Deadwood Reservoir in Idaho - A Dud

[Tsmo]

We fished Deadwood Reservoir from Monday 8/3 to Thursday 8/6 with NO results. Our regular spots that ALWAYS produced fish produced nothing. It seems there were two missing year classes and the only fish we caught were last year's hatch, far too small to keep. Our usual 4 colors of leaded line, dodger or flasher in front of a wedding ring tipped with corn or salmon eggs delivered nothing! So what happened to those two year classes? I saw nothing caught in the 4 days we were there. Anyone else have any experience?

Tasmo

 

[Bduck]

Welcome to the boards 101welcomw Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about Deadwood. However is your lead core getting deep enough with your presentation? Kokes are running deeper in most lakes to get into their comfort zone of 52° this time of year. Lead core is good to use during early spring when kokes are shallow.

 

[Tsmo]

Yep, we were deep enough

What I did not add is that we did catch some of last year's hatch, about 4 to 5 inch fish. Of course, we didn't keep any that small, but there were fish at our bait-level. Keep in mind, Deadwood is about 110 to 125 feet deep at the deepest, depending on pool level and at about 6,000 feet so it does not heat up as much one might expect. All the usual haunts produced no keepers; I suspect there were 2 missing year classes. Also, IDF&G has been known to have dumb-ass attacks in the management of that fishery: dispensing rotenone in spawning creeks to combat over-population back in the mid-1990's. How do I know this? I was peripherally involved. There was many a voice saying, "you could collapse that fishery!", "not possible", said the fisheries manager; well, Guess what, he did! So I wonder if they are up to their old tricks again.

Tasmo