Merwin Report today

No Wishin Just Fishin · 07-19-2007, 05:21 PM

All three boats that took out just after noon at the same time we did, had limits. 15, 15 10, and 10 each. We had, in my opinion the nicest 10 of the bunch with a few close to 16". We were fishing down 65 feet with red skeleton. One of the other boats was down 50 and one 35. All with unscented corn on wedding rings. Seemed to be alot of fish schooled up in the middle of the lake today.

adobe wall · 07-19-2007, 05:36 PM

Outstanding report, thanks. I'd like to keep this thread going with current Merwin reports like yours.

I'm going to hit it again Saturday morning. Red/orange hasn't been good to me but I'll start with that color and see what happens.

regards, aw

Dr Strangelove · 07-20-2007, 09:18 AM

What's red skeleton?

Revo23 · 07-20-2007, 06:15 PM

Up all day yesterday, limit with nice fish.

adobe wall · 07-21-2007, 06:18 PM

Spent the night fishing the Lewis for steelhead to no good effect. I got off that river at 0400 and went straight on up the road to Merwin.

The good: I got 5 hefty, 13 inch kokanee that looked like they should be much bigger. I got them with 5 consective passes through the school. I boated 100% of the fish hooked.

The bad: I have never seen so many pikeminnows in my life

The ugly: the elapsed time between arriving at Speelyai and finding the huge school of kokes was 11 hours. 11 hours without a hit by anything except- ahem- THIRTY FOUR STINKING PIKEMINNOWS.

Lesson learned: don't troll in a desert. All my spots were devoid of fish on the fish TV and in real life. I fell into the trap of sticking with spots that have worked, hoping for fish that would magically appear. They did not. If the fish aren't there, they can't be caught. Go find them.

After 11 hours (it had taken on the air of a quest, or even a Mission From God) I was ready to admit defeat. I tied on a simple ford fender/green wedding ring- I'd basically tried the entire tackle box during the course of the day. I decided to troll all the way out, to try to learn some new water. I trolled into a school that was just huge and there wasn't a boat in sight- the fish were from 50 to 65 feet, just marks everywhere and the fish pounded the wedding ring as soon as I got it down to them.

The kokes were big and chunky and I thought I had a 15 inch fish when I netted the first one, but unless "boat induced shrinkage" is a real fishing phenomenon the kokes were only 13 inches. I'll take 'em.

I want to try it again tomorrow, but in reverse this time.

regards, aw

joemomma · 07-21-2007, 07:04 PM

I was ready to admit defeat. I tied on a simple ford fender/green wedding ring- I'd basically tried the entire tackle box during the course of the day.

AW, That is interesting, a green wedding ring!

I never would have thought!:grin:

adobe wall · 07-21-2007, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joemomma

I was ready to admit defeat. I tied on a simple ford fender/green wedding ring- I'd basically tried the entire tackle box during the course of the day.

AW, That is interesting, a green wedding ring!

I never would have thought!:grin:

Yep, I know, I was really stepping out of the box trying that lure! That was really a stretch for me.

Heck my reports are pretty much the same each time, but I keep thinking there might be some value since I've hit the lake so much lately.

If anyone wants Merwin Pikeminnow reports, I can do those too!

regards, aw

joemomma · 07-21-2007, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adobe wall

Yep, I know, I was really stepping out of the box trying that lure! That was really a stretch for me.

Heck my reports are pretty much the same each time, but I keep thinking there might be some value since I've hit the lake so much lately.

If anyone wants Merwin Pikeminnow reports, I can do those too!

regards, aw

Hey, I know how ya feel, I start with my green wedding ring, change, try other things and always end up going back to the green ring! I really do too try to get out of the box, but I always jump right back into it!

By the way, I love your reports! Because I'm going to start fishing those 3 reservoirs up there! And you need to thin out those pike minnows for me!

adobe wall · 07-22-2007, 03:55 PM

The plan to reverse yesterday's trip worked perfectly today (7-22). I slept in, hit the ramp late this morning and motored out to the point where I found the school yesterday. The fish were nice enough to have stayed right there for me.

First pass, a nice fat 13" kokanee. Second, third, and fourth turns I caught pikeminnows. Then I got another nice fish. Then two shorter fish that I released, and a nice fish that released itself at the boat. More pikeminnows. Then I got involved with a sunken tree...

Put the third fish in the cooler and decided to stretch out the day a bit and try something new. Spent an hour jigging over the school to no good effect. Put the green wedding ring back on the redneck downrigger and boated the last two fish with a few more pikeminnows tossed in.

Here's a pic, they are all basically 13" fish- I haven't seen anything much bigger this season.

Fish were caught at 48 feet (first one) then 55, 50, 60, and 55 feet. I try to longline my rig behind the downrigger to give me more time to try to swing the lure through fish I mark on the depthfinder. I can't do this if I'm running two rigs but if I'm by myself I'll use the redneck downrigger (cut down boat rod and sturgeon reel) and run about 75-100 feet of line out.

Only 6 pikeminnows today.

regards, aw

MattPark · 07-23-2007, 12:12 PM

Nice, I'm jealous. We launched late (330) yesterday, and only managed 3 to the boat, and lost 5 or 6 more at the boat. All about 11-12 inches. Lots of pikeminnow in there as AW stated.

Glad I got the steelhead yesterday morning, 3 kokes don't go too far at dinner time.

Super Fluke · 07-23-2007, 01:09 PM

Great job, that sounds like a lot of fun.

joemomma · 07-23-2007, 08:19 PM

Nice report! Thanks AW!

garv76 · 07-24-2007, 11:14 PM

I'm taking some time off from Coho because of the bad weather to take the kids up to Merwin for some Kokes, will give a report when I get back. I love those fish, can't wait to get up there.

Splash · 07-25-2007, 06:50 AM

Report from yesterday, 7/24.

Arrived late around 8am. The ramp was not busy and I waas fishing by 8:30. Went straight down to 60' from reading recent reports. Fished for about an hour, nothing. Kept seeing schools around 45-50 so I brought my gear up to 43'. Whammo, right off the bat. Just a little guy so I threw it back. It was another hour before I caught the next one, also on the small side but I kept this one since it was bleeding. The next 3 came in the third hour and were all 13 inches and fat. It took another 30 minutes to dredge up the last fish, also a hefty 13". I missed a few other bites throughout the morning but never touched a pikeminnow.

The fishing wasn't fast but it was fishing.

cheeseburger · 07-25-2007, 08:15 AM

My brother has been fishing there alot lately on the weekend. He told me that the fishing is excellent at first light..like around 5:30 and he has been getting his limit quick. But after a few hours after light it has been slow the times he started late. Hope this helps!!

SImudBogger · 07-25-2007, 11:07 PM

when i was a kid we had a spot at the campers hideaway. all we ever caught was squaw fish. thats it. only time we caught trout was when we went up to the waterfall on the east end of the reservior near the dam. that was before they blocked it off. even then we still caught a few squaws. that was about 10 years ago, i can't imagine how bad it is now.

No Wishin Just Fishin · 07-26-2007, 04:57 AM

The secret to less sqaw fish is troll a little faster and deeper.

adobe wall · 07-27-2007, 03:37 PM

Hit Merwin again today (7-27) with a coworker and his two kids. Started out fishing two rods, both with ford fenders and green wedding rings. Went back to the spot that had been good last weekend.

Caught 3 13" fish on the first pass and thought it was going to be an easy day. Then we got back into the ********* and other than a couple more nice kokes lost at the boat, nothing for over an hour. Looped around and found fish, started catching them again. A couple of boats showed up, then a few more, and before long it was looking a bit like Drano Lake. However, the boats that were using downriggers were catching fish and so were we, but not at a really fast pace. ********* everywere again.

Had 13 very nice kokes in the cooler at noon, plus a pair of trout released and a couple of dinks that were nice enough to shake themselves off boatside. Decided to troll all the way back to Speelyai. Put out a third rod with a chrome sling blade and pink hoochie. Swapped another rod to a fender with a pink wedding ring w/silver blade. That lure got a lot of hits (at 45 feet deep) but we couldn't land a fish on that rod- lost 9 or 10 straight. Put a green snubber on it and landed two more. Rod with green wedding ring/fender was also doing well (also had it up at 45 feet). During the course of the troll we swapped the middle rod from the pink hoochie/sling blade to a green/white hoochie (nothing again) and then finally put another green wedding ring on it behind the chrome sling blade and caught a fish on it and lost 2 more.

Ended up with 19 when we got to the dock at 2 pm. Not a record setting day but we caught plenty and should have limited early if we could have got the one rod ciphered out. Lost way too many fish on it.

Splash's suggestion to go to 45 feet was spot on, that's where the fish were for us today as well. I have to work a half day tomorrow but figured I'd get the report in for anyone that wanted to hit Merwin on Saturday. The fish are in good shape, we really got some nice ones today. Go get 'em.

regards, aw

P-ride · 07-28-2007, 09:08 PM

Thanks to AW and everyone for the fishing reports. I finally had some time to take the girlfriend out this past wednesday for her first kokanee trip. The weather was great(almost too good as we both came home with sunburns :blush:

I had only fished Merwin a few times last year with very little success and did a lil better at Yale. With the decent reports and the idea of getting into some bigger fish I decided to give Merwin a try.

I think for the first time out we did pretty well. We came home with 5 fish for the BBQ. I was getting really frustrated because we lost about 7 or 8 others but I know thats part of kokanee fishing. Snubbers usually help, but they were just tough this time.

We're gonna give it another go this week (she's excited about catching more "food") Hopefully I can find the schools and come home with more tasty kokes!

If you see an older beige Glastron tri-hull, give us a wave!

See ya guys out there!
JP

garv76 · 07-29-2007, 10:59 PM

Thursday 7/26 we were able to bring 11 home with 4 poles in the water. Had two down riggers on the side and two divers off the back. The right side of the boat was the lucky side, the diver off the back right and the rigger on the right caught most of the fish. They seemed a little higher then what was reported earlier, Maybe 40 - 50 feet, and not to big for us. We tried the little koke cove from the tip of the rock to the little old wood cabin with only one fish in the moring, spent the rest of the day down by the dam with more sucsess, and the wind was a lot better down there too. We'll be out again on Tuesday. We'll be in a White Thunderjet on channell 68, give a call if your on the water.
Garv

Got Fish? · 07-30-2007, 08:15 AM

Could I ask exactly what diver you use? I don't have riggers on the boat and would like to try some divers instead of a bunch of lead.

I haven't been to merwin in a couple of months but thinking about this week maybe...

MattPark · 07-31-2007, 09:34 AM

On my non downrigger rods, we use those banana weights. Clip or tie directly to your line, then put on your flashers/snubbers/lures or whatever you want.

garv76 · 07-31-2007, 11:42 PM

We use Luhr Jensen Deep Six divers. Here is a pic

Tuna Dog · 08-01-2007, 03:21 PM

Garv76

Good to chat with you on the lake...we slowed down about 11:00 and left the lake at 1:00pm. We ended with 16 fish and tossed back a couple small guys.

I'm headed to the coast thursday for some tuna fishing in my other boat.

Might make it back out early next week.

Del

garv76 · 08-01-2007, 04:21 PM

Hey Dog, sounds like we left just in time. I had an appointment at 1:00 so we had to head out not long after seeing you. Thanks for the heads up on the fish, we would have had a super long day if we stayed down by the dam. We were able to get 5. Good luck out in the big blue tomorrow, I'm planning on going soon too, but will wait until the weather calms down a bit. Thanks again for the info!!
Garv

No Wishin Just Fishin · 08-03-2007, 05:18 PM

Taking neighborhood kids to Merwin tomorrow. Are they still down about 60 and in the middle??

No Wishin Just Fishin · 08-04-2007, 05:49 PM

Yes they were in the middle at 65 feet. Got all three rods their limit of nice fish and turned loose another 20. Nice to see the smiles on a kid reeling and bonking fish.

adobe wall · 08-04-2007, 06:53 PM

I must have gone right by y'all today.

I got the 5 nicest fish I've caught this year, but I wasn't out in the middle. 45 feet down was golden for me.

After knocking 2 good fish out right away, I tried my theory that I could troll all the way back to Speelyai and finish the limit out. Turns out that was just crazy talk on my part. 2 hours without a fish, only 1 *********.

Turned around and went back to the spot that had produced at the start of the day and boated three more good fish and let a 11" fish go. Still at 45 feet.

Fished the same rig I always do- green wedding ring and a ford fender. Kinda predictable that way.

The day was still real young so I went on up to Yale. Started straight out from Yale park going left (upriver) and marked a fish at 50 feet- right where I happened to be- and immediately hooked up. Caught two more as quick as I could get gear in the water. After that, it was a good 4 hours without a hit. I can say that fishing the upper half of Yale doesn't seem to be a good plan right now.

The three fish I got at Yale were all fat 10" kokes. 16 of those would be nice but there is a huge difference in a 10" fish vs. a 13" fish- and two of the ones I got at Merwin were pushing 14". I'm about burnt out but may hit it again tomorrow and try the bottom half of Yale after I finish at Merwin.

regards, aw

wannacatchem · 08-11-2007, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adobe wall

I must have gone right by y'all today.

I got the 5 nicest fish I've caught this year, but I wasn't out in the middle. 45 feet down was golden for me.

After knocking 2 good fish out right away, I tried my theory that I could troll all the way back to Speelyai and finish the limit out. Turns out that was just crazy talk on my part. 2 hours without a fish, only 1 *********.

Turned around and went back to the spot that had produced at the start of the day and boated three more good fish and let a 11" fish go. Still at 45 feet.

Fished the same rig I always do- green wedding ring and a ford fender. Kinda predictable that way.

The day was still real young so I went on up to Yale. Started straight out from Yale park going left (upriver) and marked a fish at 50 feet- right where I happened to be- and immediately hooked up. Caught two more as quick as I could get gear in the water. After that, it was a good 4 hours without a hit. I can say that fishing the upper half of Yale doesn't seem to be a good plan right now.

The three fish I got at Yale were all fat 10" kokes. 16 of those would be nice but there is a huge difference in a 10" fish vs. a 13" fish- and two of the ones I got at Merwin were pushing 14". I'm about burnt out but may hit it again tomorrow and try the bottom half of Yale after I finish at Merwin.

regards, aw

Am I understanding you can limit at Merwin, then go to Yale and limit there?

Or do you limit at Merwin, then go to yale and catch the rest for a total of a Yale limit (bigger fish at Mewrin, smaller fish at yale)

TIA

adobe wall · 08-11-2007, 09:53 PM

Or do you limit at Merwin, then go to yale and catch the rest for a total of a Yale limit (bigger fish at Merwin, smaller fish at yale)

Yep. You can do that and not have any headaches- I figure if I have 5 Merwin fish then catch 11 more Yale kokes I've had a good day. In reality I've never quite pulled that off.

Reading the regs, you could argue the Merwin kokes are "trout" since that's what they're considered in that lake (the 5 trout state daily limit includes landlocked salmon) but I sure don't want to have to argue that in front of a judge. Yales limit is 5 trout plus a bonus of 16 kokanee.

regards, aw

adobe wall · 08-12-2007, 06:31 PM

Fish seem to be moving up the lake. The spot that has done well for me didn't produce a fish today (8-12). We did limit the boat (3 of us) in less than 5 hours- and judging from how fast the other boats were leaving I think we took longer than most others.

Most of our fish were near Wood village, 50 feet down.

Went to Yale to try to finish out a limit there, caught fish from Yale park down. Fish were scattered and the action wasn't as good as Merwin, but we still got 8. Not really any difference much between the Yale and Merwin kokes. Caught fish at 35, 40, and 50 feet down at Yale, most at 40.

Not a bad day. Had one rod in the boat that outfished the other two (combined) by about 5:1 or more, couldn't figure out why though. Green wedding ring, ford fender worked well on that rod and didn't do much on another rod. We used the third rod to try some other colors.

regards, aw

No Wishin Just Fishin · 08-12-2007, 06:53 PM

was headed to Merwin today to fish a returning Iraqi Vet. It was so crowded at the ramp yesterday that I decided to take Him and His father in law on the big C. We were rewarded with 35 lb 2 oz URB. Takes alot of Koanee to make that up:grin: We limited almost with 19 fish on Sat a few in the 15-16 class at 80 feet near the A frame

Tuna Dog · 08-14-2007, 11:54 AM

Good job...good to hear your still getting them.

adobe wall · 08-25-2007, 07:53 PM

After my 6th trip on the Big C in the past 8 days and nothing to show for it I headed to Merwin after lunch today (8-25).

Fishing pressure was minimal at 1 pm but what a heckuva jetski hatch.

Caught fish at the rate of one every 20-30 minutes until I left. Kept 5 fish that taped at 13" with one 14" fish. 50 feet seemed to be good, fish are still down around Wood Village. Fish are starting to get dark. Not sure how much more time we've got with them.

Here's the first one of the day

regards, aw

adobe wall · 08-26-2007, 05:03 AM

I should also mention that I met an older gentleman who was coming off the lake just as I got there. Assuming he'd been kokanee fishing, I asked how he had done. "I hooked 6, got 4 to the boat". I asked what part of the lake and he pointed out basically all over as he said, "one here, one over there, one up there....the best one was 41 inches".

Muskies!

I was so dumbfounded I didn't even ask what he was throwing at them. From everything I've heard about Musky fishing the man had a great day. He said it was his second trip to Merwin, ever, but he'd sure be back.

regards, aw

lilbuddy · 09-03-2007, 02:05 PM

Try this again. Merwin fished great over memorial weekend. Fished Thursday trough Sunday. 85 kokanee with interesting crews on board. Kids and adults had a good time. Fished 45 to 60 foot deep with fenders and appexes. Fish were in better shape than I expected. They ran 12 to 14 inches and fought well. It was probably 10 t0 1 males to females in the catch wich was reverse to early in the season. Sad it is comeing to an end for another year but hopt to get a couple more weeks out of it.

adobe wall · 09-03-2007, 06:03 PM

Sounds good- I almost hit it this weekend but ended up fishing the big C. Interesting choice with the apex- what color was working best?

regards, aw

lilbuddy · 09-04-2007, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adobe wall

Sounds good- I almost hit it this weekend but ended up fishing the big C. Interesting choice with the apex- what color was working best?

regards, aw

anything with a white bottom seemed to do well. pro troll kokanee killers outfished the apexes also.

will_e_fish · 09-07-2007, 12:35 PM

Last week a family member reported a little Tsunami wave in the lake it was later discovered there was a earth quake in the area did anyone see that?
They also made me jealous of the good catch of Kokanee they had.

lilbuddy · 09-09-2007, 05:06 PM

Same report as last week. Really good fishing Friday and Saturday with easy limits of fat kokanee. The area across the lake from the houses held a lot of fish both days wich was the same as the previous week. Something that continues to be strange is the varing depths the fish are at. We caught fish from 35 to 70 feet with 50 to 60 feet being most consistent. Thank God for electric downriggers! One thing that was kind of fun was we started to scope fish at a certain depth and let the downrigger go below them and then slowly bring it up 5 to 10 feet when we thought the lures were in the kill zone. It worked about half the time. The same 2 tone fenders with pro troll lures with white bottoms worked good again, never changed to anything else. Fish were still in good shape but we did throw back 3 or 4 that were to far along. Looks like it still might last a little while longer.

lilbuddy · 09-18-2007, 06:00 PM

Last trip tp Merwin for 07. Went out late Friday afternoon and didnt do to well. 2 to far along kokes and 2 next years crop. Saturday was different story. The boss and I tried the bowl up from Spelliya and did well. 10 nice sized kokes that were still in pertty good shape and full of fight. What a blast to catch these guys. Saturday went solo and had a slow day in the same spot. Did mange to catch 3 of next years crop that were probably 9 to 10 inches and put them back to grow up and catch again next year. Well looking back on the year Id have to say it was really not to bad. Got a freezer full of good tasteing fish some allready has hit the trager and some hasnt. had to change tatics from the year before and fish different spots with differrent scents but al ot of the same hardware worked well. Sure hope we dont get any drastic weather this fall and winter so we can get them again next year.