thought it would be ok, just this once. Never again will I be camping there. Who drives 4 hours just to get that stupid!?!
As for the fishing, it was good. Fished from 6-3. Conditions were good early. Had the lake to ourselves for the most part because by noon the white caps kept most of the competition off the water. We were chasing the chinook, but had one long line out for Kokanee. 1oz with pink sling blade and houchie caught one. Switched to gold dodger and orange apex got us several more bites. Landed 5 and loads twice that many. We didn’t really slow down to fight the fish because the wind was bad and we weren’t really caring much for the small Kokes. 12” and smaller Kokes is all we caught. Not sure if we hooked anything bigger, but it sure didn’t feel like it. Other than that, we caught 1 18” chinook and 7 nice trout from 14-18”. Broke something big off, not sure what it was though because it snapped the 12# test right off the bat. Best lure for trout that day was a 4” rapala.
Did a rush trip to deadwood. Bruce meadows is the only road open and it was a little rough. Lots of pot holes in the first 10 miles. Got up there Thursday night at 10pm and camped by the ramp at the inlet. Figured it would be ok considering there were only a few people camped. Unfortunately some stupid clowns next to up were up ALL night drinking culminating in an all out brawl at 5 am because apparently that wife of the trash that showed up at midnight just to drink decided that it was a good idea to sleep with her father-in-law. We went over to break it up, but once we determined the children were not the ones getting beat we left the drunks to themselves. That went on for 45 minutes before they finally got them and their kids packed up in the car to head home. I always thought it was a **** show around the ramp with all the people crammed in there, but thought it would be ok, just this once. Never again will I be camping there. Who drives 4 hours just to get that stupid!?!
As for the fishing, it was good. Fished from 6-3. Conditions were good early. Had the lake to ourselves for the most part because by noon the white caps kept most of the competition off the water. We were chasing the chinook, but had one long line out for Kokanee. 1oz with pink sling blade and houchie caught one. Switched to gold dodger and orange apex got us several more bites. Landed 5 and loads twice that many. We didn’t really slow down to fight the fish because the wind was bad and we weren’t really caring much for the small Kokes. 12” and smaller Kokes is all we caught. Not sure if we hooked anything bigger, but it sure didn’t feel like it. Other than that, we caught 1 18” chinook and 7 nice trout from 14-18”. Broke something big off, not sure what it was though because it snapped the 12# test right off the bat. Best lure for trout that day was a 4” rapala.
Battleship Oakes
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I’m only speculating, but I doesn’t sound like he was even close to deadwood. I tried to go home that way Friday night, but the road was closed at the deadwood lodge so I had to go through Bruce meadows (the way I came in). My guess is he was turned around up by the pass somewhere. The lower part of the road was good and dry for the most part. Only one mud hole, but we drove around it with a truck and 24’ jet boat without any issue. On the way out I did see that some poor soul made the poor decision of trying to drive through the 18” deep ruts and ended up leaving his little boat in the middle of the quagmire. The wheel barrel tires on the boat trailer didn’t help him much I’m sure. They must have either not seen it in the dark while driving too fast, or made a really poor decision.
That's a long crap drive for 12" Kokes. Seems like one year most people were catching the small ones, and I would go deeper and pick up the older / bigger fish in the 14" to 15" class. My Koke supply his getting really low with Anderson fishing so poor this year, I really need to fill up the freezer and not with trout.
Battleship Oakes
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There may be some bigger ones based on what I was seeing on the finder, but they could have been trout/chinook too. I saw a guy catch some Kokes while mooching, but his weren’t any bigger from what I could see. I would think he was fishing deeper than I was. I fished on koke pole not more than 20’ deep so I can’t really give you a definitive answer on max koke size. That being said, when trolling 4-5 koke rods, I still catch some bigger fish on the top so who knows.
Oldfishnfart
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Sure glad they changed the limit to 10 Kokanee. laugh hyst
Deadwood Limit
That was a standard IDFG move
Blame the fisherman for your management decisions that were wrong
Deadwood has never been over fished in the 30+ years that I have been going there and I have never seen or been checked by a game warder
If you want to see a place that is being over fished just look at anderson. When and if the fish start biting there you will see a massive amount of boats there every day
That was a standard IDFG move
Blame the fisherman for your management decisions that were wrong
Deadwood has never been over fished in the 30+ years that I have been going there and I have never seen or been checked by a game warder
If you want to see a place that is being over fished just look at anderson. When and if the fish start biting there you will see a massive amount of boats there every day
Battleship Oakes
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Agreed! I can’t recall the last time I saw more than about 6 boats actively fishing on the whole reservoir and that includes holiday weekends. However, I have had 50 boats fishing the same water I was fishing at Anderson. Lol!
Spit the Hook
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- Jan 25, 2015
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road into deadwood
Thinking of going to Deadwood later in the month. What is the road off 21 past Bull Trout Lake, route 579 like going in. I have a Nissian Frontier 4x4 and will be towing a 16ft boat.
Thinking of going to Deadwood later in the month. What is the road off 21 past Bull Trout Lake, route 579 like going in. I have a Nissian Frontier 4x4 and will be towing a 16ft boat.
That's the road I usually take vs. Warm Lake route which is always a wash board nightmare. 579 is typically rough as well but bigger pot holes vs. wash board rough. No easy way to Deadwood. That being said I haven't made it in this year yet, but plan on it maybe after the holiday crowd clears out. Good luck fishing ! Any news on some larger fish this year (+12 inch)?
4th of July Fishing
Late on the report but was up there the week of the 4th. Roads were bad both ways came in through Warm Lake and went out through Bear Valley. Both were equally bad. Fish were small 6-12 most under 10 but they were bitting. Don’t think it mattered depth or color.
Late on the report but was up there the week of the 4th. Roads were bad both ways came in through Warm Lake and went out through Bear Valley. Both were equally bad. Fish were small 6-12 most under 10 but they were bitting. Don’t think it mattered depth or color.
Warm Lake road to Deadwod
Fished Deadwood Tuesday and Wednesday and came out Thursday morning. They were grading the road. We caught about four miles with nice surface from where the hardtop ends. Don't know how far they were going down but the water truck was headed towards the reservoir. Fishing was good, fish small as indicated before. We were catching them around 30 feet.
Fished Deadwood Tuesday and Wednesday and came out Thursday morning. They were grading the road. We caught about four miles with nice surface from where the hardtop ends. Don't know how far they were going down but the water truck was headed towards the reservoir. Fishing was good, fish small as indicated before. We were catching them around 30 feet.
kokaneekevin
Active member
Deadwood Res. Camping/Fishing Trip
A little late posting but... Spent 6 days with my wife and dog up at Deadwood (week of 7/13). Came in thru Warm Lake/Landmark, then down to Howers Campground. I would say the road in and out was in pretty good shape, the best I've seen in several years. Except for one spot (several miles north of the top of the reservoir) where it appears people came in when the ground was really wet/soft. That left huge/deep ruts across the whole road and maybe 10 yards long. Had to carefully straddle them coming in and out, hoping my boat trailer didn't bottom out. Luckily it didn't. But if you were coming in at night, that would be quite a rude awakening, maybe causing some damage. Anyway, I hope it's been graded out and taken care of by now.
Had a great camp site at Howers, right on the water. Only bad thing was the beach, which was extremely shallow (couldn't find anywhere deeper within our camping area). With the water dropping each day, heavy afternoon winds each day, and some rude guys in a pair of large, matching Duckworth jet boats that liked to speed into their campsites just above mine with no consideration to how close they came by my campsite causing huge wakes (slamming my boat even further into the shallow beach), my wife and I had to push my boat off the beach each morning. It was pretty tricky a couple of times (thinking I may need to have someone pull the boat out), but somehow we managed. Even tried to anchor out a bit, but the wind made even doing that challenging.
Regarding the fishing, the good news is that it was pretty active. We were catching Kokes regularly throughout the day, each day. Not as good news, they were pretty small. Caught quite a few at 12", but nothing above that. And caught lots in the 10" to 11" range, and smaller. Tried to release most of those (pretty tricky). Just using lead weights (2, 3, & 4oz), fished depths mainly between the mid-20s to mid-30s. Used Kokabow dodgers and Ford Fenders with hoochies and Kokabow spinners tipped with corn. Fenders proved to be more popular with the Kokes. Probably caught over 70 total, bringing home about half that (even the small ones smoke up nicely!). We grilled a bunch while there, shared some with other campers, and released a bunch. Noticed more boats on the water than in previous years, but never got crowded out there. Weather was great too (besides the daily afternoon winds). Another great camping/fishing adventure at Deadwood Res. thumbsup
A little late posting but... Spent 6 days with my wife and dog up at Deadwood (week of 7/13). Came in thru Warm Lake/Landmark, then down to Howers Campground. I would say the road in and out was in pretty good shape, the best I've seen in several years. Except for one spot (several miles north of the top of the reservoir) where it appears people came in when the ground was really wet/soft. That left huge/deep ruts across the whole road and maybe 10 yards long. Had to carefully straddle them coming in and out, hoping my boat trailer didn't bottom out. Luckily it didn't. But if you were coming in at night, that would be quite a rude awakening, maybe causing some damage. Anyway, I hope it's been graded out and taken care of by now.
Had a great camp site at Howers, right on the water. Only bad thing was the beach, which was extremely shallow (couldn't find anywhere deeper within our camping area). With the water dropping each day, heavy afternoon winds each day, and some rude guys in a pair of large, matching Duckworth jet boats that liked to speed into their campsites just above mine with no consideration to how close they came by my campsite causing huge wakes (slamming my boat even further into the shallow beach), my wife and I had to push my boat off the beach each morning. It was pretty tricky a couple of times (thinking I may need to have someone pull the boat out), but somehow we managed. Even tried to anchor out a bit, but the wind made even doing that challenging.
Regarding the fishing, the good news is that it was pretty active. We were catching Kokes regularly throughout the day, each day. Not as good news, they were pretty small. Caught quite a few at 12", but nothing above that. And caught lots in the 10" to 11" range, and smaller. Tried to release most of those (pretty tricky). Just using lead weights (2, 3, & 4oz), fished depths mainly between the mid-20s to mid-30s. Used Kokabow dodgers and Ford Fenders with hoochies and Kokabow spinners tipped with corn. Fenders proved to be more popular with the Kokes. Probably caught over 70 total, bringing home about half that (even the small ones smoke up nicely!). We grilled a bunch while there, shared some with other campers, and released a bunch. Noticed more boats on the water than in previous years, but never got crowded out there. Weather was great too (besides the daily afternoon winds). Another great camping/fishing adventure at Deadwood Res. thumbsup
pollackoke
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- Jun 6, 2018
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Fished Deadwood last few days of July
Believe the report concerning the ungodly rut zone just north of reservoir. Lots of small Kokanee hit the pink stuff. Turned them all back. Only caught two above 11 inches; one was pink, the other bright red.
Believe the report concerning the ungodly rut zone just north of reservoir. Lots of small Kokanee hit the pink stuff. Turned them all back. Only caught two above 11 inches; one was pink, the other bright red.
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