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Merwin 2020

110K views 455 replies 90 participants last post by  skunkedalot 
#1 ·
Happy New Year everyone! Looking forward to seeing all those catches and information sharing. Here’s to another great year, fat fish and full limits!






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#276 ·
We arrived at Merwin late today , 8:30am . Didn't have a fish on until about noon . I saw a local guide and he yelled out it's been slow . How right he was .We picked up our first two fish about 2 ish by the dam and then headed to the Wood Village area at 4 pm where two more were put on ice . 35' down and using a green hoochie and a green bodied gold spinner caught all of them . A beautiful day on the lake .
 
#277 ·
At Merwin, there's a thick algae bloom goin on, might want to slide one of those cone shaped algae guards on the main line.
Fishing very hit and miss, although some guys are limiting, most of us aren't. Lucky to get 2 or 3 in the boat today.

I went to Yale at noon, the fishin is HOT over there. Often, get a fish within a minute or two of lowering your downrigger. Smaller fish, yet they fight strong on these light Kokanee poles.
 
#279 ·
Algae bloom is a pain! When you are reeling in a fish it builds up on the guides and messes up your drag. Have to slap pole tip into the water to clear as if it is not already hard enough to bring the fish into the boat. Fished from the big bend to the waterfalls. By far the down rigger at 35 foot was the key. ended up with 15 for the day, green and purple. Dale did we miss you some how? :flag2:
 
#278 ·
Last two days on Merwin have been a bit more of a struggle but we ground out more limits. I ran most rods deeper, 45-78' and found fish more willing to bite despite running gear thru fish much shallower. I'm also running bigger spinner blades. I think it helps a little.


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#280 ·

About the 17th boat to launch. Ran down to the dam area. 3 limits by 9:38. 3 oz at 100 ft back and 20 to 40 on the down riggers. Not that crowded for a free fishing weekend. Gave 5 to the camp host lady. She was setting the hook (hinting they like fish at the entry) so what the heck. Not a bad morning until we got back to Beaverton and had to sit in the rig to wait out the 12:00 monsoon.


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#281 ·
You got a few chubber's there.
 
#283 · (Edited)
I fished SAT, SUN, MON

I wasted the majority of the morning near Speelyai on Saturday before heading to the dam and got 6 before the weather came in...
Limit on Sunday @ the dam
8 on Monday @ the dam (Off the water by 9am).

Speed was around 1.5-1.7
fished between 20-30 feet deep with the most productive depth of 26.
Fish seem to be a lot smaller this year???
 

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#288 ·
Fished Merwin with the SeaDoo FishPro for the first time today. Started at the crack of 10:30. Overcast with a water temp of 61 at the surface when I started - 63 when I left about 4:00.

Wind didn’t come up except to ripple the top all afternoon, so it was a pretty quick trip to the dam where I planned to fish. No down riggers, so I started with 2.5 oz lead on the rod with a gold arrow flasher ahead of a pink smile hoochie that has caught 70 % of my trout at Haag Lake this year (not much red left on the hooks at this point.) I ran 3 oz on the other rod with a silver Mack dodger with some green on one side ahead of a green wiggle hoochie.

No hits, no runs, no errors, so after a while, I changed out the green for a mini pro troll ahead of a mini CP. flavoring was tuna corn, natural & some died pink for all rigs.. I was running all rigs about 100’ back on the counters. Got a little shallow by the dam-75’, so I started reeling up the shore side rod. Looked over & the pink hoochie rod is bouncing. Got the fish in and it was a nice 13” hen.



I changed up the CP rod to a clear/ pink hoochie & had a couple takedowns on that one, but only got the one fish to the ski. Nice to get the first Koke on board though!

PDXTL


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#293 ·
Lots of debris today. Seemed slow one on at 5 am by marina 27 feet. Then nothing till 9:30 picked up 3 at 35 feet in a 20 minute time span (further East) of the marina. Didn't see the net fly around me. Trolled 1.2 to 1.4 on electric. Never tried a faster troll. Everyone was headed to the dam. Only a handful fishing the falls. Finicky bite to figure out today. Lots of eagles had a good fish day, Fun fishing day. Good Luck
 
#294 ·
A friend and myself picked up 4 today on the lake . Jerry & I started in at about 9ish and left the water at 4 pm . It turned out to a beautiful day with a light wind on the water . We were fishing with Brads Extreme Kokanee Dodgers ( the UV one with red markings on the side ) and Deadly Venom's purple hoochie with the spinner on it. This setup out fished the other pole 4 to nothing . It had the same spinner and hoochie but a different Brads dodger that was gold in color . The bait of choice was corn with Slammin Sams tuna and garlic scent mixed with his Kokanee scent . Most of of the fish were caught between 30 and 40 feet . It was nice to getaway from the covid 19 news and everything else that is happening right now .
 
#295 ·
Went to Merwin today to check out the algae bloom for myself. Very bad. Constantly snapping the line, or slapping the water to remove it from the line or guides. And to complicate the situation even more, there is a large amount of lumber flowing around.

So much for the bad news. Came home with 4 nice kokanee and a good time. Water temperature at 40' was 54 degrees, so I had my best luck at that depth. Didn't see many schools on the camera, but the Algae was limiting the viewing distance. I did see a large amount of fish being caught by boats around us. We fished West and South of Woodland Park. Boats were trolling slow, about 1-mph.
 
#296 ·
Very late post... Wednesday the 3rd we got a late start but were able to grind out limits. Paid for it in sun burns. It was a gorgeous day with very little wind and slow but consistent bite. Got bit on everything from the surface down to 45ft on the downriggers.
 

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#297 ·
Fished from around 5:45 to 2:00. 3 people, 6 rods. Finally got our limit. Fished within sight of the dam. The fish were from the surface via long line to 40 ft down via down-riggers. No zone was consistent for us. We ended up with 4 small ones in the batch. Small micro pink glow hootchies were a top producer along with orange/glow birdie drifter with small glow beads. The Brads moon glow dimpled dodger seemed to work the best, we had 2 out all day. The longest fish was a tad over 15 inches.



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#298 ·
Slow bite for me this am on Merwin. Fished 5-10 and 3 fish one was a small chinook that I released the other 2 kokanee were nice size 12-13" range. The algae appears to be gone (at least I didn't run into it Fished from marina to woodland park.) Didn't see any nets flying lots of boats heading to dam. Not many boats fishing the falls. Caught one at 20 feet and the other at 45. A grateful fisherman especially if I get at least one to eat. Good luck.
 
#299 ·
Ok! what was up? On 06/17 we fished 5 rods 0700 to noon. All we caught was 4 pike minnows. When we launched at 0700, a guide with two clients was already pulling his boat out. When asked why, he said nothing going to happen here today so he was headed to Yale. We went ahead and launched and fished for the next 5 hours to come to the same conclusion. What did the guide know so soon into the day?
 
#300 ·
Merwin Wednesday 6-17
The algal bloom is gone!
So is the kokanee bite.
Nada at the dam area, at the rope swing, the white house, and the south shore across from the waterfalls
I did catch one of those 2 pounder Chinook? flatlining on the south side across from Speelyai as I was putting all my gear away.
 
#301 ·
Three fishermen trolled 6 -9 AM Tuesday, all over Merwin, no strikes. When pulling boat out, a hatchery tank truck backed down launch and off loaded bunches of 2-6 lb rainbow brood trout. Relaunched our boat and trolled up several big trout on orange kokanee spinners and silver spoons behind 3/8 oz lead. Two more truck loads were also dropped in. I'm guessing they will hang around Speelyai Bay for a couple days before dispersing. Good fun for the kiddos.
 
#305 ·
I’m a grinder. I expect the bite to be spotty after the early as possible fishing. And being first on the lake is to gruesome for me. The last two weekends we headed to the dam area as soon as on the water, as reports said less algae. Sunday the bite was way slower than the previous weekend when we were done before 9:45. Plus the fish were 15ft down to 40ft. But no depth had a consistent bite. We never changed from the dodgers we started out with, but we had a mix. Arrows: gold, all silver, all moon jelly(UV tape), silver with UV tape. Brads dimpled UV. Orange colors worked both weekends. The small micro hootchie on my friends rod was money. Mine was to bulky I guess. The little peach glow birdy drifter has been a work horse both long lined in November and deep this month [emoji2371]. I first started using one because my buddy didn’t have any. But got some more at a garage sale. The corn is tuna corn w some Pautzkies Fire cure. Hope this helps. I goose the throttle then flat idle occasionally to get bites as we all have different rods and line types so maybe something will be running deadly. Also move to another location after trying all your tricks including same stuff but way way

back. Sometimes moving the boat and starting out with all new bait can change your luck. Add a friend into the boat even if crowded as more flash and bait can help. I had two good trips in a row and now I gave away most of my secrets, ha ha. Good luck out there.


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#308 ·
Buddy and I went to Merwin 6-23- 2020. On the water before 630 slow troll with down Riggers anywhere from 20 to 40 feet. Only got three hits one actually snapped my line. The other two were brought to the boat. Cut red and tasted Outstanding with just a basic salt pepper garlic lemon and butter on the Traeger.
 

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