Merwin 2010 Reports

[Bluknight]

Thank you for the recent reports gents. I was thinking it would be getting too late for the kokes but glad to hear it's still going. I have a gal at work that wants to try fishing with her son. The best I can do with schedules is next Monday.

I hope they hold!!!

 

[Koke-n-a-smile]

Way to go Kokonuts! I have been on vacation, and am heading out again next weekend. I am glad to hear they are still biting, and hope to get out at least one or two more times before the bite goes off. Keep the reports coming!101goodpost101

 

[Kokonuts]

Way to go Kokonuts! I have been on vacation, and am heading out again next weekend. I am glad to hear they are still biting, and hope to get out at least one or two more times before the bite goes off. Keep the reports coming!101goodpost101

I will be fishing on Fri.& Sat. so I hope to see you there!

Kokonuts signfishin

 

[Bluknight]

8-24-10

Fished from 0700 - 1130 today. Wind was not very cooperative. I felt a bit like a cork in the ocean out there for a while.

Surface temp was 68 - 69 degrees. Winning combo for me was a red WR with silver spinner or red and green WR with chartreuse spinner. All taken between 40-50 feet. Tried the apex and hoochie rigs and just could not get a bite. Apparently that is not my go to rig.

Fished North side past koke cove and then moved to the south side to find some more fish when they disappeared. Enjoyed the day but could have had a little less wind.

Variable size on the fish - 4 or so in the 13-14 inch range that were nice ones then some little guys. Several sqauwfish spawns added to the changing out of bait. Those seagulls should be well fed!

One more trip for me next Monday to get my nephew and co-worker son into some fish. Hopefully some will still be left.

 

[carvingfish]

Merwin or yale Lake this sunday?

So having never fished Merwin and only yale lake once. And I only have sunday to fish where would be good place to go for a couple of Kokes? and what tackle/color should i be using. I have red maggots and Corn and tuna oil.
Should be there around 6AM sunday stop by and say hay.
Bruce worthy12: confused: 101eatdrink101101 smilie101
I'm open for suggestions and bow to any knowlege I can gleam from all the all knowing ones

 

[Mark McWillis]

Looks like we'll be up there tomorrow, as well. Do you have downriggers? If so I'd start fishing on the N side in 120' of water and start fishing 50' deep with a slingblade/pink hoochie/pink Gulp Maggot. That's what we'll be doing.

 

[Calcan]

What a beautiful day warm very little wind caught two nice ones(they are cooking as I write), got a big red one to the back of the boat then he got off, and only 4 for the seagulls. This will be one of the last times for this year at Merwin, will be going to Wyoming to fish with my brother for the holiday weekend.

 

[carvingfish]

sunday sept 29 Merwin lake

got a late start alarm went off but forgot to check volume rolleyes got there around 6:30 got in water arrive at north side in 119 feet of water, couldn't find my Red maggots tore boat apart decided to use one ones and dye them red but then couldn't find Dye GRRRRRR so rigged up rods went to set up down riggers but the extension Pin broke so couldn't extend my scotties out GRRRRRR but it worke ok anyways. Finaly get fishing go about 100 yards rod goes of landed real red kok about 16" Finally start feeling good thinking all tha bad sstuff is over. put the kok back in the water swims away nicely. get all set up drop every thing back in get 2nd fish this one feels larger than last get him to side of boat and he is ver large go to net him and hook gets tied in net bye bye fish. real nice fish but oh well. all fish were caught at 55 feet.
find several schools below at 90 feet so set down rigger to 85 feet bank nother one on get to side of boat real red a again and shake him off. then I got 5 chinook smolts and all this time my buddy has not even had a hit doing same thing, go figure.
fishing died of on north side so went over to south side hook across from boat ramp anouther one land it and keep it 17" fish for 2 more ours and get one more. went home with 3 fish. and my buddy never even touched one.
but all in all nice day no strong winds cloudy and no rain. not many guys had more tna a couple of fish. so this will be my last day this year for koks look forward to seeing you all next year. time to chase the salmon and walleye in washogal area. then get out doing some sturgeon fishing.
Thank you to everyone for the help they gave me this year.101chromefish101101chromefish101

 

[kokonee animal]

I agree

MackPrincethumbsupworthy12101hearye

catching 5 koks is better than fighting boats on the columbia AMEN:

 

[torenhg]

Up this week-end

Was up last weekend but had to get the place in order for out of town guests this week. Will be up on Fri, Sat, Sun, and maybe Monday. Out in the boat allot but maybe fishing only in the morning. Hate to see the season starting to wind down but like the previous post, I am looking forward to the salmon run on the columbia and willammette and will be out there. Sturgeon sounds great as well, those things are great to fish for, great to catch, and great to eat... My first year Tuna out of Garibaldi was a few weeks ago, now I'm hooked and so is the brother and dad.

Hope to see you all up there with tight lines and full fishwells. My smoker will be cranking out kokanee, Tuna, silvers...

 

[Mark McWillis]

After reading somewhat mixed reports we decided to go ahead and give Merwin another try. We slept in a little and didn’t get to the ramp until 0530 and we were still the first boat there. We decided that we were only going to keep this years fish so I smashed the barbs on the hooks and off we went. We fished the North side with 4 rods all right at 50’ deep. We had to fish until almost 0930 to get 2 limits of keepers. We also released 12 “next year fish”, 5 small ‘Nooks and fed the Seagulls 8 hitch hikers. We also released one but nice hen that was pretty red. The others, as you can see, are still doing just fine and the darkest of them still had firm, red meat. The eggs in the hens were just slightly loose. Again, keep in mind that this is a 120 qt cooler.

Same drill as we’ve been using all along. Small sling blades in pink and orange UV with pink/white or orange/white hoochies. Pink gulp maggots on both hooks. No clear winner on colors, all caught fish. There were LOTS of fish on the box. Based on this we will probably fish again on Sunday and Tuesday. Just can’t make myself drive down to B10 for that melee.

 

[Bluknight]

Nice report and nice kokes - Thanks Mark. It's nice to hear someone else say they don't want the craziness!

 

[king koke]

Man!, between your reports and kokonuts you guys are killing me. Too bad for me I won't be able to make it again this year, violin. li'll nate (natalie) has kept me from going much this year (baby girl). My other two (Haley & Alek) had a blast going a few times this year and keep mentoning the BBQ and can we go on richards boat (kokonuts)101rave101 I hope to bring mine too . Mark how many nooks have netted? any good size to them? Next year would like to meet you out on the lake sometime. It's going to be a long winter can't wait for next year and see you all on the water!! Greg (King Koke) 101cheers101 awesomereport

 

[MackPrince]

Great reports everyone. It's good to know the fish are holding out this long.101goodpost101

 

[Koke-n-a-smile]

Great report, I have been on vacation and haven't been able to get out there for a few weeks. Now, my buddies are telling me the salmon are running in the Columbia and are enticing me to go out there. I was thinking I wanted one more run at the kokes, I need to figure out how "hot" my boat is so I can fix it this winter. One way or the other, I am heading out tomorrow morning.

 

[Mark McWillis]

Mark how many nooks have netted? any good size to them?

We've caught about 12-15 over the season that I would say are about the same size as "next year Kokes" and another 10 -12 that were about 6", or so. I am convinced that there are bigger "Nooks in the lake. I lost a very large fish, a few weeks ago, about 1/2 way to the boat. The leader broke between the 2 hooks. I saw him and he was well over 20" but he wasn't close enough to ID. I am convinced that it was a "Nook. Next year I may try and target them by trolling Rapalas or Coyote spoons, on 2 deep downriggers, under the Kokes.

 

[southside]

After reading somewhat mixed reports we decided to go ahead and give Merwin another try. We slept in a little and didn’t get to the ramp until 0530 and we were still the first boat there. We decided that we were only going to keep this years fish so I smashed the barbs on the hooks and off we went. We fished the North side with 4 rods all right at 50’ deep. We had to fish until almost 0930 to get 2 limits of keepers. We also released 12 “next year fish”, 5 small ‘Nooks and fed the Seagulls 8 hitch hikers. We also released one but nice hen that was pretty red. The others, as you can see, are still doing just fine and the darkest of them still had firm, red meat. The eggs in the hens were just slightly loose. Again, keep in mind that this is a 120 qt cooler.

Same drill as we’ve been using all along. Small sling blades in pink and orange UV with pink/white or orange/white hoochies. Pink gulp maggots on both hooks. No clear winner on colors, all caught fish. There were LOTS of fish on the box. Based on this we will probably fish again on Sunday and Tuesday. Just can’t make myself drive down to B10 for that melee.

Nice job. I saw you go by and waved. I was in my 14ft smokercraft. I got up to the lake around 8 and found a limit of very nice 15" fish just east of the launch in 90ft of water. Same setup but with shoepeg on both hooks. 50 to 60ft on the rigger.

It has been a great year learning how to target these great fighting fish.

Thanks for all your help!

Peace, Tom

 

[Koke-n-a-smile]

Well, I opted to go Kokanee fishing instead of the battle on the Columbia. We started out the day going down the north side towards the cabin. I got one dink and had one good size one spit the hook just out of reach of the net. Fed the seagulls a couple too. This was all before 8am, which for me is quite good. Then the day got really slow. We saw Kokonuts, as we passed, he said he only had 3 in the boat at that time. We decided to give up on the north side around 10:30, after we couldn't get a bite. So, we decided to head over to the south side and troll up towards the LMCH marina. We ended up getting two more in the boat by noon. By 1:00 the bite really started for us, and we limited by 3:30, almost all were caught between Camper's Hideway and Speelyai. All in 80 to 90 feet of water, and we had the down rigger between 47 and 39 feet. Pink and White Hoochie, with a Copper dodger painted half with pink was the hot setup. I think this is my last trip for the year, so I look forward to seeing you all up there next year!

 

[Mark McWillis]

Mary and I fished Sunday with my friend, Carl. We dropped the first line at 0600 and had the last of the 3 limits at 0925. All on the North side and all right at 50' on 1 pass going West. Now, here's the thing....if you turn around at the cabin you'll miss most of the fish. We were marking, and catching, fish well past all the houses. We also fed about 10 Seagulls and released about 6 'Nook smolts. It was also pretty cool that when we pulled out there were only 5 rigs in the parking lot! Mary and I are planning on going back out tomorrow for what might be the last Merwin trip of the year.

 

[Koke Hunter]

Started trolling at 7:30 this morning with my daughter and stopped at 10:00 with only one Koke to grill for breakfast. We camped at Cresap last night and left from the moorage then worked the right side near an inlet to a small boat launch. It was a beautiful sunny day today and I hated to leave. I really don't know the lake yet so I am probably not hitting the right spots but I did see plenty jumping and we had a big pink one break the line at the hook when it was inches from the net. I just use the pre-made wedding bands, is there a better line to use for resistance to sharp teeth? The silver one we ate for breakfast was 14" and tasted great! I saw multiple fishing boats heading towards the west end of the lake as I was coming in after 10am. Were any of you guys out there today?