Green Petered Out

[happybrew]

I went to Green Peter yesterday. It wasn't at all like the kokanee bonanza I ran into last week. I fished all morning, lost three, landed four. After getting twelve and losing four last week, I was disappointed. But at least I got some. A few other boats I talked to were getting skunked, but not all. I think it was the sunshine. I got on the lake just as the sun hit the water, and as the sun got higher, the bite stopped cold. I think if I'd gone today, instead, with the clouds up until around 10 a.m. I would have done a lot better. But I can't choose the days I get to fish. They will be tasty all the same. Maybe it was the news that all the fishermen in Eugene would be converging on them after it was broadcast on KMTR that spooked them!

happybrew

[Hookset]

Happybrew, How are you fising for the kokanee? When the sun comes up I just go down further with the downriggers. If your using lead trolling wieghts, your going to have a more difficut time getting in the fish zone.

Did I see you on the lake a week ago? A small inflatable raft with a electric trolling motor and fishing with a young boy? Was this you?

Good luck next time out,

hook

[happybrew]

I was using a diving sinker, fishing between 20 and 40 feet, where I was marking them on the fish finder. I was fishing small spoons behind a silver dodger.

Yes, that was me and one of my kids last Friday.

happybrew

[birdhunter]

Fished Green Peter last night w/ Ayefsh. Didn't have any problem catching fish. Only fished for about 3 hrs in the evening, but caught probably 20 of the little buggers and lost a bunch more. Pretty good sized fish too. Downriggers really help. Had a great time knocking them off of eachothers lines, but somehow we managed to bring back a cooler full of delicious fish. Word of warning, on the way out there was an almost constant stream of traffic heading up to the lake. Already most of the campsites and wide spots on the road are taken. There are going to be a ton of people up there this weekend.

[aye fsh]

What a blast! It's not so much that they pull real hard as it is the challenge of getting them into the net as they're freaking out on the surface before they pull the hooks out. Of course my obviously impaired netting abilities didn't help much. It must have been the net was too small. images/icons/wink.gif

It was about 6:30 when we first put the lines in, and about 6:31 boated the first one. Pretty much went on like that the rest of the evening. Ended up bringing home 14, releasing half a dozen small ones and losing 8 or 10 trying to net 'em. Once the sun went down they quit biting. Real nice fish, most pushing right around 12 inches.

http://www.ifish.net/uploads/370010144.jpg

I started off using a 4/0 mooching flasher, about 3' of 4# leader to a wee dick nite spoon in chartreuse / pearl (NOT green!). Ran that down to 30 feet with the downrigger and had 3 fish in the cooler within 15 minutes. Birdhunter switched to the same thing and started nailing 'em too. At some point he switched to a red wedding ring and started kicking my behind, couldn't have that so I switched and caught up again. Of course we had the required green giant white shoepeg corn on our hooks.

I believe one of the keys to getting kokanee is location. If you get into some, stay on them. Keep turning around and going back through that same area. I see an awful lot of folks trolling in a straight line over a long distance. Going too fast as well. I'm sure they get some fish but nothing like if you can stay in the vicinity of a school. We were having the best success just around the corner from the whitcomb creek ramp, out in front of the grassy cove, in the deep water.

There weren't very many people there last night, but I'm sure it will be a madhouse this weekend. We saw 6 campers coming up the hill at 10:00 last night, and like birdhunter said, all the wide spots along the road were taken.
I'm heading over to the folks place in Bend in the morning and am going after some Paulina lake hogs, will post any good results!

[happybrew]

Pilar's been smoking koke???? images/icons/shocked.gif Don't let the moderators catch you!

Nice cooler for fish Ayefish! I'll have to post the picture of the fish in my kitchen after my trip last week. I'll have to relearn how to do that, though. Photopoint went to a pay site, so I have to do it another way.

I'm taking my brother Wednesday. He's from California, and he doesn't really fish. He doesn't even have a fishing pole. I'll have to loan him some gear. I'm new to kokanee, so I've been doing some intensive field research. That's probably why I didn't do so well. I was switching tactics too much, trying different areas, unlike last week, where I found one spot, and one lure, and kept at it. But that's how you learn.

Speaking of trolling slow, I did better rowing than using the trolling motor. The slower, the better.

happybrew

[happybrew]

Okay, here it is.

http://www4.visto.com/?uid=1786251&service=fileaccess&method=view&filename=fishies%20and%20birds_0014.jpg&tx=nlh&x-x

[Bait O' Eggs]

happybrew - Jen has a feature now to upload your pictures here on this site. Look up near the top right of the page, just below the Willie symbol images/icons/rolleyes.gif and you will see a link for uploading your picture. Should be no problem getting them to the post once you get them on this site.

[Pilar]

Thanks guys, great tech and awesome bag. Nothing beats a smoked koke. I fillet out the backbone and leave the two filets connected at the back. Salt them for about 30 minutes, rinse and smoke. What a treat, like fish jerky.

Fish ... get in the boat

[happybrew]

Hey! Where'd my picture go? It was here last night! Grrr. I tried to use the upload feature here, but my cheapo computer (it was free with internet signup) gives me an error message when I try to upload pictures.

happybrew

[Pilar]

Thanks for the tips guys! Went up there on Saturday and after an afternoon boat ride checking out the lake got into some fish. These are nice fat mini Salmon! They averaged about 12 inches and real heavy. The trick was to vary the depth until we started getting some action. At about 18:30 we got the first one and bagged 10 before we were done. I found a spot with foam on the surface (plankton?) and then we started getting bit.

This very much reminded me of salmon fishing in the ocean. The fish are much smaller but act alot like silvers.

When you hook up just keep circling around the area and dial em in.

The depth was 12 pulls with a 3 oz trolling weight. We used a snubber and only lost 2 of 12 hooked. Chartreuse/pearl dick nite and 4/0 rainbow dodger. Use the lightest leader you can stand. I used 3#. Don't forget the corn!

Tight lines..........