Merwin 2010 Reports

[smokin' Kokes]

lock at the hog bellys on rip lips kokes.
never seen such heavy gutted kokes for this early in Merwin.
look like late July fish.

algae feed must be thick as soup

 

[Koke-n-a-smile]

Those are beauties! I am so jealous! Haven't been able to get out yet, my kids are in baseball, been working on a project vehicle, and of course work keeps getting in the way

 

[MackPrince]

4-24-10

I was able to make it to the lake yesterday to as my wife said, "Get my fix." The weatherman got it right, 50% chance of rain, and it rained at least half the time I was there. I fished from 1-2:20p.m. and landed three. One was fresh from the hatchery (maybe 9") so he went back in the water.

I marked several good schools at depths from 15-45'. The new two pole option worked out, and I managed a double which felt like a chinese firedrill. For gear I had one rig with a green Sierra dodger and homemade spinner, and the other was a green RMT flasher with a hoochie. The keepers were already around 14" so late summer these schools will have some big fish.

Kokonuts, it looked like you had a boatfull that was enjoying the fact that you have a covered area during the rain

 

[Mark McWillis]

4-25-10

My wife and I hit the water at 0700 and had 6 fish in the first hour.....then it took us the rest of the day to get the other 4 plus several dinks. BEAUTIFUL weather. 15'-18' feet on the downrigger. All the keepers were 12"-13" and fat.

 

[skookum9]

I finally got to try Merwin out yesterday for the first time ever. I want to say thanks to all who I ran into out there who were willing to share info to help us hook up, everyone was very nice and helpful. If any of you were among those, thank you very much. The advice we got from other fishermen was not at all consistent but we tried a little of what everyone was saying. It seemed like quite a few others were having some success trolling and that is what my father and my uncle were most interested in doing so that is how we spent the day. I was in the bow of the boat much of the time trying to use jigs as best I could while the boat was in motion. The previous post was right about the weather, 50% of the time it was decent and 50% it was not good.

The trolling for us was slow at best. We got a late start but fished all the rest of the day with only two koke's and a squaw fish to show for it. Although they did get some other short strikes. By the end of the day my uncle had gotten a little too cold so we let him go to the truck to get warm while we went out for the last few minutes to give the jigs a try. In maybe 15 minutes or so of fishing with the jigs we had three fish in the boat, had lost a couple of others and had a number of other strikes. Jigs will definitely work on this lake and from what I saw yesterday they will work well. It was a fun day even if it wasn't an overly productive one. I look forward to hitting it again soon if I get the chance.

 

[smokin' Kokes]

skookum

great intel report especially on the jig fishing kokes, something i'm still trying to learn.
what type, color and depth with the jigs?
jigging method, slow or rapid jerk and how much vertical movement? like walleye?

cliff

one nice thing about Merwin's nasty weather wind and rain, it keeps the water skiers and jet jockeys away

 

[Kokonuts]

thumbsup Fished at Merwin Sat. & Sun, I had a couple of fishing buddies on the boat with their 5 year old Sons! It was a wild & crazy Day, just like the weather! We all workred had to get 15 nice Kokanee and it was another Great Day at the Lake! I cant post pictures now , I left the camera at the Lake.

Mack, Sorry I missed you in the rain, Greg & I were talking about the Get Together in June & we cant wait!

Kokonuts.....

 

[eenakoK]

Kokonuts - congrats on the good fishing. Cant wait to see the pics!

 

[skookum9]

Smokin'Kokes,

I basically fished it the same way I do at Odell and Wickiup, nothing really special to it. I used a pink and white Gibbs in the 1/2 oz and the 1/4 oz models. I've never fished for walleye so I couldn't say about that but I just cast out and waited a couple of seconds and then began to jig the lure back to the boat. Sometimes I would let it sink for several seconds before I began jigging it back but most of the kokes seemed to be willing to come up to the top few feet even if they weren't already there. I actually watched one come darting up from the depths right below the boat as my jig came to the boat. I stopped the jig and let it set there and sure enough he came and gave it a good bite but it didn't stick so he got away. Pretty cool to watch anyway, it was only 3 or 4 feet below the boat when he came charging up. In general, I prefer to cast to the fish I can spot rising, but with the wind and all, most of my casts were made "blind" fishing and the kokes just seemed to hit it anyway.

I don't know how much I am going to make it up to Merwin or Yale this spring but you are welcome to give me a holler anytime and see if I can meet up with you and show you first hand what I do. The very best time to fish this way is anytime the fish are showing on the surface and this is usually the first couple of hours in the morning and the last couple of hours in the evening. But with that said, it will still work all day long, it's just that you will have to have some faith in it and not give up just because you aren't seeing the fish.

 

[Mark McWillis]

Skookum9,

Thanks for the jigging info. All this time I was thinking you were vertical jigging on suspended fish, not casting. That's the kind of info that makes this site so cool.

 

[skookum9]

I've got a question for those of you who are more familiar with Merwin and the koke's that are in it. First off, I didn't know that it had chinook in it until we saw it in among our catch. Then, when I got home I notice that it survived the drive home that took nearly three hours. When I tried to fillet the chinook my knife slipped right through the backbone like it wasn't even there. The meat on the chinook was more red than that of the koke's, especially the one that was completely white. But when it was fried it was a terrible disappointment, a horrible eating fish. Is there something wrong with the chinook in this lake?

The next question is about the flavor of the kokanee. These were the worst tasting kokanee I've ever eaten. They weren't bad enough to be unedible but they didn't taste like kokanee should. I'd rank them right in there with rainbow trout. Did anyone else notice the taste of these fish not being up to par for what they are? Is this typical of the koke's in this lake? If so, are the fish from Yale or Swift any better or just more of the same? I love eating kokanee but these were not the kokanee I am familiar with and don't know what to make of it. I would love to hear if anyone has any info on this, thanks.

 

[Birds Nest]

Quick Limit alone

Had a Great 45 minutes this morning and quickly got my limit and lost a bunch too, I do have to say I like the 2 rod endorsement, it seemed to work out well, 3 doubles makes a giant smile all day long, and I wasnt even going to go this morning. fished along LMCH on one long pass 300 yds from shore about


skookum9

The fish taste great to me but how was one alive 3 hours after you got off the lake, mine get a knife to the gill, sit in the live well for 5 minutes than are packed on ice, I hear the turn very fast if not properly cared for. sorry for your bad luck.

I was unaware of any Chinook planted in there but my kokanee cut differnt colors as well some super red some pink/orange

 

[Mark McWillis]

The next question is about the flavor of the kokanee. These were the worst tasting kokanee I've ever eaten. They weren't bad enough to be unedible but they didn't taste like kokanee should. I'd rank them right in there with rainbow trout. Did anyone else notice the taste of these fish not being up to par for what they are? Is this typical of the koke's in this lake? If so, are the fish from Yale or Swift any better or just more of the same? I love eating kokanee but these were not the kokanee I am familiar with and don't know what to make of it. I would love to hear if anyone has any info on this, thanks.

I don't have a frame of reference as all the Kokanees I've caught, and eaten, came from Merwin. I'll be interesetd to see what others say.

 

[skookum9]

Birds Nest, you are right that I should have gilled them but I didn't. I've been spoiled fishing so high in the mountains in the spring that gilling isn't necessary. I've never had fish turn bad on me from waiting to get home to clean them but I do like to gill them when I can. Perhaps it was the warmer water of Merwin and the time to get home that made them not taste so good. Again, it's not like they were bad, they just weren't the great koke flavor that I am familiar with. It probably was the fact that they were out of the lake so long. And congrats on a great morning of fishing. I was hoping to be out there this morning myself but some things came up that made it impossible. Maybe next time. By the way, were you trolling? And if so, how were you set up?

I am somewhat guessing on the chinook thing but one of the fish was covered in spots like a rainbow trout but a totally silver body of a salmon and had black coloring in his mouth. I'm pretty sure it was a chinook but I could be mistaken. I know that it was not a kokanee and I don't know what else it could have been but a chinook. The one thing I am sure of, I won't be keeping any more of them in the future. My catch will consist of only kokanee.

 

[smokin' Kokes]

skookum9

there are landlocked chinook salmon planted in Merwin. WDFW and PacifiCorp have long range plans and have been experimenting with introducing chinook salmon into the upper N. Fork Lewis above the dams with the goal of recreating the chinook ocean spawning runs on the Upper Lewis. they have been hauling adult returned salmon around the dams and releasing up river. no experiments yet on gather and returning the smolt to below Merwin. going to be expensive but part of the grand plan to return all Wa. river systems to "native" fish run populations only. won't work with the damn dams.

doesn't work on the Columbia except for the billions of dollars spent on hauling fish, counting fish, measuring fish, radio tagging fish, chasing sea lions, buying off the native Americans with billions of $$$$ by the BPA

you ought to go see the smolt counting operation on the lower Columbia, at least $50 million invested in big boats, equipment buildings and the operation costs must be another $25 million a year.

most expensive fish in the world. the best Russian caviar doesn't cost as much.

the chinook in Merwin have a very bland flavor because the species is a predatory meat eater, not much minnow prey for them in Merwin except the kokes and the pikeminnows.
the few that there are do grow to 24" plus.

i've noticed that the flavor of Merwin kokes and kokes out of other cold winter snow melt lakes can be not as good in the spring before the algae and small plankton they eat starts growing with increased summer sun. Merwin and Yale are very late lakes to warm because of their drainage off two high mountains with heavy snow packs and ice glaciers. but this also produces the Aug. water temps of below 58d F that kokes need to be successful. most lowland lakes in the West are too warm anymore with all the development and summer drawdown to successfully reproduce and grow good kokes.

kokes can very bland and flat until the summer feed starts producing that rich Omega 3 fat that is marbled and layered in the meat. the fish fat is what creates their great flavor.
fresh right out of the water Alaskan sockeye have the same flavor difference compared to the jetted iced down 3 day old sockeye the stores rip off customers for $10 lb. here.
no comparison.

I keep my kokes on a 99 cent bag of crushed ice until home

 

[smokin' Kokes]

what we're fishing for this year. payed for and planted in 2008
with the massive budget cuts in WDFW this year, most hatchery programs will be shut down
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/stocking/weekly/2008.pdf
Merwin Lake
May 12 Kokanee 43,650 7.00 Speelyai Speelyai Net Pens

2012 fishing
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/stocking/we...eciesStocked&search=KOKANEE&orderby=StockDate
Lake/Pond Date Species Number Fish per
Pound Hatchery Notes
LK MERWIN (COWL)
Cowlitz County - Region 5 Mar 12, 2010 Kokanee 22,300 8.68 Speelyai Hatchery Speelyai Net Pens
LK MERWIN (COWL)
Cowlitz County - Region 5 Mar 26, 2010 Kokanee 24,700 4.12 Speelyai Hatchery


does not include the variable natural spawn in Speelyai creek and several other small creeks on Merwin. WDFW used to estimate these as producing less than 5k adult size fish each year.

Yale has far more and much better koke spawning rearing streams, thus the far higher over population and small size.

 

[skookum9]

Smokin' Kokes, that's some awesome information. Sounds like you know these lakes pretty well. Even if they tend to run a little smaller, if the koke's in Yale are a higher percent natural reproduction then there should be less chance of getting the white meated ones. As long as they're not too much smaller. Thanks for posting this info.

 

[BigRedFisher]

I'm new to this site and will be fishing Merwin and Yale a lot this summer. I don't have a downrigger and was wondering if i should attach my weight directly in front of my dodgers or have some line in between.

 

[MackPrince]

You can attach directly with an in-line attractor like a Ford Fender, but with a dodger or flasher I'd recommend an 18" leader to help give some swing room.

Great question. -Mack

 

[BigRedFisher]

No reports lately.....guess the weather has been keeping people home. I should be out at Merwin Friday for my second Friday in a row.