Merwin?

[garv76]

Anyone tried Merwin yet? Just got my new downriggers and can't wait to get up there and fight those fish witout the diver.

[jzell]

Garv,

I'd wait at least "76" days before giving it a go. And even then I wouldn't use the riggers. Wait til June or July to use um. Til then go with 1.5 to 3 ounces of inline weight at 20 to 40 pulls.

Also read Dr. Stangelove's reply to the Best SW Washington post in this trout section....regarding Merwin, Swift, Yale right now. An observation worth noting.

John

[KingFisher85]

3 or 4 weeks ago was good for a few of us...but 2 weeks ago it died down...I believe because they dropped the lake.

[MarlinMark]

I would fish downriggers regardless of the date. Less lead on the line is more fun for the fish catching. Plus I can really put the baits right in the zone.

Mark

[Dr Strangelove]

I went with my daughter today after we struck out at Silver for crappie. Very slow. We got one 12"er and explored coves the rest of the day. Good to get the cobwebs out of the engines. Ramp chatter indicated little to no success. The lake is turning over and should be fairly clear water in a few weeks.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/Kiki.JPG

[Catchalot]

I've read some decent reports about merwin lately. I think I'm going to give it a go next weekend if it is nice. Also, it will take a time or two to get used to the downriggers. I've fished merwin for at least 10 years and never did that well until I got downriggers. I use those damn things all year round. They make them so easy to use these days and the nice thing is you can find the kokes on your fishfinder and then drop the downrigger right in the middle of them. I've gotten so good that I will see them on the fishfinder and if my downrigger is in the right spot I can tell almost exactly when the kokes will hit. Good luck and don't let anybody talk you out of fishing without downriggers. Since I got my downriggers and figured out how to use them I have limited out EVERY time I go to Merwin.

[jzell]

Guys,

I have duel Scotty electrics on my boat. Love riggers. Fully understand and practice the "theory of light gear for kokanee fishing". (check out my posts in the "What's in your Kokanee tackle box" post in Tech tips and Keepers) Why would anyone use inline weight when you have riggers? Sometimes (IMHO) running the riggers is a pain. "Sometimes" I just like to let the gear out, use the line counter, and sit back. This time of year the kokes are small and scattered...patience grass hopper. Springers and steelheading not workin so you head to the lake....knock yourself out. One thing I have learned is patience....let um eat and grow. Merwin is a great place but in time they will be worth the trip. When I first got my riggers I was pumped to get up there and use them....so don't let my thoughts stop ya.

John

[Dr Strangelove]

Went yesterday with PD - scored 5 for 7 for two rods in 6hrs. Not hopping yet. Mostly 12" variety. Deeper fish had lockjaw; most fish came to flashers/weddingring at 15 pulls. I used the downrigger most of the day and got schooled by PD and his banana weights. :shrug:

[jzell]

"and got schooled by PD and his banana weights." :yay:

[yankemnbankem]

Little tip for Merwin this time of year.......to add to the many tips. I have had extrmly good luck this time of year with leaded line (12lb) 4 colors out with about 25 ft of light mono to tip it off. The other gem is the tiny spin glow and scent your corn with Garlic Slam Ola powder. Now I wish I had the time to go fishing for them....I miss the canned koke although I do drink Coke in a can.:smirk: We have scheduled a fishing day for kokes next Saturday. One other tidbit I found last year, I dyed my corn with Pro Cure Bad A$$ Bait dye in the yellow....or should I say neon yellow. It worked great and it looks like you stole some corn from the nuke plant.

[FallRiverGuy]

Early in the season often flat lining a set of flashers and a wedding ring is hard to beat. Worms and corn are also a good choice. I have been schooled more than once early in the year sticking with a dodger and not long lining a set of flashers.

[Sturgeonbait]

We have also caught them this early depending on trolling speed and flashers and other conditions you may not need any weights or down riggers the kokanee will come to the surface to feed a lot. On no wind days look for rising to find feeding fish. If it is windy contrary to popular:idea: belief they will more so be on the surface cause it will give them protection from being easily spotted by birds. But it can be hit n miss. Also if you get luck enough and find a really good concentration either use mini blades (which i almost always use) or none at all for a more fun fight:dance:. Also i found a lure that outfishes everything i used before is the R&K Kokanee Glow Spinner:twocents:, get the single hook one load it up with white shoe peg corn. Don't for get Gold on sunny days and Silver on cloudy days for your blades. Good luck and Knock:smash::smash::smash: Em dead!

[fireman81]

Hit Merwin today. It was more of a take the wife out and enjoy the new boat and sunshine but soaked a line for a couple hours midday. None to the boat but a couple of drive-bys. The fish were very deep, 60-80'. I was very surprised at the depth for this time of year. Hardly any echos above 40' We were using downriggers, flashers, and a couple different red/silver/pink wedding rings w/ corn...

[KingFisher85]

I'm thinking about going this weekend, if anyone wants to go, drop me a PM.

[yankemnbankem]

hey Mike, I didnt see you up there. Was there on Saturday and picked up 4 for 4 hours. We were using leaded line so couldnt get down where they were schooling real good. We marked them at 60-70 ft in decent sized schools. Ill go back up with the riggers next time.

[5 Salt]

Early in the season often flat lining a set of flashers and a wedding ring is hard to beat. Worms and corn are also a good choice. I have been schooled more than once early in the year sticking with a dodger and not long lining a set of flashers.


Please define a set of flashers -dodgers in tandem or lake-trolls?

Thanks - 5-Salt

[FallRiverGuy]

Ya, I meant a set of lake trolls. But, I have had luck long-lining a set of tandem sling blade dodgers too.

[BleuBackKoke]

Does anyone have an update on Merwin? I didn't have any luck sturgeon fishing today so I thought I'd head up to Merwin on Sunday. Any update would be great!

[BleuBackKoke]

Merwin is starting to pick up.....

2757

[Walleyer]

Caught 5 just like that today,used almost the same set up but lower flasher was green,wedding ring was half green half red with green smile blade,all mine were caught down by the dam,the fish seemed to concentrate in the 20 to 30 ft range

[Perfect Drift]

Doc and his daughter and I limited last Sunday in about 6 hrs.
2 oz. 14 - 20 pulls, Bolo # 3 or 4, red weddingring. Gotta love the Garlic Slamo-la......
Darele

[Splash]

Having fished Merwin 2 weeks ago with limited success, 3 pikeminnows and a chunky 12"er one day and 10'er and 5 lost including a double the other. Aside from my suspect fishing skills, I was wondering...

I noticed the spill at the dam went from ~5000cfs while we were fishing to 3500cfs when the bite apparently picked up and is now down to 2700cfs.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?14220500

Is there a correlation here or am I just reading too much into it? I remember roughly 20 years ago, fishing during a 12,000cfs flow and actually seeing a streamflow or slow current in the lake. Could this potentially have an effect on the fish schooling up and being on or off the bite? Then again the reservoir has cleared up nicely from the silty color it had been.

[Dr Strangelove]

I think water temp is the key. The higher over 50degrees, the more active they get. Just remember to turn alot - I see so many guys trolling a highschool track line like they're at the Wind and they don't pick up the fish as well as my crazy antics. I don't tend to hand around in the crowd either. If nobody else is doing great, move. If you're not getting bit, change gear, gun and deadstick the motor, risk tangles. I also find real silver plated blades have a lot more flash than nickel and are like strobes in the deep. GREAT article in SST about a year ago on color selection, gear, etc. Good luck.

[Splash]

Whatever the key is, it's been turned on. 2 limits for 2 rods yesterday in 3 hours and lost a limit + at the boat. Fish ranged surface to 40ft with most in the 15-20 range. 3 were hooked just putting the line back before clipping into the downrigger. Half silver/brass dodgers with red wedding rings worked best for us under the cloudy skies. The fish were 11-12 inches with one dink at 10". Don't forget the secret corn. (Corn Magic, Slamola, powdered krill, squid oil and garlic juice)

These limits came courtesy of all the wonderful Ifishers that have shared their successes and techniques. :applause:

Started around 11 am turning left out of Speelyai (sp) only to find lots of debris and no fish. After 10 minutes of that we moved down to the big rock between the Hideaway and and the slide. The big rock ROCKED, no need to continue the hunt. Just trolled like drunks and had a ball. :food: :cheers:

[Splash]

Be it the Stank bait or just blind luck, I had another screaming day at Merwin today. Fished solo and released a limit, lost 2+ limits and kept a limit in 5 hours. Hooked a couple that had some serious shoulders that took more line than I could gain on them. Unfortunately I never got to see those fish. Some were pretty light biters. Sharp S turns, to dramatically speed up and slow down the lure, generally provoked them into finally taking a good hold my offering. It was really cool early in the day to watch 2-3 other fish swim up to the boat following the hooked fish.

[BleuBackKoke]

We had 3 rods out and brought home 15 fish and lost at least that many at the boat...I guess I need a longer net? We were limited out by 11:00 after a 7:30am launch. We didn't use our downriggers but our line counters were at 75 feet with 2oz of lead. 11" to 14"

[Dr Strangelove]

We got a late start at 9:00 and by noon had 10 chunkies in the cooler. My daughter had a third rod out but the wind picked up and the sheep started pretty bad by 1:00, so we pulled it in to keep things simpler. Got one more pulling in our gear as safety was starting to be an issue.

Fished 2oz at 30-90ft of line out, pretty much dropping to just above those seen on the fishfinder. Green wedding rings and doctored corn is the ticket. We crackered half a limit more and had one hellacious takedown at 90ft that I thought would break my graphite Lami Team Koke rod by the time I realized my partner had the drag way too tight. Never got to see that one. Bummer.

But 11 slabs is a nice way to finish the day with Kira snoring all the way back home. She did wake up just as we passed AM-PM near our house to demand an Icee for the 15th time today.

[MattPark]

I took a few buddies up there yesterday afternoon. It was the first time any of us fished for kokanee, and the first time I've been on that lake in probably 10 years.

We only got two (and a rainbow trout). We started up by campers hideaway, and trolled down towards the dam (downstream). After trolling 4 rods from 15-50 pulls, we said screw it and just let a bunch of line out on a couple reels, no clue how much (line counters would have been nice). Those two rods caught the fish. I was marking something on the depth finder about halfway down, trolling in 60 to 130 feet (whatever it was marking went all the way to the bottom, made me wonder if it was actually fish). The depth finder is new to me, I haven't played with it too much, I don't quite trust it yet.

2 rods had bolos, two with ford fenders, both with snubbers and worm tipped wedding rings (will have corn ready next time).

Any advice? Being the first time, I don't feel too bad, but looking at the reports here don't make me feel any better:cheers:

[cryptic4u2]

mattpark, that would be a tree that you are seeing on your depth finder.

[MattPark]

I would have snagged it if it were.

The same thing on the finder showed up in quite a few areas in the lake, and if I would leave and come back, it would show up in more or less the same place. I'm starting to wonder if they are *********, we seem to catch them in the same places.

My new GPS also has a FF, I'll see what that thing says about it next time I'm up there.