Yale reports??

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southside

southside

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Messages
58
Location
Portland, OR
I finally get to go fishing this weekend and am looking for some current Yale/Merwin reports.

Heading up at O-dark thirty and plan on fishing til noon. 14Ft. smokercraft alaskan 18hp. Tohatsu with electric trolling motor. Blue canvas top. Fishing two rods.

If you see me , please come by and say HI! This will be my second attempt at Yale and will be putting in at Yale Park.

Peace, Tom
 
Fished from around 6:30 am till 10:00 am. Beautiful morning and a very slow bite. Tried downrigger, slingblade with corn tipped hoochie, flashlite with red wedding ring, willow leaf with green wedding ring, silver dick nite, kastmaster. etc. 1oz, 2oz, of lead 20 to 60 pulls.
Managed two 12"ers flatlining a pink hoochie behind a green slingblade at 50ft.
Got to break in my new Okuma kokanee rod on both fish.

Honeydo's made me cut the trip short. Still learning every trip, like how to use a stacker on the 'rigger.

Peace, Tom
 
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Got on the water today from 9:30-1:00. Managed to get one rainbow and 4 nice kokes (13-15") and lost just as many. In the morning the bite was fairly slow, and as I ended my time there the sun came out and the bite was on. Today the color of choice was a green Sierra dodger and one of my green handmade spinners. I tried pink, white and orange as well.

When I found feeding fish they were 32-51 feet deep, and centered around submerged trees. I tried to pull up the trees twice, but they were definitely stronger than my line so I let them keep two nice dodgers and hoochies instead. The lake level is full and the water is fairly cloudy with all the rain we have had the past few weeks. Overall it was a great way to spend a day off of work. signfishin
 
awesomereport Great report Mack. I have been thinking about giving Yale a try. Which part of the lake are you finding them at? Also, are you just putting in at the ramp along highway 503, or do you put in somewhere else?
 
I launched at Yale Park to check the conditions for the picnic on the 26th. For a while I stayed at the west end of "the wall" near the ridge (90-115ft) and several other boats were working to the east of the park and more in the middle where the depth was around 120-150ft and the water was clear. If I hadn't found fish I was going to check if the ridge was passable and go further west towards the dam. If you go over the ridge either go slow or have a spotter. In places the depth is less than 3ft. and stumpy.

L-O-T-S of floating debris today.
 
Thanks Mack, I am not too familiar with that lake. I haven't been on there since I was 9 or 10. I knew there were a lot of stumps, you can see that when the water is drawn down. If I get a chance to go there before the picnic, I may need to pick your brain some more!worthy12
 
nice size kokes for Yale, especially in early June. sounds like they're thick as usual for Yale also, like smelt dipping. Canyon Creek has always been a very reliable heavy spawning and smolt producer into Yale.
thanks for the rpts southside and MacPrince.
entices me to go koke dipping in Yale after 20 years of swearing off the gunny sacks full of 10 inchers.
 
Somewhere on one of these Yale threads I offered a report when I got back from fishing up there. Well I tried it on 6-15-10. I got one koke for two hours of trolling and very wet and cold.

I launched at Saddle Dam and started up the north shore line headed for Yale Park area. Didn't mark much and got no takers. We picked up our one fish out from the cove with the homes on it. I was headed to the south side of the lake to join the others fishing and got one. Fish at 30 feet deep caught on red/black wedding ring with worm.

Once on the south side of the lake still headed toward Yale Park it got very wet very quickly. I gave up and ran back to Saddle Dam. Just not my cup of tea for the action I was getting.

I really would like to learn this lake but just can't get it figured out. I feel like I know Merwin pretty well now, but have never had a good day at yale.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I won't be back up there until mid - July so maybe I can turn it around then.
 
For what its worth I think Yale is going to be awesome in the next couple of weeks. We fished last weekend down by saddle dam and got a few with better success over by Yale Park the next day. The fresh water is keeping the fish scattered but once the lake settles down it is going to be real good and the fish are big again this year. We tried tuna oil with the corn and mixed in a little krill gel and small pieces of nightcrawler. Mostly red wedding rings and a mix of flashers. I also have the electric motor on varying speeds all the time and I do the crazy Ivan when traffic and wind permit. Yale is one of my favorite places in the NW. RP
 
best put in at Yale

Can someone tell me where is the best (easiest)ramp at yale to put your boat in at? Best ramps best docks etc Taking the daughters fishing this weekend would like to go to yale but never been there before will be putting in and taking out with not a lot of help so the easier the better hahaha.....thanks
 
kokaguy1 said:
Can someone tell me where is the best (easiest)ramp at yale to put your boat in at? Best ramps best docks etc Taking the daughters fishing this weekend would like to go to yale but never been there before will be putting in and taking out with not a lot of help so the easier the better hahaha.....thanks
Click to expand...

Just my personal preference but Saddle Dam is a much nicer setup. All concrete ramp two lane ramp with a long dock to tie up to and out of the way mostly. Also it sits back in a cove type area so it's usually out of the wind. I do most of my launching and retrieving on my own and this my favorite. I'm not the best yet (not as cool as the Columbia River salmon guys that put on and off in two minutes) but I can get it done. Only down side it's a bit of a walk up a hill after parking your rig to get back to the launch.

I've launched from Yale Park before. The ramp is fine just the very small docks to tie up to are in poor shape at best and if it's windy at all it will be windy on that stretch. Hope that helps.

Also - in return for my fantastic ramp review I need a good report from Yale so I can figure out how to catch more than one fish out of that darn place.

I hope you have a great trip up there.
 
yale kok report

Bluknight,
Thanks for the ramp review however I wasn't able to read it until Sunday night but no biggie it all worked out......... and for your efforts and as requested here is your Fishing report.
We ended up putting in at Yale park which worked out fine on this day but I can see that that ramp would not be the ideal ramp on a windy day and the docks were not in the best of shape for sure.
We only stayed out 4 hours on Sunday, cold and wet and my daughters had had enough after 4 hours. We ended up using a basic orange wedding ring with Tuna corn behind a Jack O Diamonds lake troll, also productive to a lesser degree was a Ford Fender, again with a orange WR and Tuna corn. We also tried Green and Pink WR with no hit's. We trolled constantly varing our speed, it seemed as thought they liked the speed change. We ended up landing 7 and loosing 3 before we called it quits. I did see a few other people catching fish as well but could not tell what they were using.
Hope this helps, if you head up there I would like to hear how you did.
Good Luck!
 
first time fishing there didn't know were to begain started at yale park little after 5 Sat. and trolled towards the dam. Didn't land one our even get a bite teel 8. that was also the time i was supposed to be back for the grub. On sunday i was the first boat in the water around 5:30 and headed were i left off. As soon as i was in the water the bit was on. It was moving day so again had to be back early to pack up and was out by 8:30. In that short period landed 7 nice fat kokanee and lost several others. As far as location I was a little ways past the grass in the middle of the lake towards the dam and trolled straight across from bank to bank. typically im changing set ups left and right, but only need one today , a watermellon seps dodger followed by a pink hoockie with tuna flavored corn. I was long linning at 70 feet with 2oz weight. Felt like i had the lake to my self, nobody came by me all morning. A little different than most lakes i have fished.
 
H new to kokonee fishing

Was planning on going to Merwin then saw that Yale lake had kok's so now I don't know where to go this sat. what is the better lake to fish? and easiest lake to learn?

I have a 20' alumaweld with electric trolling motor.
Bruce
 
welcome carvingfish,

Merwin is more protected from the high winds that can blow down the canyon. good boat launches at both Speeliyi Bay and Cresap Bay, campground at Cresap but they are booked out for weekends.

Merwin is far crazier with crowds on the weekend.

Yale has a nice launch at the Saddle Dam but it gets crowded on the weekends especially if wx is good and the jetskiers and wakeboards are out. fairly good launch at Yale Park.

look for the boats. on Merwin usually the south side from Spelliyi west. most fish the 100 ft water depth line 15' to 30' down this time of year. some still on surface.

Yale, check the reports online here. watch for the stumps in the shallows on the hump toward the Saddle Dam. the dead trees in Yale are also downrigger and gear eaters.

think I'll wait on Yale until the kokes school up more and drop down in depth. they used to be thick in mid July along the S shore deep across from Yale Pk.
 

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