Lucky Peak Kokes 2011

[BlueBack79]

had a great day on the water. we only boated 4, but lost quite a few. that was our challenge for the day. pink hoochies behind sling blades were the ticket for us today. tried the narrows first thing with no luck. fished about halfway to the dam with the rest of the people out there, and caught a couple. best luck was down by the dam in the afternoon.

 

[Idahokanee]

docking protocol

I have a question about docking protocol out here. I saw something on Sunday that is a big no no were I am from in Michigan. We pulled up to the dock and were 3rd in line to dock our boat. We had been waiting for about 20 minutes when two boats pulled up to the shore and dropped off a guy and they went up and got there trailers and pulled around. This moved us back in line. On Lake Michigan this would have started a very harsh argument or even a fight. I finally dropped my wife off and had her back the trailer down the ramp. Which was funny to watch. Nobody seemed to minded so I just wondered if this was normal.

Idahowolverine, if I understand your question right, that is how it should work. Trailers/vehicles are supposed to set the pace, not the boats (were talking boat recovery not launching). If the boats set the pace it would take twice as long. Typically you drop someone off at the dock or shoreline so they can go get the trailer, then you back your boat away from the dock so others can do the same. Then when your trailer arrives (is backing down the ramp) you head your boat to recovery ramp. ….But, you also have guys like me who are fishing alone, I’m usually the one who has to wait a long time because I either have to beach or moor my boat so I can go get my trailer. That being said, I can usually moor my boat, get my trailer and be off the ramp in less than 3 minutes. Today, I went out around 11am had my limit by 1pm and wasn’t able to dock my boat for almost 40 minutes with only 2 boats at the dock that whole time, and two of us waiting to come in. MackayGuy is right, Turner Gulch can be a nightmare. Sometimes you “almost” have to be rude or else you’ll be setting on the water all day. )

Basic Boat Ramp Etiquette: http://www.boatoregon.com/OSMB/miscfiles/RampRules.shtml

(couldn’t find one for Idaho)

 

[Larkinforce]

Thanks....I was just about to ask if anyone had been out yesterday. I was going to go, but had something come up at the last minute. It looked like a good day to be out there. Lot's of folks out there?

Yes, it got pretty usy Friday. I swear people were using bionoculears. Someone would hook into one with no one around and 5 min later there would be 6 boats around them.

 

[MackayGuy]

Yes, it got pretty usy Friday. I swear people were using bionoculears. Someone would hook into one with no one around and 5 min later there would be 6 boats around them.

I know what you mean....we seemed to be the only ones catching anything last sunday in one particular area. As soon as we started catching something it was like we had some gravitational force around us. I looked up from putting one in the live well and there were 3 boats all coming at us head on. They finally gave up and moved on. You really had to watch all around you to make sure someone didn't run us over.

 

[TwoLabs]

Sorry guys - I am one that does use binoculars. The way the fish have been this year it is impossible for me to find them on the fish finder. I've also noticed that I can fish for an hour without a bite and then have every pole in the boat go off at once. "Small schools" I guess.

Fished Saturday all over and only boated two. I would have been ahead just to stay in one spot. Didn't see many fished boated but there was plenty of pressure. It was also amazing to see Spring Shores vacant of all boats. Where are the fish?

 

[koko71]

Hi Two Labs

I went out last friday afternoon at springs shores and found large schools of fish holding in the mouth of mores creek arm. There is also fish that show up on the fish finder up at the arrowrock dam area on the left side of the shore from the macks creek area to the safety bouys, hope that helps. If you find a school and it's slow try still fishing or jigging sometimes this method works. On friday afternoon being overcast the only set ups that worked for me were copper dodgers and flashers fished down 15 feet. The tackle shack in meridian has some good books on how to jig and still fish for kokanee. Good luck, James

 

[koko71]

Hi Idahokanee

Idahokanee tryed the natural scents last friday afternoon and didn't get any hits on it. Do you use a combo of both of the scents you were talking about or just one? The 15 inch kokanee I boated had better girth than the larger kokanee I caught earlier in the season. I seemed to try every color in my tackle box but it was slow. I read that you usually fish alone like I do. If you ever want to have a fishing partner drop me a private message and maybe we can hook up. The black dodger I was telling you about is a fish with gary darth raider. He sells a match trailing lure. I was thinking of going out to lucky peak on friday. thanks for the reports, James

 

[Mojo]

At this time of year, most fish are hanging in the surface clutter if you have your fish finder set at the factory settings. Most of the fish we are finding are in the top 5 to 10 feet of the water column. That may well be why you aren't seeing them.

 

[Idahokanee]

Idahokanee tryed the natural scents last friday afternoon and didn't get any hits on it. Do you use a combo of both of the scents you were talking about or just one? The 15 inch kokanee I boated had better girth than the larger kokanee I caught earlier in the season. I seemed to try every color in my tackle box but it was slow. I read that you usually fish alone like I do. If you ever want to have a fishing partner drop me a private message and maybe we can hook up. The black dodger I was telling you about is a fish with gary darth raider. He sells a match trailing lure. I was thinking of going out to lucky peak on friday. thanks for the reports, James

koko71, FYI - Speed, depth and determination may help overcome your dilemma. I can share later in a PM about some basic tactics that work for me. I will say that when the fish aren't biting, I get aggressive in my attack options, and even on a really bad day will come home with 2-3 fat ones. But sometimes, time of day or just a flat out better location can turn a bad day in to limiting out within an hour or two. If the scent thing isn't working, there has to be another reason (Trolling to slow/fast, To deep/not deep enough, etc), I do not "combo the scents". Last Saturday I went out, and one of my rigs had a fish on every 10 minutes or less, my other Rod was changed out every 10-15 minutes to something totally different and it didn't get one bite (used both scents mentioned, alternating on first rig). Needless to say, kept the big ones, left w/limit, and was only out for 2 hours. It's mostly (in my opinion) how aggressive you get. .....Anyway, I would love to fish together sometime soon, I'll have to wait a few weeks though, Just started new job, and have family coming in from out of town. I'll PM when I'm ready. ....I'll do my best to be on the lake Saturday morning, if you see me out there (if you're there), swing by and say Hi. Steve )

 

[Larkinforce]

Lp yesterday

Hit the lake at about 0830. Could not believe the wind. Long story short at about 1130 started to hit them hard. They hit any color spinner I had out. Both poles would get hit on each pass over the area they were sitting. Bad part was I hooked into 14 in less then 1 1/2 hours and lost all of them on the way to the boat. LP was packed with boats also.

 

[BlueBack79]

how did everyone do today? we hit the water about 8am and fought the wind for the most part. we boated a few, but it was pretty slow action. most boats we talked to had about the same luck. when that wind quit it turned to glass, got hot and we couldnt buy a fish. cut our losses around noon thirty.

 

[sawtooth]

Took my buddy and his son out today. Got on the water around 8am. Landed one around 8:30 and lost another a few minutes later. Then went cold till ll am. We ran into a small school and stayed with them for the next couple of hours. By 1 pm we were able to land eight kokes and caught and released a couple of trout. The bite stopped as fast as it started and we decided to call it a day at 2pm. Most were caught on homemade spinners at 10 to 18 ft down.

 

[jimbojump]

Scents

I was out 5-14 as well 9 am...the wind was aweful but we landed one 15 minutes after launch by the dam..then went to honey holes and didnt get another til 3 pm...are you guys using scented corn? I was thinking of picking up some Pro-cure stuff but wanted input on its effectiveness first....and the two scents that work best and most often. Thanks ahead of time and glad to find you guys on here...Tight lines bro's

 

[BlueBack79]

i'm pretty much an anise junky, so that is my scent of choice.

 

[Trollin-Fools]

Friday, May 13th

I use Shoepeg corn because the kernels are the right size unlike whole kernel corn which are sometimes way too large. I used to use scent but haven't for the last couple of years and haven't noticed any decrease in catch. Now I don't have that stuff on my fingers when I forget and rub my eyes. We fished Friday and the bite was pretty good all day till we quit at three. The only change was we were getting them at 10 ft. in the morning when it was windy and 23 ft. in the afternoon when it was warm and calm. We ended with 19. We lost more than that because we are somewhat lame fisherman. This was the first time this year we caught no trout. The ramp at Turner Gulch was a mess at 3:15 when we were pulling out. I wish the lake could fill so we could use the main docks.

 

[sawtooth]

Hey Trollin-Fools,
Sounds like you had a good day on friday. Did you have to move around alot to find your fish or were they in one or two specific locations? I haven't found the fish to be in big schools for a couple weeks now. They seem to be more spread out in smaller school with this inconsistent weather pattern we have been having recently.

 

[Trollin-Fools]

Sawtooth- They were at big bend first thing but we attracted lots of boats due to the good bite so we moved back toward the dam about 1/4 to 1/2 mile and found a little school that would hit every time we went through it. Never did find a real big school that lit up the radar but found several smaller schools. Some of the schools had smaller fish, we threw back 4 next years fish but all the others were 14- 16.5 inches. When schools over let's do a weekday up at the lake.

 

[jimbojump]

Sounds awesome

I would love to meet some new friends and have a day of coordinated attacks on those silver beauties...looking outside today...ugh...not in the next few days apparantly...LOL
Tight lines!

16 foot sun runner White/yellow

 

[spoons]

I was out Friday and Saturday.
Worked from accross Spring Shores up to Arrowrock dam pretty hard. Boated 2 kokes Friday and lost several others. One very Fat 17 incher tasted great.
Boated 1 of each on Saturday and missed a few more.
The fish seemed pretty spread out. Everytime we hooked one up, I'd flip around and hit the same spot a few more times and never got a 2nd nibble.
Sounds like I was at the wrong end of the lake for the most part... AGAIN!

I was going to hit the Dam end on Saturday but as I got to the top of the Dam hill it appeared they had moved "the dam Hump" from CJ Strike to Lucky Peak Dam...
Nice weather on both days though.

 

[jimbojump]

Ugh!

Went out yesterday flying solo...tried various things at various depths trolling about 1.6...nothing nodda zippo....got irritated and went home...5 hours of nothing is a bit depressing...and running the boat and the gear by myself sucked balls too....maybe Thursday will merit some takers...fish marking all over the place around 20-25 feet.....I was using wedding rings and flashers...rapalas too...not one hit....lake was virtually empty...crapmonkies