Mackinaw report from Crescent Lake (pics)

[Waterfish]

My fishing buddy Greg and I arrived at Crescent Lake on Friday for four days of mackinaw and kokanee fishing. This was going to be Greg’s first time fishing for mackinaw so I was hoping to get him in to some nice fish. It took a few hours to locate some good concentrations of macs with the fish finder and save them to the GPS, but not long after, Greg’s rod released from the downrigger and then bent over hard. We could tell that this was a good fish by the way it fought and by how long it took to bring it up from a depth of 150’.




After 10 to 15 minutes, Greg had the big mackinaw to the surface. By this time a couple of kokanee fishing boats had moved in closer to see what we were fighting. It was obvious that it wasn’t a kokanee! I used a polarizing filter on my camera to take the glare off of the crystal clear water.




I try to unhook mackinaw without netting them so that they can swim away to fight another day, but this one was hooked with both treble hooks and with the way he was thrashing at the surface, we had to net him and use pliers to get the hooks out. That gave us time to measure him: 36” long and 20 lbs. Not bad for Greg’s first ever mackinaw! We got him back in the water and moved the boat slowly with the trolling motor to revive him. Finally he gave a good tail splash quickly headed back to the bottom. People in one of the on-looking boats clapped when we released this big fish, while the guys in the other boat couldn’t believe anyone would release a fish that big.




Next we followed the GPS back to another spot where we had marked several macs, and before long beginner’s luck struck again as Greg’s rod released from the downrigger clip and another battle was on. This one rolled several times and got completely wrapped up in the leader. The leader cut it gills and it was bleeding big time, so we didn’t attempt to revive it - It’s going to end up on the grill. This one also measured 36” long, and weighed just under 21 lbs on my digital scale. It turned out to be our biggest mac of the trip.



By Monday the macs had moved from the 100 -150’ range; down to deeper water. Greg caught a nice one that was on the bottom at 170 feet, and just a few minutes later I was fighting this 31” mac (measured in the water) which was also on the bottom at 170’ when it hit my trusty silver-blue J-Plug. We bring them up slowly, especially during the last 33’ (1 atmosphere, where air expands quickly) to let them decompress and avoid barotrama. Often when a mac is 33’ below the boat, we see lots of bubbles coming up as they expel the expanding air. I use 15 lb pancake downrigger weights and a trolling speed of 2.2 mph only produces about 10’ to 15’ of blowback.





Over the next few days, we caught more mackinaw and limits of nice fat kokanee. The macs pretty much bit all day, but the kokanee fishing didn’t get too hot until the last hour of the day, and then we had many doubles before limiting out. We caught all of the kokanee on the downriggers at depths of 20 to 60 feet. After I got home and started going through my photos, I realized that I didn’t take any kokanee photos – next time I will!

[StrikeFighter]

Awesome pictures......

[Rusty Psoadman]

great post and great pics....thanks for sharing. (like the polarizing filter)

[benny boy]

Awesome pics!!!!! I would love to catch one of those monsters. I have to agree that it would be tough to let a fish like that go but I guess after a pic is taken why not! Congrats on getting your buddy into some beauties!!!!!

[fish-on-bend]

Way to go Mike. Great work on both the macks and kokes. I'll be there on Friday. 2 over 20 lbs is an awesome feat.

[Kokanee Slow]

Good Job! Great post and pictures, thanks for that.

[chukardave1]

Thanks for sharing. Great post and love the photos.

[FallRiverGuy]

Nice job on the fish. Weather looks great. What size were the kokanee?

[genghis]

Now THAT'S a fishing report. Great pics and great story. Thank you.

[Dullhook]

Mighty fine job on both the camera work and the catching!

[5-Cents]

Great pictures and a wonderful tutorial on how to enjoy fishing for these fish while respecting the resource only keeping fish that are going to die!

I cant believe I missed that Mike - my buddy I helped move owes me big time!

[trollin4trout]

yeah- nice pics and thanks for the education at the same time. Those are BIG!

[TakeEm]

I Hope the Kok keep biting up there, Ill be heading that way on sunday! Its gotta be better then Wickiup was! Thanks for the great report and the awesome story!!!

[CoyoteBrownTrtHntr]

Great Report with good info.
Two lakers over 20#'s in the same day!?! You guys ROCK!!!!!
CBTH

[joemomma]

Great report and great pic's! Someday I will get me a MACDADDY! Nice pigs!

[fish-on-bend]

Your friend Greg is ruined for life now. Its like shooting a herd bull your 1st time elk hunting. He got himself the "Mack Ness Monster."
.........I considered naming my boat that, but thought it was a bit too arrogant.

[fishmanmike]

Great report and great photos! I just love taking pics of those fish in that clear blue water. I'll be up there Thursday a.m. with a couple of friends to see if we can round up a few!

[Waterfish]

Originally Posted by FallRiverGuy

Nice job on the fish. Weather looks great. What size were the kokanee?

I would say that the average size was 12-13". Not huge, but also not like the little 10-11" kokanee that we sometimes catch. About 2-3 fish out of every 10 were quite a bit bigger. We didn't measure any of the kokes but some of the larger ones were fat and maybe up to 16."

[Waterfish]

Originally Posted by fishmanmike

Great report and great photos! I just love taking pics of those fish in that clear blue water. I'll be up there Thursday a.m. with a couple of friends to see if we can round up a few!

More about the photography: In most of the action shots, I used a 24mm wide angle lens on a digital Nikon. The older digital cameras magnify the lens as compared to a 35mm film camera. So my 24mm lens on the digital camera becomes more like a 30-35mm lens; NOT as wide as a 24mm lens, but still a wide angle lens. A wide angle lens allows me to capture both the fish and the person fighting the fish. The downside of a wide angle lens is that it makes the fish down in the water (further away) look smaller than it is. Someday I want to get a zoom lens with a range of 16 to 75mm. That would be ideal for fishing photography.

[moknots]

Great report!! Thanks!

[Prowler44]

Awesome weekend and a great report!! Headed there early Saturday, can't wait.

[Klamanite]

Nice job on the Macks

Awesome pics too