I was feeling adventurous this morning so I decided to head out to the mysterious Horseshoe Lake up in NE Washington. I had been unable to find or talk to anyone who had fished Kokes there before but I had been itching to try it for a long time so off I went.
Got there about 1100am, only two other rigs there at the public docks. It's a very small lake so I did a slow lap around the thing to get an idea of what was under the surface. Much to my surprise this lake is incredibly deep for it's size. Large portions of it are well over 100' deep in the larger half of the "U" shaped lake. On the other half of the "U" there is a beautiful waterfall coming down. Most of that side is quite a bit more shallow. The top half of that side is fairly deep but it goes down to less than 6' and becomes very narrow for the rest of it....extremely beautiful on that side. Well worth the trip just to go down that narrow little "channel" and see all the wildlife, including some moose!
After my brief tour I started fishing the deep end with what I consider my standard trolling pack for Kokes (red wedding ring, red maggot) on lead core set ups. Lowrance said the there were plenty of fish running around 20-35 feet. I went out 3 out colors. I did get lots of strikes, not nearly as many stayed on though. I managed to land 5 of these very little guys. All were at best 8 inches.
I managed to catch a few other things while was out there unintentionally. I landed two crappies, 1 perch, and 1 rainbow as well.
Given how small the Kokes were I let them all go at the end of ithe afternoon. I think this lake has some potential but I betting it's going to be a late season lake. Never saw a Koke greater than 8". Give these fellas some time to get bigger. I think I'll try back again around 8/1. Very scenic though and worth it just for that.
Got there about 1100am, only two other rigs there at the public docks. It's a very small lake so I did a slow lap around the thing to get an idea of what was under the surface. Much to my surprise this lake is incredibly deep for it's size. Large portions of it are well over 100' deep in the larger half of the "U" shaped lake. On the other half of the "U" there is a beautiful waterfall coming down. Most of that side is quite a bit more shallow. The top half of that side is fairly deep but it goes down to less than 6' and becomes very narrow for the rest of it....extremely beautiful on that side. Well worth the trip just to go down that narrow little "channel" and see all the wildlife, including some moose!
After my brief tour I started fishing the deep end with what I consider my standard trolling pack for Kokes (red wedding ring, red maggot) on lead core set ups. Lowrance said the there were plenty of fish running around 20-35 feet. I went out 3 out colors. I did get lots of strikes, not nearly as many stayed on though. I managed to land 5 of these very little guys. All were at best 8 inches.
I managed to catch a few other things while was out there unintentionally. I landed two crappies, 1 perch, and 1 rainbow as well.
Given how small the Kokes were I let them all go at the end of ithe afternoon. I think this lake has some potential but I betting it's going to be a late season lake. Never saw a Koke greater than 8". Give these fellas some time to get bigger. I think I'll try back again around 8/1. Very scenic though and worth it just for that.
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