Kokanee Report May 18-20 Wickiup, Crescent, Odell

[moknots]

What a privilege when the student gets to fish with the master! Had a fine fishing trip with dear old (71 years, but youngish) Dad. Caught my first kokanee 45 years ago whilst proudly peeing into the motor well of his boat. A good memory for both of us! Fast forward a bunch of years, and now I get to take him! Lucky we still have the opportunity and desire to fish together. Here we are with a limit of Crescent fish and some bonus Odell kokes.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/5_18-19_07.JPG (http://www.ifish.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/55902/size/big/cat/recent/limit/recent)
Fishing at Wickiup was an absolute confirmation of iFisher's reports of late. It was S-L-O-W. Hope someone cracks the code soon, I know there are some big ones out there! Talked to a dozen boats that fished all morning for 2-3 fish. Didn't do much better, but we did manage one that made it worthwhile:


http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/18_wickiup_5_18_07.JPG (http://www.ifish.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/55903/size/big/cat/recent/limit/recent)
This 18"er inhaled a 2" glow chartruse hootchie at 1.7 mph. We also had a little bonus, on the same outfit, by way of this brown, caught on the same lure at the same 20' in 38 feet of water. Threw the tackle box at em, but finally decided to follow the lead of many iFishers and headed for Crescent. Amazing how we saw some of the same boats, first at Wickiup, then at Crescent, then at Odell fishing for bonus fish! What a bunch of die hards:food:

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/5_18_07_brown.JPG (http://www.ifish.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/55908/size/big/cat/recent/limit/recent)

Many thanks to all of you who posted reports, because Crescent fished as advertized too. Limits Friday, Saturday and Sunday all came fairly easy. Fish were scattered all over the place. We caught them at every depth we tried, from 20 to 80 feet. Perhaps we should have spent more time at 100 -120 feet, but that seemed silly after catching some of our better fish at 20-30'. We managed some nice ones to 16, but we never found the 20"er we were hunting for! Our top lure was an orange hoochie with chartruse skirt, with wedding rings and eChip Kokanee Killers (Apex style plastic spoon) falling in far behind. Caught a few fish on pink, blue and white, red, and glow, but for some reason they really ate up the orange/chartuse combo. I had the best luck on one I had torn half the legs off. By the middle of the second morning it only had one leg left. More like a kokanee bug than a hoochie at that point, but it seemed like it got even better, finally allowing me to catch up with the old master, who had been whipping me. We were joined Friday afternoon by my soon to be son-in-law. I'll put him in a future report if we find out he's a keeper.

The morning bite at Crescent was really interesting. Saturday and Sunday morning we started off loosing 2 or 3 of every 4 fish we hooked. As the morning wore on, the rate slowed, but the fish that did hit were really hooked well, and we started landing most of them. Must have gotten more irritated at all that hardware going by as the day wore on. Anyone else experience that?

Would everyone please go catch fish at Odell? Once again, many accurate Odell reports proved right. LOTS of fish. TOO MANY fish. Managed one 13" fish there this year, but most are 10-12". Those are going to be pretty nice fish this summer, and the more we take the bigger the rest can get. The mack fishermen were doing great.

Keep those reports coming! Can't wait to hear about things turning around at Wickiup.
http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/5_18-20_07_gpaw_and_mike.JPG (http://www.ifish.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/55906/size/big/cat/recent/limit/recent)

[joemomma]

Wow!, Ya hit the jackpot! Great post and glad ya had a great time with yer Dad! Way to go!:smash:

[moknots]

Included that kokanee theiving dog of my wifes in the top of the last photo just for you. Joe, meet Lucy. My daughter calls her Lucyfer.

[julezilla]

Glad Crescent was good to ya! Nice lot of fish you got there!! :meme:

[Aufish101]

Nice report and Pictures. Looks like Crescent is the place for the larger Kokanee right now.

Aufish101 http://members.aol.com/garyk10/images/poisson_39.gif

[wanafish]

Sounds like we fished some of the same water at the same time. Crescent was a popular place for sure. Good report. Glad you had a good time with your dad!

[jzell]

Great report Mo. A memorable fishing trip with Dad.

Hoochies rule again,

John

[trollin4trout]

Thanks for the great report/story/pics. Looks like you picked the right lakes at the right time and great weather to boot. Nice!

[insanefishinguy88]

All i can say is WOW!!And great job.:food:

[cully]

great story/report.

to say you look a bit like your father would be a gross understatement! Nice photos.

[hookumhi]

Your a very lucky man to be able to fish with your Dad still !!!:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: Great pics and report!

[FallRiverGuy]

Thanks for the great report and glad to see you got out for a few great days of fishing with your dad.

I have seen Wickiup go cold, but not like this. I wonder if it has to do with the water draw down. With 18 inch fish swimming around it is hard not to want and try to figure out those fish. I'll have to get out and fish Crescent next so I can restock my smoker and freezer.

I use to have some really bad hook-to-land ratios, but thankfully those have decreased. It seems that either an adjustment to the trolling speed or a change to a slightly different color or dodger action could trigger a more aggressive bite.

Good job on the pig Kokanee.

[FishnMike]

Good job Mo and great pics. Interesting thing about your legless hoochie, right now down here in Calif the kokes are being really picky and the smaller the lure the better. I'm catching the bluk of my fish crappie tubes.

Great fishing with your dad. I take my almost every week.

FishnMike

[FallRiverGuy]

So Mike,

You like to go smaller when the fish are being picky? At Paulina, when the fishing is slow, I'll often just use two bare hooks with one kernal of corn each 30 inches behind a dodger.

[FishnMike]

FRG,

Yeah starting a couple of weeks ago the kokes here started getting really picky. They would come up and just tap at spinners and wouldn't even touch an Apex, which weeks before they had been inhaling. I started digging through the box and found the 1.5 inch crappie tubes I had bought on a whim and give them a try. A lot of guys like bugs but I don't like the single hook so a small crappie tube fit the bill and the fish have been eating them like mad.

FishnMike

[moknots]

Great tip on the bare hooks. I have used a single bare bronze hook threaded on my main line about 18" above a jig, stopped with a blood knot when jigging. I have caught as many as 5 or 6 out of a 25 fish limit on the bare hook. Bonus fish! Haven't tried trolling a bare hook, but they catch sockeye in lake Washington that way (behind a dodger). I like the corn and hooks idea though. Caught some good fish at Crescent late in the season (fishing was SLOW) by trolling a single treble hook with a kernal of corn on each prong about a foot above and two feet behind a lake troll attached to the cannon ball. Mad scientists indeed! Maybe it's time to roll that trick out on those Wickiup fish. Too many boats in shallow water may have turned them off?

[fishkisser]

Sounds like you two were pretty bizy hammerin the kokes . Congrats .. Great pics :wave:

[FallRiverGuy]

Too many boats in shallow water may have turned them off?

The biggest difference between Wickiup and other lakes and reservoirs is the rate at which the water level drops. Wickiup is so shallow that the level is constantly dropping all summer at a noticable pace. I wonder if that puts the fish off the feed?

[REEL HANDEL]

We fished wickiup, my wife and i on thurs. the 17th and caught 10 on this trip also lost that many also, 10 seems to be our limit last 2 trips but they are all nice fish 14-16 wife lost one like in the pic. moknots posted, she said it was my fault, oh well. Stuck a hook in my finger and had to push it though and cut barb off, so i guess i caught the big one. We will keep at it on wickiup until middle of June or so.

[julezilla]

Stuck a hook in my finger and had to push it though and cut barb off, so i guess i caught the big one.

Ouch!! The big one, indeed! My son did that a few weeks ago with a nasty treble hook.

Good job on the fish, though. Ten's better than a poke in the eye (or finger).

[Dip]

Last week managed a 22" rainbow out of Crane Prairie casting spinners from shore. will upload picture later