FG June 17-18-19 Catching Report

[BearLakeFishGuy]

I have been anxiously awaiting a few days off to head down to FG to catch some Kokes. Headed out on Wednesday evening and got there right at dark-thirty. Prepped the boat and slept in the back of the truck at Buckboard. I was on the water by 5:15 and had my first fish in the boat by 5:30am. The fishing was really good right out in the middle of the channel just about 1.5 miles south of the marina and there were only two other boats in this area. I kept two big three-year-olds before the action slowed up about 7:30am. I then moved down near Lowe Canyon. The boats were thick down that way, but the fishing was pretty slow from what I could see being landed. I hung around and picked up 3 Kokes in about 2 hrs of trolling and kept my last fish for my limit. I then went after lakers and caught one about 25" and kept him for my neighbor who loves 'em grilled up. The fishing pretty much died at about 11am. I then went after Smallmouth Bass for the next 2 hrs. I fished by butt off and never saw one along a lot of shoreline, nor had one strike. Looks like the burbot are really cleaning house on SMB or maybe I just suck at fishing for them up in WY since I sure can catch them down by Dutch John. The next day I got up earlier and was fishing by 4:45am. It was still dark and I ran down to Lowe Canyon to begin with. There was only one boat out there that I could see by their lights. The kokes were on fire, as I expected. I was limited out by 7:15am. The fishing really slowed down by 8am and by that time it was "combat fishing" once again. I counted more than 30 boats all along the Skunk Cliffs down to Squaw Hollow/Holmes Crossing/Brinegar Ranch Ferry Crossing Boat Ramp (or whatever the FGNRA decides to call the place this year!! For me it will always be Squaw Hollow). I completely understand why the Kokes shut off at 8am. With that many boats trolling in one area it has got to be loud with all the trolling motors running over their heads. After that I decided to pack it up a day early and head back home. Now for the important stuff:

#1 Fish early and fish in the dark before daylight.

#2 Avoid trolling in the crowds. The Kokes are skiddish and shut down when there are a lot of boats over their heads

#3 I was using two different RMT signature 4.25" dodgers, but I went through a lot of different colors. The hot colors were Mad Passion Glow and UV Pink Splatter

#4 From the ONE picture of a fish (my cell phone died after the first pic and I forgot to bring a charger! DOH!! I was using customized EK FastFish made by Deadliest Katch Lures. You gotta try some of Ed Mroz's creations. I've been using them for several years and they work!! This caught the majority of the larger Kokes. I was also using my home-tied PLine Sunrise Squids in color #265 with #2 hooks on 15lb flourocarbon. I was running both the FastFish and squids 18" behind the dodger. I tried from 8" to 36", and 18" produced the best results

#5 I was trolling 1.8-2.1 mph. I tried slower and faster and this was "the" speed the fish wanted.

#6 I was running the dodger/lure set up 100-110' behind my pancakes just to get 'em away from the boat. I troll with Spiderwire Stealth Braid with a 8' fluorocarbon 15lb test leader.

#7 I was running my lures 37-45' below the surface

#8 I was tipping my squid and FastFish with red Gulp maggots.

My largest fish was 4lb 6oz on an accurate scale which is the largest Koke I have caught to date. The fish I kept probably averaged about 3-3.5 lbs, but I did catch several 2 year olds that were about 2lbs, and even two 1 year old fish about 12" and less than a pound.

 

[Dorado]

nice report

The smallmouth are pretty much gone from WY, thanks to the burbot. The WGFD and BASS just transplanted a bunch of bass from UT to try and help them out....

 

[Bduck]

Nicely done Scott. Glad to see you over here. There are some nice kokes being caught. See ya this fall on the Bear for our gathering. thumbsupthumbsup

 

[drakebob01]

Thanks for the report! I am heading there next week. Can you tell me what deadliest katch flatfish were working?

 

[Island20]

Outstanding report thank you.

 

[mtncat1]

thanks for the super good report but I have to disagree with you on koke fishing shutting down at 8 am . I have caught kokes all hours of the day with regularity both on strawberry and the gorge , just got back from the gorge and kokanee fishing has shut down at all hours, possibly due to high water temps 75 degrees f sunday the 28th . but on normal trips I generally don't even start fishing for them until late after noon . that's just been my experience .

 

[liketrolling]

This last month we had all that rain the water came up fast, now we have all the heat, fishing at 5;30am has been better
early in the year I was catching kokes all day long. not a lot but OK. last week all I could get were the dinks. 6" to 14"
Last year I got more in the afternoon, than I did in the am. and most of the boats have gone home.
my set back this time of year is 40' 30' and 20' and the stacker is 20' you can turn sharp with that. getting back on the kokes. I catch a lot of fish with the 20' set back
and I have two poles with that.
the black box works better. or cannon downriggers Positive Ion Control. I catch a lot of Kokes but last week was slow.

 

[mtncat1]

it was a rough week for kokanee for sure and the changing conditions and the full moon haven't helped any thing . mac fishing was good though most days we averaged 12 to 20 fish per day. and the rainbow action was good as usual.
that being said I get tired of people thinking and saying fishing is bad after the early morning bit goes away. the fishing comes and goes throughout the day . and in no way dies for the day after sun up.

 

[BearLakeFishGuy]

You can definitely scratch out fish all day at FG, but I have never had the bite be red hot during the high sun times like it is first thing in morning. Plus, I really don't like fishing and hiding under my bimini-top when there is no breeze and the temps are 90+. It just sucks all around when it is that hot. I'm like a dog, I prefer to "shade-up" during the mid-day periods on shore and then fish at the crepuscular periods.