Lucky Peak Kokes

[sawtooth]

Hit LP this morning for about five hours. Picked up three around 9am. Then things slowed down a bit. Left the point across from spring shores and moved to the dam. Started getting bit again around noon. Some at 25 ft. some down at 45-50 ft. Most on homemade spinners (pink and green) and corn. Had to leave when things were getting interesting because of an afternoon appointment. Ended up with eight kokes in the boat. Released two trout. Little windy but great day all around. Took my son and his friend. Hope to get out again middle of next week.

 

[pescado paul]

Went out at about 3:00 this afternoon and left about 7:00. Hooked 4 and boated all of them, 3 at 35 on chrome apex and 1 on a squid/dodger combo. 3 pigs and one smaller. Fished in the area I call the middle bay. Start at spring shores and head towards the damn. After you leave the open area or bay at the spring shores boat launch you go through the narrow stretch and then it opens up into a smaller bay with docks on each side. I would appreciate some help on what you all call this spot. Then from there, near as I can tell from google earth, it narrows up somewhat until you get to the area at the damn. Do any of you spend much time fishing those in between areas? It seems I only hear about those 3 open areas. I am pretty new to the site so I may be off on that. Anyway that's how I did.

 

[Sluggo]

Current Conditions

Hello,

My son and I are heading up to LP tomorrow for only the second time this year and was wondering what the current conditions are. What depth seems most productive? What lures/attractors seem to work best? What area(s) seem to be holding the most fish? Any information/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

 

[Kenprice]

Planning on hitting LP in the morning. Generally launch at Turner and run a 16ft G3 with 2 Cannon Minimag 10 electric DRs, Yamaha 115 main and 8hp kicker. I'll most likely be by myself, my fishin' bud (wife) is feeling under the weather. I've been doing ok (for me) near the dam, begin getting hits straight out from Turner and lined up on the south intake tower. Trolling across to the current racetrack under the overlook and merge into traffic. I'll begin there and see where the day takes me.

 

[BlueBack79]

almost headed up kokanee fishing, but decided to go crappie fishing again....with horrible results. took a LARGE splitshot (3/8oz.) directly to the bottome lip at about 90mph....from about 50ft. away. snagged in a russian olive and jerked with all my might. thought i busted my front, bottom teeth out! luckily all teeth in place and just a mangled lip. i am done crappie fishing strike until i hear some solid reports. getting back to the kokes! funny thing today was, we were fighting the wind, complaining how $hitty the crappie fishing was, trolled around a rock cropping, and there was a racoon, down on the bank, eating a crappie!! laughed my ass off!!

 

[Blueback]

Thanks for that report BB 79 - I fished Lucky Peak Friday, Sat. and the first two hours or so Sunday morning and was wishing I had gone to Strike for crappie. Doesn't sound like Strike is red hot either.
We finally picked up a couple of decent Kokes really early this morning at 20 ft. on red Hotspot flashers (kokanee size) and minature pink squid near the dam. Sat. evening we fought the wind and fished a few spots all the way from Spring Shores to the dam and hooked a couple around 35 ft. on mini-trolls and homemade spinners. Very windy and hard to fish - wind gusting 3 different directions that last hour and a half.
Friday evening was a bust - got chased by lightning. Seems like I am having to work 3X has hard for Blueback than normal lately and can't seem to dial in on a consistant depth. I might back off a week and see if things stablize.
I feel your pain BB79.
I took a pencil lead to the eye on the Grande Ronde a few years back throwing glo corkies for steelhead. It was the middle of the night, I snagged up, gave it a good pull and took an ounce square in the eye. Took it a year to heal completely.

 

[metalheadgene]

The wife and I hit it for just a couple of hours...got there around 930 am and out of there by 2pm. We hit all the usual spots but very very slow for us. Ended up getting one pig Koke and one nice trout.

Lots of thumbs down from other boats we passed.

The entire spring shores area all the way to the dam turned into grand central station. Glad we got out when we did. There was a line of rigs pulling boats waiting to get into Springshores around 2 that was backed up about a mile to the highway.

 

[Sluggo]

Fished LP from 8:00-2:00 today with only one large Koke for the smoker. We caught another small one and released it and a NPM. We had a couple of other hookups but they broke free. VERY SLOW and DISAPPOINTING! I hope others had better luck. Oh, it was a ZOO this afternoon!

Blueback79...it must be racoon season. We enjoyed watching a big racoon climbing up and down the cliffs. The birds were very agitated!

 

[sawtooth]

Will be going up to spring shores in the morning. Hope things pick up a bit from the last few reports. I'll report how things go tomorrow evening.

 

[Kenprice]

My trip to LP Sunday sounds about par. Made two hookups but lost them at the boat. Need one more hand for the net when fishing alone I guess. Both were near the dam, about center pool. Had a couple of light hits that never connected as well. The fish were all over the fishfinder 20 to 70 ft, and lots of loners.

I was mighty glad I was up there early in the day. Sounds like I left about the same as the rest of you - counted 78 vehicles in line to enter Spring Shores, about half of them rigs with boats. Even had to wait in line to get out, apparently due to some sheriff patrol action on the road. I was very happy to be leaving at that time, looked like tempers were warming and the fuses were short. Maybe next weekend...

 

[Blueback]

I'm glad I'm not the only one having a hard time dialing in these LP kokes lately - I'm going through vast areas of LP and graphing no kokes and when I do they are scattered throughout the water column.
Next time, I'm taking my neighbor and joining forces with two 2-pole permits and double stacking at 20, 30, 40, and 50 to start. That, and try to launch at Barclay. Spring shores was getting pretty cozy at 9 am Sunday when we pulled out - can't imagine it later. Yowza. One mile back-up!
All the usual money spots are falling a little flat - have had the most hook-ups near the dam, center pool and along that rip rap between the launch and that first big concrete structure in the water - if the wind co-ops. Every year fishes a little different - this one seems a lot different.

 

[jcutler]

Sunday LP trip

Fished Lucky Peak sunday around spring shores and the narrows from about 11:00 to 2:30 with no hits. Decided to head down and try around the dam and picked up six nice kokes and a small rainbow in 2 1/2 hours. Smallest koke was 15 1/2 and largest was 17 1/2. It was a fun day but wish I would have remembered the sun screen!

 

[sawtooth]

Right when I think I am figuring out the Kokes at LP I have a day like today to keep me humble. Lines were in the water at 7:15 and fished till 12:30. Most of my time was spent near the dam and landed only two 15+ inch kokes and released 5 trout and a NPM. Fish were marked at 15-50 ft down. Both kokes came from the downrigger at 27 ft. Trout were caught from 25-50 ft down. Kokes were plentiful in this area as recent as last Thursday, but now it is over run with trout. I am wondering if the recent trout planting has scattered or moved the kokes to new feeding grounds.

 

[kodiak1]

Boy, you and Blueback are right---L.P. is fishing strangely. Talked to two separate guys yesterday who had fished it. Both know what they're doing. One caught one koke, and the other guy got blanked. I wonder if the large runoff is having something to do with it? In the past, the lake has stratified by now, but the fish seem to be everywhere, both in terms of depth and area. P.S.: the road across the dam is still closed, but is supposed to open this weekend.

 

[hoolee99]

since you guys have done this before, I was curious on how the fishing typical is going into summer. With heat and more boat action how does this affect them? This is my very first season ever doing this so I have no idea what to expect. Thanks

 

[Kokezero]

Deadwood

Hi everyone, I new to the site and new to the kokanee fishing. I have never been to Deadwood Res. I have heard that it is a hot spot for Kok's is this true? If so I have a 12 inflatable raft with 30lb minkota tolling motor. I have most of the gear wedding rings and dodgers/flashers.
I would like to know your input on the Dipsy Divers and a kok setup. I used to use a similar set up for Coho's back in South Dakota. I have two 9' rods both with line counters and 10lb test mono is this too lite of line for the dipsy's Magnums?
Any input would be great.

DV

 

[luckykoke]

Deadwood Reservoir is full of Kokanee, however they are much smaller in size. Probably 9 to 12 inches. You can catch them all day up there. I drove up there on Wed for work. Saw one boat fishing and they said they were catching a few. A couple of things you might want to know. Right now the only road open to get up there is the 579. It wasn't in too bad of shape, but it will take you some time getting up there. It took us 4.5 hours. Your set up sounds good, not sure about the test with the dipsys. I've never run them so I'm not a good source.
If you don't mind catching the smaller kokes, I would suggest Anderson Ranch. Much easier to get to and it is full of kokes too. Good luck!

 

[TrackerTX17]

Dipsy Divers

Been a watcher not much to say. However I do use dipsy divers "0 w/ring" using 15# line. I generally run 80 to 90 feet of line out putting be down 20 to 30 feet at LP. I have used all kinds of koke setups and they all catch fish, just some are better then others depending on the day. Hope this helps.

 

[Gurnealius]

Deadwood

Fished Deadwood twice last July- Caught lots of kokanee- They seemed to be running a bit bigger. Most were 13 to 14 inches. Caught alot of cut throats too. Fished from the mouth of the fiver staight down to cozy cove at 25 to 40 ft. Pretty much trolled in and out of schools the whole time.

 

[BlueBack79]

we were fishing it in july last year too. as soon as the gear was down, the fish were biting. i agree on the size. 13" - 14" was the norm. some a little bigger and smaller of course. two guys on the boat coming out with near limits everytime wasnt bad! we hadnt fished it in years, so we just started trolling around. marked fish all over the res. from the mouth to the dam. we never got into the cutts, but heard people were catching some big ones. ill for sure be making a few trips back up there this year. beautiful place and lots of action.