July gorge trips

[fishinfrenzy]

We have fished five days of the last ten on the gorge. First day with Tuna-on before the 4th, with lots of nice kokes, the most unique was a 3lb that took a white tube jig with a worm, sitting on bottom looking for burbot. That,s a first for both of us. Tuna's Double Glow Crystal and my Black Pearl got us limits of 3lb plus quickly. Again out on the 3rd, my son and I were finding some very nice kokes, pushing up into the 4lb range, with the Black Pearl again, fishing between 35 and 62 feet at the Buckboard side. Went out again from the 7th thru 9th, finding bites far and few between, but enough to get a limit for dinners. Once again the Black Pearl was the best hitting behind Silver Streak dodgers in the 35 to 60 foot ranges. Seems that the monsoon weather slowed fishing down a bit, but then just being able to get out is always good. Some are starting to turn lips.

 

[Island20]

Nice fish great report. I should be so lucky. awesomereport

 

[TrophyBoat]

Nice!! Thanks for the pics. and report

 

[AlreadyGone]

4 lb kokes

Nice fish-

I have one of those closing the 4 lb gap-

I haven't been up far north (Buckboard) yet-looks like we will go this coming weekend. The pipeline is still pushing out some nice ones though

MP

 

[Petty4life]

nice reports guys, keep them comingawesomereport

 

[SmokeOnTheWater]

Just got home from the Buckboard area. WIND all three days this weekend made for early end to the days fishing. 101no101 Other posts mentioned about the water up North being muddy but we didn't run into any of that unless we were close to shore and the waves muddied it up a bit. The water was stained heavily until we got down close to the Ranch House where the water was much cleaner. Lots of floating weed masses among all the other floaties caused by the high water level. This is the highest water level I've ever seen at the Gorge. No bath tub ring left that I could see anywhere.

Managed to pick up a few kokes and have attached the pics below. The largest one broke off just as we were getting the net but were able to come home with three nice fish. The biggest being 19+" weighing in at 2.4 lbs, then 18" at 2.1 lbs (this one getting a little color) and the smallest 17" at 2.0 lbs. About the only place we were getting bites was where we found cleaner water and little debris.

Headed back out on the busy weekend comming up for maybe a little better luck? rolleyes

 

[wiperhunter]

Nice report and pics guys, thanks for sharing your success stories. Hey Tom, looks like some of the kokes in your pics are starting to color up, did they still cook up firm or are they getting mushy?

 

[crawler]

Curious?

Great fishing report. What are you calling the "Black Pearl"? A black/pearl squid? Sounds like it works great for you.

I make all my lures (more fun if you catch fish on your own stuff!). I'll have to post some pics on what I seem to have luck with.
Thanks

 

[fishinfrenzy]

Black Pearl

I tried to get a picture from the website but it doesn't come out very good. The Black Pearl is one of Kokanee Creek Tackle company's "splatter blade spinners" which also has beads. You can see for yourself by clicking on their link located to the right of this page. As noted this has been the most hit piece in my box this season, and I know this is one of my starters every time I go out.

 

[crawler]

Thanks. Cool looking spinner. Will give it a try. Thanks again.

 

[crawler]

Was it just me?

Was it just me or was the fishing slow this past weekend?

 

[POk3s]

I was thinking the same thing. Joined this site a few weeks ago because I hadn't been out lately and wanted to get the recent reports on the lake. Sure seemed like it should've been a lot better but we all know how that goes. I only caught 5 kokes...compared to my buddies 0...and 4 of them were the little 1 year shakers. I dropped down to 85 feet trying for some little macs in the middle of the day and ended up getting a 2.5 lb koke shortly after dropping down. kept him and one of the little shakers that wasn't gonna be denied and really screwed his mouth up. I only saw 2 other fish get caught around me.....anybody do any good????

 

[Propnut69]

I was out Friday(22) and the fishing was a little slow compared to the last three weeks . I did manage to boat 8 fish,but i had to work my butt off to get them. I switched out so much tackle,that sometimes i forgot what I had on. My buddy (d-weed) and his neighbor were out Saturday(23) and caught all the fish they wanted. With the lake being the fullest i have every seen, It has affected the fish ,and where they are hanging in the water column. Talked to couple friends today,that did very well on Sunday. The water around squaw hollow is very stained right now. Find the clean water ,and you will find the fish.

 

[crawler]

Slow for me.

We got 5 or 6 on Friday. Lost as many. Saturday was slow. The wife got a nice koke that went a little over 4# and we kept one more average fish. Lost a half dozen or so. Sunday was really slow. Started out at breeze hill - nothing. Went down to wild horse bay and trolled back to the ranch. Caught I 2# fish and threw back a couple of shakers. I did the same thing in going through the tackle box!

I did notice that not as many fish were checking out the lures. Just a slow bite I guess.

 

[AlreadyGone]

sounds like a broken record

Same for us too. Saturday we and Gulfstream were up there and had caught a limit each had we kept smaller ones and GS let theirs all go-we kept 2. Sunday was much slower, we did manage to catch a few with one being a real nice koke and a pup laker.

We were in Middle Marsh on Saturday working towards Anvil by the end of the day. Sunday we worked on breeze. I had the wife switching setups every 1/2 hour on Sunday-Konanne Creek Hot damns and a pink Wedding Ring were the only thing getting hits and catching fish on Sunday. I have some pics I might get to post later-

 

[POk3s]

Well that sucks I finally make it out and it seems as it was the slowest weekend yet this summer. Makes me feel a little better that it wasn't just me. I also haven't hooked into a rainbow or small mac YET this summer while trolling for kokes. Last year it seemed like i'd catch 2x more macs then i would kokanee...and luck into at least 4 or 5 rainbows a day (on good days). Only kokes for me...guess that's good in a way.

 

[Tuna On]

Hey got up to the gorge 7/23-7/25 and you all are right is was slower. First day we went to target mack's and within and hour we landed one 22lbs and a couple around 4-6 lbs. Then went bass fishing and caught a couple nice bass. Next day we were targeting kokanee but some guys wanted us to scope out farther south so we and "Get You Some" headed to the red cliffs in front of king fisher Island. The two lures that worked the best for us was our shiny raspberry dakota spinner, and a gold dakota spinner although the fish were smaller they were in there. It was hard to tell some of them were even on the pole. They are stacked in there 30-40 feet, our biggest being 2 pounds. Our last day we heaed up just above the pipe with "Get You Some" and it was all about the green. Our green dakota spinners and the two shades of green squids. "Get You Some" smoked us and we were using the same lures, his favorite was Dark green Apple Dakota Spinner. His biggest was pushing 4 lbs. He landed 20 fish in a few hours. I do want to say I don't care who kicks my butt fishing as long as they do it with my lures. Thanks for fishing with us and for reminding me that I should stick to making lures. "My excuse is I spend to much time making lures that I forgot how to fish."

 

[crawler]

That reminds me...

Tuna On, You remind me of myself! Everytime I hear what fish are hitting on I break out the lure components and make myself 3 of every combination possible. Then I go to the gorge and don't catch anything on the new lures! For example, the black pearl is a hot lure so I go to the Kokanee tackle website and duplicate the lure. Not a bite! Guess I just need to learn how to fish!

 

[Brown bear]

Ditto MinnMan i just put up a post on how good the weekend could have been........

 

[AlreadyGone]

Pics

Here's a few pics of the 2 we kept Sat-Nice color and size for barbecuing-

A nice one I picked up on the south side of the Breeze on Sunday-we also had a smaller koke that was bleeding bad we we boated him so we kept him too-Makes a slow day go a little farther-

We ended up getting roasted out there in the sun on Sunday-

lost a picture