Merwin 2010 Reports

[kokaguy1]

Was at the lake Sunday 5/1 weather started off a little wet but got better as the day went along. We limited out but took a good part of the day. Thought it would be a fast day though, I didn't have my line in the water 60 seconds and had the first fish in the boat. Sling blades, pink hoochies and corn were money on this day. Lots of fun had by all.

 

[BigRedFisher]

Thanks for the info!

 

[skookum9]

Kokaguy1, how deep were you trolling? Did you find the fish schooled more in one place or another on the lake? Thanks for the post.

 

[Kokonuts]

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.

Fisher.....
I plan on being on the water early Fri. , Sat. & Sun! I hope to meet you there! I'll be by myself in the 18 ft. Hewes with White Sides & Black Top named "Shes So Fine".


thumbsup.....Kokonuts.....Richard

 

[kokaguy1]

Kokaguy1, how deep were you trolling? Did you find the fish schooled more in one place or another on the lake? Thanks for the post.

Well I can't tell you exactly how deep I was trolling as I do not have a down rigger however I can tell you I was out 45ft (per my line counter) with 2oz of weight?

As far as schooling fish goes, it was a weird deal, when we were marking fish they were scattered and we didn't get a single hit but when the screen was blank we were catching fishing. Sorry I know thats not much help.

I'll tell you this we should have stayed right in the area just outside os spiliyi (spelling) as thats where we got 3 hits and 2 fish right off the bat but we didn't stay there. Oh well live and learn.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!

 

[skookum9]

Well, another disappointing day at Merwin for me. I think it's getting to be too late in the year at this low of elevation for my surface jigging to be as effective. The kokes didn't seem to be on the surface like they were a couple of weeks ago. We didn't get to the lake until about 8am so we missed out on anything that may have happened in the morning bite. The evening bite really started to get reasonably good but we had to leave about that time so they could lock up the gate. During the rest of the day it was just one long, slow boat ride, a bored to tears boat ride.

We did see several other boats on the water who seemed to be putting fish in their boats at a reasonable rate, nothing fast but at least acceptable. Everyone we spoke with was very kind and offerred lots of advice, especially the guys in the C-dory. We tried our level best to follow all of this advice at one point or another but with almost zero success. Until the evening bite picked up we only had one fish in the boat apiece. I did lose a few fish at the back of the boat but not a lot.

Not a great report but it's how things went for us. I think this lake is going to have to wait for next spring to see me again, unless I hear of something worthwhile happening up there. Many thanks to all who were so kind and helpful to us. I don't know how many of you from here were there but I did recognize Kokonut's boat, "She's So Fine". I think this lake will fish great about next February and I fully intend to hit it then. I just can't do the all day troll and only catch maybe 5 or ten fish, I'm too impatient for that. Happy fishing to everyone.

 

[Smalma]

In reviewing Smokin' Kokes Merwin planting information I was struck at the large size at which the kokanee were planted.

Fish that 4 to 8 to the pound are near catchable trout size (5 to 8 inches). Is it common in many waters that the kokanee are planted at such a large size? Up my way a kokanee of 100/# would be a large fish at the time of release and most planted at only a inch or so in length

I have to wonder if the bland taste attributed to the early season fish is due in at least part that much of their bulk was derived from a hatchery diet. And only after the fish grow substantial that they take on the more traditional kokanee taste - just thinking out loud.

Tight lines
Curt

 

[skookum9]

Smalma, you may very well be onto something, I don't know. I think that is more likely than this being too early in the year. From what I've read, plankton are a mainstay of many species of fish during ice over times because that is the only thing there is to eat so not having the right food isn't really a problem. We haven't eaten the new koke's from Saturday's fishing yet but they were all very soft. That was after bleeding them while on the water and then putting them on ice as soon as we could. I was hoping to try the koke's from Yale but I think I might just wait until next spring to do that.

 

[Kokonuts]

I was out Fri. & Sat. this week and had no problems getting 5 in about 3 hours. Started about 7 both days.
I am still using the same setups, Pink/ Copper Dodger with Pink , White, Blue beads and a Pink /white splatter blade then a Chartreuse / Chrome with Charteruse , white, beads on the 2nd pole. I did switch over to a small Lake Troll with 2 chrome / brass blades that I made up, it also worked very well but has more drag than the Dodgers.

All of my corn is still in the cans waiting to see if the Pink Berkley Maggots stop working so well!

On Sat. I dropped dowm to 20 & 25ft. and really connected with them. Sat. was a BEAUTIFUL day and a little warmer that the last few weeks. The sun was out all morning so I think that made them drop down a little.

Snookum... Nice to meet you out on the water. thumbsup

Kokonuts

 

[Basser]

Fished Merwin several times in the past month, nice little fish but SLOW. If they didn't taste so good I wouldn't bother. Middle of the day is usually very slow, picks up in the evening. Fish seem to be scattered all over the lake, one place is about as good as another. Looking forward to next weekend, out to Patterson, hopefully 80 degrees and 75-100 bass!

 

[Duroboat Rider]

Merwin 5-13-10 report

Well It was tough yesturday. There was a early bite on top after we got on the water around 6:30. We landed 4, lost another 6. Using Pink Hoochies with glow beads above hooks. Also landed 2 on Father Murphy's Ghost Bugs. Both were tipped with Gulp Maggots and DNA scent. I ran 000 Dodgers 10 inches above with Glow Flash Tape.

A few where hit on the surface, one down at 45 feet, and the rest were hit around 30-33 ft with downriggers.

Fished from 6:30 to around 1:30

Rod101chromefish101

 

[southside]

Merwin 5-13

I took the afternoon off and fished Merwin for the first time ever. Armed with nothing but the great information I gleened from this forum and a general idea of how to go about things.

Put in at Speelyai at around 2:30. The parking lot was very full. Talked to a couple of guys to find out the bite was slow. The water temp was 58deg. with not much wind.

I forgot the downrigger and the electric motor, so I rigged up a macs flashlite, 1oz. lead with a green wedding with a silver blade tipped with shoepeg and started trolling at 25 to 30 pulls. No action for the first hour. Checked my speed by gps at 1.1 to 1.4

Then I noticed I was in naughtical MPH. changed over to miles per hour and saw that I was trolling at 1.6 to 2mph. Threw out a drift sock and got it down to .8mph and got hit by a very nice 13" Kokanee. My very first one landed by me when targeting them.

Used a great tip I got from here about putting the rod tip in the water when the fish starts to go airborne to get it swimming instead of jumping.

Trolled around for another hour for two drivebys with no hookups.

Great day on the lake and I will be going again real soon. Thanks again for the great information that is shared here.

Peace, Tom

 

[kokanee_slayer]

Good reports!!! I'm just going to have to make the 90 mile drive south to check it out. Been catching plenty of fish but not much for size.

 

[Koke-n-a-smile]

I will be on the water tomorrow am. It is finally my first trip of the year for Kokanee. I am going to try out some new gear, a down rigger and a Vance Staplin rod. Looks like I may have missed some great fishing, but even if I am just out for a boat ride, it sure beats the alternatives. Hope to see you out there!thumbsup

 

[smokin' Kokes]

welcome to the affliction of koke fever.
like the way you worked out the speed, pattern and bite for the day.

yup, we're in the downrigger season now.
wait until you hookup a big one on light tackle, just a hoochie off the release, no weight. he comes off the DR release and goes Space Shuttle launch as a guy is setting there half asleep. comes out of the water 3 ft and does an aerial ballet flashing in the sunlight.
what was that as one wakes up
FISH ON.

they get really aggressive later in the season

 

[Koke-n-a-smile]

Had a great day on the lake today. The new down rigger worked great, as well as the new pole. Caught the first one 30 minutes after getting on the water, then the bite was slow for most of the day. My youngest boy, 5, actually hauled in a rainbow trout! Had a couple get away, put a couple in the boat, all in all not a bad day at allthumbsup

 

[Kokonuts]

Merwin Sunday 5-16

I had an old back injury come back to get me this weekend so I didnt get out much.
I did take some friends out for their 1st. Kokanee trip on Sunday! I got them set up & we had 4 poles out on 2 DR's. I drove them around from about 8:00 until 4:00 and all we could get was 3 in the boat.
We did try just about everything I had , and covered a LOT of water but they werent hitting much!

We did catch 4-5 SQAW Fish, they are the first ones i've seen this year!

Kokonuts......thumbsup

 

[Mark McWillis]

Merwin 05-16

We fished Merwin Sunday 05-16. 3 people, 4 rods all on downriggers. We started off very early with what has been working and lots of other stuff. Fished from 10’ down to 40’ and by 1300 we had 28 fish. Unfortunately, 27 of them were small Squawfish. More on those later. In the afternoon we managed to catch 11 more Kokes. Depth was 48’ to 52’ feet. 4.25” Hyper plaid sling blade with white/orange and pink/orange hoochies 8” leader and pink Gulp maggots. 6 of the fish were the same fat 12”-13” fish we’ve been catching all year but 4 were over 14” and 2 more were right at 16”. We lost another one, almost to the boat, that looked and pulled like 18”-20”.

The Squawfish were really a problem and I think we would have been done, and much sooner, but for them. Several times I reeled in to change lures only to find we had been dragging a 6”-7” SF around the lake with us. They’re so small that we didn’t even notice they were hooked. Killed them all and “released” them. The cool part was watching 2 bald eagles and an Osprey swoop down and snatch them from the water!!

 

[Fourteen]

Merwin 5/15

We fished the lake from about 7 am today to 4 pm. and caught 6 koks and a trout . It was VERY slow compared to the last time I was there . My friend , myself , and his 2 boys started out around the corner from the dock and trolled half way down to Wood Village with only one bite . From there we motored to the rope swing area and picked up a couple of fish after 2 & 1/2 hrs on the water . Next , we moved around a couple of times and brought a trout in . Finally I ended back at the swing and we landed another 4 fish . All of the Kokanee were biting a hand tied dark green wedding ring & a gold and chrome dodger with a gold spinner . I tried a number of different colored spinners , bodies , dodgers & hoochies without even a sniff . All the fish were caught in about 25 ' of water . The scent of choice was Kokanee special .
__________________

 

[Koke-n-a-smile]

You guys did better than I did. We had two Kokanee, one got off at the boat, a small rainbow trout, and 6 or 7 squaw fish. I caught the Kokes around 30 feet, on red wedding ring and a pink sling blade. We had to get off the water fairly early though, around 1:30 or so, so maybe we could've done better had we stayed out a little longer. We did seem to spot a lot of fish that were really deep most of the day, but didn't fish much deeper than the 30 to 40 feet we started at.