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Green Peter is phenomenal

5K views 27 replies 14 participants last post by  ChinookSlayer 
#1 ·
I have had some good days this year at GP, and some slow days, but today was one for the record book (Mine, anyway).

I launched at 5:45 a.m., ran for 1/2 mile and since the wind was out of the east, I started trolling the north shore towards the dam.Hot rod until sunrise was a green 5 1/2" sling blade followed by a green and white hoochie, with tuna oil corn. Fish started the day at 45' and ended up 60-65 feet deep.

I only had one of the above setups so I started switching things up until I could get the other rod to produce. Green seemed to be key, as the hot pole later in the day ended up being a simple chrome 4/0 dodger with a lime green hoochie, once again with tuna corn. Started to get some doubles, and worked those areas pretty hard.

I landed 60% of my hits today, which is a 300% improvement over my last few trips. Leaving the motor in gear seemed to be the biggest factor in landing more fish. Walking the fine line between tearing the hook out and letting them flip off at the boat because I took too much time reeling them in leads to second-guessing but today it didn't matter. I had my 25 fish by 12:30, all of them 14-15 inches, and weighing around a pound each. I think this is the heaviest limit of Kokanee I have ever caught.

I caught my last 10 fish between the water quality monitor buoy and the boom. Predictably, the ramp was a zoo. Getting ready to leave ,a nice guy let me into line as I was trapped in the parking area, with no easy prospects for getting into the line.

The fish are starting to morph into spawning mode, but they cut fantastic, and I would guess they will still be worth fishing for at least a couple more weeks.

The last great fishing I had at GP was 1998-2000, but this year is even better than those years. If you have the chance, get up there. This year will be talked about for decades.
 
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#3 ·
well, hopefully I will finish up mounting my new downriggers tomorrow, then take a day off this next week from work (tons of vacation to use up). I have sort of been out of the action for the last month, due to getting new rigger's, and trying the jigging thing instead. :palm:

I have never fished this late into the year for Kokes before. It will be interesting to to see what they are like. I might even have to try bringing home 25 sometime, just to say I did once... :excited::thisbig::pray:

thanks for the great report, and hope to see you sometime again.

out of curiosity, what brand of hoochie's were you using?

thanks.
 
#6 ·
Fished GP yesterday as well from 8:00 to 2:30. Ended up with 8 for 2 of us fishing down by the dam. Thought we were off to a good start when the rod was twitching when the downrigger was lowered to the desired depth the first time. It looked like the line had gotten into the gang troll attached to the ball the way it was thumping but it was a fish. Did the best with chrome with prism tape 0000 dodger trailed with a green wedding ring tipped with tuna corn at 50 - 55 feet. Only lost 1 fish all day - stinger hooks work well.

Got a really close up and personal look at a bald eagle that had thoughts of stealing a fish we had on. It didn't seem very fazed by our yelling and arm waving.
 
#8 ·
Got a really close up and personal look at a bald eagle that had thoughts of stealing a fish we had on. It didn't seem very fazed by our yelling and arm waving.
Watched the bigger bald eagle harras an osprey until it finally dropped its fish. Baldy then went down and grabbed the fish, winged over to the bank and had a meal. He then followed my boat looking for an opportunity. I had a fish roll up in my line and probably gilled himself in the process before getting off. The eagle swept in and took advantage before he recovered. He followed us after that for a couple of hours...
 
#7 ·
Great report!
Lots of guys usually stop fishing this time of year to start targeting other prey such as buoy 10. I too am feeling the draw of some larger fish.

The common thought or wives tale is that this time of year that kokanee are borderline edible. The truth is that until they start staging at the mouths of creeks for that final run they are usually still very good eating. When they loose their scales and the sides get pink and the hump develops, then they are the living dead and not worth eating although still fun to catch. Once they get to that stage, you can still target next years fish, clear up to the end of the year and into the spring if you so desire. Taking advantage of the fish that are getting staged for spawning is a real kick because they become tightly schooled and easier to target. Find the cold water and you will have found the fish. The dam in this case provides some of the cooler water because of depth. You will also find the fish staging off the points of Tully creek bay at the opposite end of the reservoir again in the deeper water. Slightly hooked jaws are just an indicator of what is still to come. I personally think they look cool, kind of reminds me of their salt water cousins.
 
#9 · (Edited)
I fished Green Peter for the first time yesterday and this morning. My friend Greg who often fishes there was with me to show me ropes of Green Peter. We also tried some of Cannon's trolling areas from the map on his web site - thanks Cannon!

We brought home over 30 really nice fat kokanee - minus a few that we had for dinner last night on my boat. I was really impressed with the size of these fish.

We anchored overnight in one of the many inlets. Great boat camping, with fresh kokanee, beer, XM Radio and watching the meteor shower till hitting the sack.

The down side of Green Peter was the incredible amount of boats and the resulting circus at the Whitcomb boat ramp. Next time I plan a Green Peter trip I think I'll go during nasty weather or mid week. :idea:
 
#12 ·
The down side of Green Peter was the incredible amount of boats and the resulting circus at the Whitcomb boat ramp. Next time I plan a Green Peter trip I think I'll go during nasty weather or mid week. :idea:
I hate fishing GP on the weekends this time of year. Weekdays are so much better and less stressful. Fist fights on the ramps are a common occurrence on busy weekends or at least a lot of staging and chest pounding. If I have to fish the weekend, Sunday is the day that I shoot for and I pull out late. The back to work crowd leaves early so the ramp isn't so much of a zoo. :twocents:
 
#11 ·
Thanks for the great report, hope to hit GP for one last time this week. Fished Yale lake this past Sat and although this catching was ok the boating traffic was unbelievable. Very interesting find was using an Apex with a single siwash hook and not losing any fish. The siwash seemed to hook the fish in the boney part of the lower jaw. Don't know if this was just luck or maybe my new find.
 
#13 ·
Chinook Slayer, I think those were just Danielson hoochies, nothing special.
Waterfish, I think I talked to you a couple times. I was the guy in the gray drift boat with the bored springer. Glad you got into them.
 
#14 ·
Snapset,

Yes, I remember talking to you - you said you were catching them "on anything green". One of my rods had a chartruse Mack's Double Whammy Kokanee Pro spinner, and it was producing. But neither of us caught 25 like you did, so in hindsight I'm thinking we should have put green on all four rods! :doh: At the time, I couldn't figure out a pattern because we had a wide range of totally differnet colors on the four rods and everything seemed to be producing.
 
#15 ·
I went up again today with my Dad. We fished from 6:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.. The bites for us were steady, with the fish starting the day biting at 45' and ending the day at 60'. We caught all we wanted, and tried to help some other people get into them. We had the same rig on both downriggers: chrome/prism tape 4/0 dodger, 10" leader to a green/chartreuse Danielson Hoochie, double #2 drop shot hooks, with 1 kernel of tuna oil corn on each hook. I was running a 1/2 ounce banana sinker 3' ahead of the dodger as a ballast for long setbacks. Then I tried removing the ballast weight and using just a 3' setback from the release to the dodger, and it worked just as well. Most of our fish were hooked along the North shore near where the Thistle creek arm curves around towards the dam. Trolling between 1.2 and 2 mph. We hooked a number of fish while changing directions in the wind, probably trolling 3 mph in the turn.

Warning: Don't use the normal Thistle creek ramp. People are dropping over the edge and getting their trailers stuck. I helped a guy lift his trailer over the ledge this afternoon. The next ramp down is fine.
 
#20 ·
Is it Okay to share the website with the map of GP? I am interested! Trying to pull together one last kokanee hoorah before archery season starts. I will be fishing during the week rather than weekends. Odell sounds like it is still fishing, but I had a bad expirience there and am not ready to go back. Crescent sounds dead.

Todd
 
#22 ·
I took a friend from work up there for my last Kokanee trip of the year. We fished from 5:30 to 5:30. Morning fishing was good until 9:00 a.m., Then it seemed like the bite died until 1:00 p.m.

We started catching fish at 45 feet on green (sunrise) hoochies behind 4/0 dodgers with tuna oil corn. Within 2 hours they were at 60' which is where we caught the rest of our fish for the day.

It has been a fantastic year, the last 4 trips in particular. Thanks to all who shared what was working for them this year. I have learned a lot.
 
#23 ·
This is my first post on ifish and my families first year of fishing GP,it really has been a phenomenal fishing experiance.We have primarily fished Crescent in the past with fair success, the size and numbers of fish I read about from GP drew us to try something new. I would like to say thanks to all on this site for sharing your reports, I hope that I can help some others as much.
Snapset:
Id like to give a special thanks to you ,I believe you are the one who gave us your corn and lure a couple weeks ago after catching your limit.We have fished GP the last 5 weekends and that was the only really slow day we had,after your help we boated over 20 fish in the next hour and a half, turned our slowest day into one of our better days THANKS. We made our last Kokanee trip for the year Last weekend fished 2 hrs Fri. Eve, and from 6 till noon on Sat. Brought home 36 nice Kokanee.Look forward to meeting more of you next year.

KWKFISH
 
#24 ·
I finally made it up to Green Peter today, after a long dry spell getting my new downriggers mounted, and a couple of missed trips due to family needs. After reading SnapSet's posts, I turned right out of the boat launch arm, and headed towards the dam.

I finally bought a sling blade after reading everybodies reports, and was excited to use it. I also had put together a homemade lure using green beads and a birdie. Using the setup, I trolled toward the dam, marked a few fish, but nothing on the bite. Finally switched to my old (Seps) dodger and a Trout needle fish. I managed a couple of fish, but it was slow. The closer to the dam, the fewer the fish. I motored back through the area, just to watch the fish finder, but didn't mark too much, so after 2 hours of fishing the area, I decided to head out.

I ended up fishing the opening of the Quartzville Creek arm (north of the island), reasoning that the fish were thinking about spawning, and would be heading home. The water was amazing! In the morning had been an east wind, and things were turning to a west wind, and in the lull, the water was like glass; just amazing. I didn't have too much time, because I needed to get back to town, so I just kept trolling on up the arm a ways. I ended up stopping just short of the restroom area.

The further I went up the arm, the more fish I marked. some pretty good schools too. I ended up fishing at 60', and picked up fish on the Trout needle fish and an improvised green wedding ring.

My time ran out, and I needed to head home. I finished the short day with 9 Huge Kokanee! Not a record day, but the fish are really big. They do have a little blush, so not too much longer for this year before things wrap up.

Once I found the fish, things were not too bad, and if given more time, I think I could have put another 10 in the boat without too much trouble.

One last note, as pointed out by others, zigzag helps when trolling. With the wind picking up, I was getting a little speed going, and tried putting the motor in reverse to slow down just a tad and to mix it up a little for the fish. That accounted for at least one fish. It was pretty funny, just as I came to a stop, my line started bouncing, and a fish pulled it out of the clip.
 
#26 ·
Hi Brad, glad to see you got into a few of those tasty rascals. I imagine you are starting to think more about the big salmon now.
That is where my focus has shifted. At least that is where it will shift after I catch up on some chores at home

Kwkfish. Welcome to Ifish. Lots of nice people here. I'm glad the hoochie and corn helped.
 
#27 ·
GP is phenomenal,

I took a co-worker to GP on friday, and he had not been fishing in thirty years. I really wanted to get into the fish.

Had the boat in at 6:30 and out onto the lake we went. Fished from Thistle creek towards the outhouse and started marking fish. As soon as I saw the fish on the fish finder I noted the time and gave each color of slingblade and hoochie fifteen minutes.

I was using downriggers with Luhr jensen Davis lake trolls and one cable had a shuttle hawk on as well.

I was tipping each hook with corn and the bite was on. We had a great day and the fish cooperated all day long. Started fishing at 35' feet and ended the day a 60'. It really didn't matter to much which lure we used as long as the color was right. Pee Wee's, humdingers, wedding rings, and pee line hoochies all worked for us.

Other than the wind it was a great day fishing. And I was smiling as much as my co-worker each time he had a FISH ON.

Thanks for all tips you guys shared this year.:applause:
 
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