Vance Staplin
Vance's Tackle Company
Sorry for the delay on this but I thought a report from last weekend might be helpful this weekend after the storm front moves through and anglers can get back on the water.
It was surprising how things changed for us while fishing last weekend. Throughout the weekend we caught fish from the surface down to 23 feet OTW and with long lines on top both from the boat and on a planer board.
What caught me off guard the most was as spread out as the Kokanee were they never really responded to Flashers/Pop Gear at all and caught very few with them as an attractor. This is totally opposite of what I have found this time of year in past. We adjusted to primarily Dodgers at all levels of depth.
Hoochies/Squids seemed to be the most effective lure the entire weekend with small size 1 Glow in the Dark Pink Sockeye Slammers second and spinners seamed the least effective on Kokanee for us the entire weekend. We caught Rainbow's on pretty much everything we offered Kokanee. It is always amazing to me how beautiful the Rainbow's from the Gorge are. We also found that longer leaders produced more fish. In fact we found hoochies trailing our dodgers by 14" to be most effective. The first one was an accident when tying my leader and figured we try it temporarily and found it to be the ticket to success.
On Friday the Double Neon Glow Blue and Pink Hoochies fished the best with Orange trailing third but producing well. We also caught quite a few fish on a Pink Mack's Lure Kokanee Pro Smile Blade spinner with the size 6 hooks replaced with size 2.
Saturday we couldn't buy a bite on Blue or Orange lures and found that our Neon Pink Hoochie trailed 14" behind our Watermelon Dodger produced the best. This is what Brian Ekx's 3.97 lb Kokanee that won 1st place in the Kokanee division and my 35.96 lb Laker that won second in the Lake Trout division were caught on. In fact, it was the same rod and gear.
We started Sunday morning in the flats on the east side of Big Bend ( I think that is what the area is called?) which is where we caught both the larger Kokanee and the Laker on Saturday. We quickly found that the Kokanee moved out and all we could catch was laker pups. After about an hour of circling the area looking for Kokanee we gave up and trolled around the bend and north past Buck Board. We caught and released both Kokanee and very nice Rainbow's pretty much nonstop in the river channel north of Buckboard until we had to go to the weigh in. Unfortunately none were big enough to take to the scales.
Monday was a tougher morning. Well I say morning but we slept in and didn't start fishing until around 9:00 a.m and fished until 12:30. We fished the same area as Sunday north of Buckboard landing primarily Rainbows early and found Kokanee later with the bite becoming constant. Orange and Blue lures kicked back in and did well.
Here is a list of techniques and gear used:
Trolling depth: Surface to 23 feet OTW all four days.
Trolling Speed: 1.3-1.6. The larger fish seemed to hit around 1.3 to 1.4
Bait: All lures/Hooks were tipped with Berkely Gulp Maggots in Pink or white colors
Winning fish depth. Both Brian Ekx 1st place Kokanee and my 2nd place Lake Trout were caught 8ft OTW and 75 feet behind the boat (guessing 15 feet down) in/around 25 of water.
Hottest Lures: Definitely 1.5 Double Glow Hot Pink Hoochies with Flash-A-Boo skirts.
Hottest Dodgers: Vance's Watermelon, Speckled Copper Pink, Speckled Copper Blue, Copper Pink, Nickle Green Metalflake, Candy Green. Speckled Silver Blue.
Next hottest lures: #1 Florescent Glow in the dark Sockeye Slammers in Pink, Orange and Yellow Pink. We found that smaller lures definitely out fished larger lures and didn't do well on spinners except the Mack's lure Mini Kokanee Pro in Pink caught a lot of fish. I think the Smile blade made the difference on that small/short spinner.
Worst producing lures: Chartrese lures of all types for Kokanee. We caught a lot of Rainbows on chartreuse but didn't fair well at all on Kokanee. Spinners, we just couldn't seem to get a spinner bite going.
Special thanks to Derk and his fine crew at the Villa for putting on another terrific derby.
Special thanks to Les and Loretta at Buckboard Marina for their great hospitality and services. They have been there for us 3 years in a row now to assist us with trailer problems. We have found their service at Buckboard to be the best and topped off with very reasonable rates. This is huge for those of us that are visiting from out of state on tight schedules.
I will try to include pictures of the fish when I get them ready.
Vance Staplin
It was surprising how things changed for us while fishing last weekend. Throughout the weekend we caught fish from the surface down to 23 feet OTW and with long lines on top both from the boat and on a planer board.
What caught me off guard the most was as spread out as the Kokanee were they never really responded to Flashers/Pop Gear at all and caught very few with them as an attractor. This is totally opposite of what I have found this time of year in past. We adjusted to primarily Dodgers at all levels of depth.
Hoochies/Squids seemed to be the most effective lure the entire weekend with small size 1 Glow in the Dark Pink Sockeye Slammers second and spinners seamed the least effective on Kokanee for us the entire weekend. We caught Rainbow's on pretty much everything we offered Kokanee. It is always amazing to me how beautiful the Rainbow's from the Gorge are. We also found that longer leaders produced more fish. In fact we found hoochies trailing our dodgers by 14" to be most effective. The first one was an accident when tying my leader and figured we try it temporarily and found it to be the ticket to success.
On Friday the Double Neon Glow Blue and Pink Hoochies fished the best with Orange trailing third but producing well. We also caught quite a few fish on a Pink Mack's Lure Kokanee Pro Smile Blade spinner with the size 6 hooks replaced with size 2.
Saturday we couldn't buy a bite on Blue or Orange lures and found that our Neon Pink Hoochie trailed 14" behind our Watermelon Dodger produced the best. This is what Brian Ekx's 3.97 lb Kokanee that won 1st place in the Kokanee division and my 35.96 lb Laker that won second in the Lake Trout division were caught on. In fact, it was the same rod and gear.
We started Sunday morning in the flats on the east side of Big Bend ( I think that is what the area is called?) which is where we caught both the larger Kokanee and the Laker on Saturday. We quickly found that the Kokanee moved out and all we could catch was laker pups. After about an hour of circling the area looking for Kokanee we gave up and trolled around the bend and north past Buck Board. We caught and released both Kokanee and very nice Rainbow's pretty much nonstop in the river channel north of Buckboard until we had to go to the weigh in. Unfortunately none were big enough to take to the scales.
Monday was a tougher morning. Well I say morning but we slept in and didn't start fishing until around 9:00 a.m and fished until 12:30. We fished the same area as Sunday north of Buckboard landing primarily Rainbows early and found Kokanee later with the bite becoming constant. Orange and Blue lures kicked back in and did well.
Here is a list of techniques and gear used:
Trolling depth: Surface to 23 feet OTW all four days.
Trolling Speed: 1.3-1.6. The larger fish seemed to hit around 1.3 to 1.4
Bait: All lures/Hooks were tipped with Berkely Gulp Maggots in Pink or white colors
Winning fish depth. Both Brian Ekx 1st place Kokanee and my 2nd place Lake Trout were caught 8ft OTW and 75 feet behind the boat (guessing 15 feet down) in/around 25 of water.
Hottest Lures: Definitely 1.5 Double Glow Hot Pink Hoochies with Flash-A-Boo skirts.
Hottest Dodgers: Vance's Watermelon, Speckled Copper Pink, Speckled Copper Blue, Copper Pink, Nickle Green Metalflake, Candy Green. Speckled Silver Blue.
Next hottest lures: #1 Florescent Glow in the dark Sockeye Slammers in Pink, Orange and Yellow Pink. We found that smaller lures definitely out fished larger lures and didn't do well on spinners except the Mack's lure Mini Kokanee Pro in Pink caught a lot of fish. I think the Smile blade made the difference on that small/short spinner.
Worst producing lures: Chartrese lures of all types for Kokanee. We caught a lot of Rainbows on chartreuse but didn't fair well at all on Kokanee. Spinners, we just couldn't seem to get a spinner bite going.
Special thanks to Derk and his fine crew at the Villa for putting on another terrific derby.
Special thanks to Les and Loretta at Buckboard Marina for their great hospitality and services. They have been there for us 3 years in a row now to assist us with trailer problems. We have found their service at Buckboard to be the best and topped off with very reasonable rates. This is huge for those of us that are visiting from out of state on tight schedules.
I will try to include pictures of the fish when I get them ready.
Vance Staplin
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