Swift Reservoir, WA Rainbows and Coho

[Pelican]

Fished Swift Res. on Sunday from 11 am to 4:30 pm. Windy and cooold. son, his buddy and I caught 3 rainbows (12") and 8 young coho (10"). Any lure tipped with a 1/2" of worm drew a strike. Even tried trolling a hook with worm, and Success! Note: No luck casting in vicinity of boat launch, our usual success area, Needed to go across to opposite shore and troll in 20-35 ft of water.

[007SPRIG]

Coho?

[sucker]

Originally Posted by 007SPRIG

Coho?

Yes the lake is just full of those littel buggers; think it may be because they have been transporting adults from below merwin dam to swift for years.

[MegaByte]

They are not silver salmon although they look like them. They are actually sockeye. Also referred to as Kokanee. They eat really good! Also, the lake has bull trout, rainbows and chinnok salmon as well as cutthroat in it. I have fished it for over 40 years. This year it is open until Nov 30, 2009. Some of the best rainbow fishing occurs now through the end of November. Fish range from10-14 inches with ana occassional 16 rainbow or cut. I have nailed bull trout in there over 20 inches, but you must release them.

[sucker]

Originally Posted by MegaByte

They are not silver salmon although they look like them. They are actually sockeye. Also referred to as Kokanee. They eat really good! Also, the lake has bull trout, rainbows and chinnok salmon as well as cutthroat in it. I have fished it for over 40 years. This year it is open until Nov 30, 2009. Some of the best rainbow fishing occurs now through the end of November. Fish range from10-14 inches with ana occassional 16 rainbow or cut. I have nailed bull trout in there over 20 inches, but you must release them.

I know the difference between Sockeye and Coho and the fish I am talking about are not Sockeye.

[sherretb]

Here's a little side info for you swift fisherman.

So about 3 years ago (I think it was towards the end of September) a friend and I put wet suits on and snorkel gear and snorkeled from the bridge on the lewis up above swift down to the reservoir.

There were and incredible amount of nice trout in that stretch. we saw about:

~Lots of fish under 14"

~15 in the 14" to 18" range

~5-10 above 18" including two that looked to be about 28"

These numbers did not count the hundreds of suckers we saw.

This was a neat experience!

The only downer part of it was seeing all the people pulling these nice (~16") trout out of the hole above the bridge using worms right by the "No Bait" sign.

[mrbirdy]

Originally Posted by sucker

I know the difference between Sockeye and Coho and the fish I am talking about are not Sockeye.

I agree w/MegaByte. Those are Kokanee not Coho in Swift. If these were transported from Merwin they for sure are Kokanee.

[walt1er]

Coho adults have been transported above Swift since at least 2001. From a 2001 Pacificorp study:

"Coho will be transported from the Lewis River Hatchery, located downstream of Merwin
Dam, to 2 release points. Both sites are above Swift Reservoir, upstream of the Eagle

Cliff Bridge and the Muddy River."

Apparently, some of these coho spawned successfully:

From a 2007 study:
"WDFW and PacifiCorp staff identified juvenile coho salmon... in tributraries of Pine Creek."

Pine Creek enters the Big Muddy River, which enters the Lewis less than a mile above Eagle Cliff bridge. Swift has juvenile coho.

[mrbirdy]

Originally Posted by walt1er

Coho adults have been transported above Swift since at least 2001. From a 2001 Pacificorp study:

"Coho will be transported from the Lewis River Hatchery, located downstream of Merwin
Dam, to 2 release points. Both sites are above Swift Reservoir, upstream of the Eagle

Cliff Bridge and the Muddy River."

Apparently, some of these coho spawned successfully:

From a 2007 study:
"WDFW and PacifiCorp staff identified juvenile coho salmon... in tributraries of Pine Creek."

Pine Creek enters the Big Muddy River, which enters the Lewis less than a mile above Eagle Cliff bridge. Swift has juvenile coho.

Interesting, thx for the info on that. I'll have to make it up to swift some time soon

[trollin4trout]

Three weeks ago I saw a school of bulltrout numbering 100-200- they were impossible to count! Nearly all of them were over 20"- with a couple of bigger bruisers amongst them. They milled around the edge of a dropoff for the whole time I was fishing in the hole next to them. Good to see numbers like that!

And I have never seen a kokanee there- small coho's, yes.

Jim

[Captain Hook]

I was up there last week and we caught rainbows and one small silver. I just talked to the regional fish biologish and he confirmed that the coho are the result of planting some adults in the upper watershed in 2007 to see if they would spawn and survive. They seem to have done that. The hope is to eventually establish an adult run in the upper river. The fish in the reservoir will start to spawn next year (3 years). They MAY get to 14" - 16", but they don't know yet. He also said that some may spill over into Yale and Merwin, but again, they don't know yet. The one we caught was only about 10". He also confirmed that there are no kokanee in Swift.

[ElkTalker]

Originally Posted by Captain Hook

I was up there last week and we caught rainbows and one small silver. I just talked to the regional fish biologish and he confirmed that the coho are the result of planting some adults in the upper watershed in 2007 to see if they would spawn and survive. They seem to have done that. The hope is to eventually establish an adult run in the upper river. The fish in the reservoir will start to spawn next year (3 years). They MAY get to 14" - 16", but they don't know yet. He also said that some may spill over into Yale and Merwin, but again, they don't know yet. The one we caught was only about 10". He also confirmed that there are no kokanee in Swift.

Very cool! If they get 14” to 16” I will have to spend some time up there. Also next year at Merwin I will double check my fish looking for a Coho. ET