Miscellaneous Oregon Kokanee Reports 2001

Apparently Oregon is pretty much filled up. We arrived at the lake by 1:00 Friday and all the camping spots were filled up at the Marina end of the lake. We stayed at the campground at the West end, the end the wind came from that day. When we put in around 3:00 the West wind was blowing quite hard. By the time we made it down to the Boy Scout camp the swells were so large some of them broke over the back end of the boat. We were fishing with life vests on! My Wife almost did a somersault backward over the motor. But, the fish were there. My wife started with a copper and pick Vance dodger using our usual home-made orange (with glow bead) with silver spinner. I tried a Chrome Vance's dodger and a pearl Apex. Neither worked very well. So I switched to an orange spinner without the glow bead on the end. That was the ticket. With very hard and difficult fishing I managed 5 and my wife got three.

Saturday dawned clear and cold. At 6:00 AM the wind was already getting strong. But it was considerably better than it was Friday afternoon. We made straight for the Boy Scout camp area again. This time the fish were in deeper water and were running closer to 90 feet deep. My wife decided to ditch the copper and pink and go for a chrome SEP's dodger. She also switched to a orange bodied spinner without the glow bead. We both did very well and had no problem catching our limits of five fish each. The actually died down as the morning progressed. My wife ended with our biggest fish, a nice 14" buck. Sorry no pictures, it was either too windy, or the fishing was too good :-)

I fished Simtustus last Friday night and Saturday (7-20) with my friend Troy. Fishing is still slow. Troy did ok with 5 Kokanee and one fat trout. I only managed one nice Kokanee. The two important things to catch fish: 1) be on the water at first light because the bite dies at 8 am, 2) pink Hoochie. All but two of the Kokanee were nice fat fish and two were smaller but still fat. We found at that after 8 am we could catch all the trout we wanted and at all depths. Caught lots of steelhead at 70 + feet but all the Kokanee were at 50 feet.

I have seen paradise. Unfortunately there isn't much else to report. But if you want to hear more about the Wallowa Lake area keep reading. We arrived at "The Heidi House" around 6: PM. That gave us just enough time to throw our stuff down and head for the lake. We read, here on the page, to try by the swimming area by the boat ramp. Like dummies we listened to Heidi who said it was best by the dam, where the swimming area is. So we put the boat in there and trolled for a couple of hours before dark. We caught several "Dinks" of less than 7 inches using Apex's. The fish seemed to be quite thick on the finder. The heat was intense! We pulled out in time to beat darkness and check out the ramp on the South end of the lake. We were immediately greeted by several Deer. They were like pet dogs. We could pet them and they would take any food you had. Kind of a neat welcome to the best end of the lake. The boat ramps on both ends are excellent. We decided to get up early the next day to beat the heat and the jet ski's

Saturday turned out to be a very busy day for us. We started off by watching for Kirk and finding the right slot to fish. Naturally when we first spotted him, he was landing a 13"er. He reported pretty slow conditions. Little did we know just how slow it would become. We were landing 1 dink for every four of his and we averaged 1 fish over 7" every four hours of fishing. We were marking fish consistently at 90 feet and at 60 feet. For all the time we trolled at 90 feet we didn't get a single bite, so I'm wondering just what it was we were marking. It was clear by looking at the finder that we were looking at some sort of fish though. We quit fishing at 9:00 because of the intense record breaking heat.

During the day, Saturday, we discovered that the tramway lift to the top of the mountain was directly across from our cabin. So we did that and ate lunch at 8200 feet up! Needless to say, the scenery is spectacular. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. And, right around the corner are go carts, miniature golf, and stores. This place is terrific. If you're going to swim, I recommend the North end of the lake. The water is warmer there.

Sunday dawned 15 degrees cooler and some of the most perfect fishing conditions I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. Gorgeous scenery, great weather, and good company. The only thing missing was fish. We even had problems catching dinks. A breeze developed that was perfect for trolling so we started 2/3 up the lake toward the dam and rode the breeze down to the boat ramp. During the entire 6 hours of fishing we only hooked two fish over 7" and one of those got away. So we decided to pack it in and head for home. It was a great trip that could have been one of my most memorable. The state record Kokanee is still there.... waiting....for anyone willing to make the long trip.

I headed back to Lake Simtustus the last two Saturdays of June looking for a 20 inch Kokanee. As it turns out it was two completely different days on the water. The first Saturday I was on the water fishing by 8 am with a friend. We were finished by 12:30 with our 10 fish. It was one of those days where every thing goes right. We hooked 13 fish, let two go and only lost one nice Kokanee. The fish were caught with either a red/glow Apex Kokanee killer behind a Shasta Tackle nickel sling blade, or with a green/glow hoochie from R&K behind a nickel/green Vance's dodger. Shrimp scented corn was used. The fish were taken between 45 and 55 feet deep. These were all nice fish and the picture tells the story.

These fish were doing a number on my stinger hook constantly breaking the line. I then started to use a set-up that Robbie showed me that consists of sliding one of his double pointed hooks onto the shank of the first hook. This stinger hook is held in place by a small piece of stretch cord. This turns out to be a quick easy way to make a stinger hook without retying a new rig. I gave my new Kokanee rod (Shasta Tackle) a good work out and was very happy with it. The following Saturday was a complete opposite. I was on the water fishing by 8:30 with another friend and his son. I was using the exact same set-ups as before. Our first fish was a small trout caught at 45 feet. That should have been a sign. The next fish was nice Kokanee. But after that every fish we caught was a small trout. We fished until 3 pm and never had another Kokanee on and I was trying every thing I had in the box and we tried fishing all over the lake. A very disappointing day fishing, especially after the good results I had the previous weekend. Oh well, that is fishing.

I just talked with a friend who fished Wallowa lake for 3 days. Just like the other reports, the fishing was slow slow slow for the bigger fish. They did manage one fish that was 22 inches and 3+ lbs so they felt good about the trip. The locals seem to think the lake has not stratified yet and when it does they think the fishing should pick up.

Well June 14 was the first time ever the wife and I managed to catch Kokanee. What a wonderful morning's experience. We used the classical wedding band, ford fender set up along with white peg corn and a 1 1/2 ounce banana weight to bring it all down. We managed to catch 7 fish in about 2 1/2 hours. The smallest fish was about 10 inches and all averaged half a pound each. We were trolling with a fish finder and noted that 30-35 ft was where most of the fish seemed to be. I guess it was just one of those good mornings since others were having good luck still fishing.

This report submitted by Ramon

We went fishing at Wallowa for five days from 6/8 to 6/12. It was just about as bad as it gets. A big weather front dropped sleet, snow and rain. A couple of days later the weather really improved but not the fishing. I tried everything in the box at depths from top to bottom with the same miserable results: a few very small koks like 7 to 9 in. Only thing worse than the fishing was the b.s. I got from many of the local sources. Altho, one honest guy at the Sports Corral admitted this has been a slow yr. so far. I checked with fishermen at both ramps and on the water daily and found no one else doing any good. Maybe it will improve later as every thing has been late over here this yr. My advice: Don't go all the way over there unless you're going for the scenery and other attraction which are good enough to make up for the poor fishing.

Went up to Suttle on the evening of Mon. 6/3. Fished Tues. and Wed. Caught six on Tuesday. Got out on the lake about 6am. Started trolling out from Blue Bay CG up towards the buoys. Down 40ft with my downrigger in 60-70ft of water. Had small dodger and a homemade wedding ring baited with worm and red egg. Hooked first koke after about 15mins. Fish seemed pretty scattered. Fished until 10:00 when the wind really started blowing with 4 kokes. Waited till around 4-5 for the wind to die down. Still pretty windy, but went out anyway. Caught 2 more before giving up trying to fish and steer the boat into the @#&*#@ wind.

Got back on the lake Wed at 6:00am again. Wind not too bad. Trolled around same area and picked up a couple more Kokes. Several boats trolling, and still fishing/jigging at the SW end of the lake. Decided to troll up that
way for awhile. Fishfinder showing more fish, but the ones I saw them pulling out looked quite a bit smaller than the 11"ers I got at the other end of the lake. Depth in this are was about 10-20ft shallower. Trolled through area a couple of times at 30-35ft and landed one which was about 2-3" smaller than I caught earlier. Drifted back towards the east end again and picked up a couple more 11"ers. Finally gave up around noon. Wind was blowing so hard again I couldn't even turn boat back into the wind!!!! No real concentrations of fish except for smaller sized ones on the west end. Just sort of scattered throughout the lake, and different depths. First time I have fished Suttle from a boat. I think I would have had a lot better luck if the wind wasn't such a problem. Looking forward to getting back up there to try it again.

Fished Haystack May 30. There were three of us. We caught 2 of the planted trout about 10" just out of the first ramp by the speed bouy. And good size trout out near the swimming platform. That was it - no other bites. Was using a green wedding ring and corn. Seems really slow there - talked to another guy who had been there several times and had caught nothing. I guess we were king of the lake that day!

My wife and I fished Wallowa Lake on May 17-19. The first evening, we jigged some and cast buzz-bombs along the NE shoreline. We caught some dink Kokanee 7"-8" and one 16" rainbow which put up a dandy scrap. On Saturday, we trolled with flashers and Apexes in the late afternoon. We tried all depths down to 40ft, but caught only 7"-8" fish about as fast as we could re-rig. I went out alone early Sunday and caught several 13"-14" Kokes by casting a 2" fluorescent buzz-bomb, letting it sink to a count of ten, then jigging it back to the boat. Again, we tried the trolling thing in the late morning, but soon tired of the small fish. A Sheriff's Deputy told me about a spot close to the Marina where he said large Kokanee held in about 90ft of water. In the evening, we decided to give the spot a try. We caught several nice fish, again in the 13"-14" range, with my wife picking up a nice 17 1/2" Kokanee. We used 2 1/2" buzz-bombs because of the deep(85-110ft) water, with fl. red again the best color, tipped with either shoepeg corn or maggots. A reliable local source told me that a couple of local fishermen were regularly getting into the larger Kokanee by running their downriggers at a depth of 110ft, using dodgers and Apexes tipped with maggots. The lake is lower than normal with water temps also below normal for this time of the year (under 50 degrees at the surface). I'll be heading back up in mid July and hope to find some bigger fish. By the way, these fish don't hold a candle to the fish in the Cascade lakes as far as eating quality is concerned. Good fishing.

Fished Wallowa Lake 5/11 through 5/14. The first two days were a little tough going for us. All we could find were the 8" dinks. We either caught the same fish about 23 times or those fish don't vary by 1/4 of an inch! Everyone we talked to seemed to be doing about the same as us.
On the morning of day 3 we decided it was time to try something different. We ran into one of the local experts and decided to follow him to see if he knew where the bigger fish were. Not long after we began trolling, we watched him net a fish that was definitely larger than any we had seen caught thus far. Shortly thereafter we caught our first keeper, a nice 14"er. We ended up trolling back and forth along about a half mile stretch. We never made a pass when we didn't pick up at least 1 fish. We finally boated the last of our 10 fish limit at about 3:30. The fish ranged in size from 12" to just a little over 16" with the majority in the 13 - 15" range. We caught fish on dodgers and spinners trailed by apexes and wedding rings. We used plain corn, scented corn, and maggots. The fish didn't really seem to have a preference of any particular combination. The real issue was location. Water temperatures while we were there ranged from 42 to 48 degrees. It was one of the few times I've ever seen kokanee NOT jump! A word to the wise: Don't be fooled by all those marks on your fish finder. We kept telling ourselves that there had to be a bigger one in there or that we would fish under them because the fish we marked at 80' had to be the big ones. WRONG! We caught all of our fish right next to the shore in 25 - 75' of water and rarely marked any fish on the finder.
The last day we fished until noon and picked up 8 more in the same size range as the previous day. The bite was steady early, but tapered off the last hour and a half.

This report submitted by Kris

Fished Suttle Lake this past weekend and had a great time. The weather was great and the fishing was good. We caught fish both jigging with buzz bombs and bait fishing with corn and worms. We did much better at the east end of the lake just off the day use area in 40 to 50 feet of water. The fish were running 10 to 12 inches with three hitting 13 inches. The two of us caught 36 fish in a day and a half and one nice brown trout as a bonus. We are going back up on Memorial weekend to try our luck again.

This report submitted by Andy

I teamed up with Robbie of R & K spinners for the tournament. We tried to pre-fish the evening before the BBQ and talks. To make a short story shorter, we had not even a bump. But after talking with John Ward about his conversation with the fish biologist, we decided to head up to the boom and at the head of the lake and work our way down as the day progressed.

We made it up to the boom by 6 am and set-up our downriggers, me with an Apex and Robbie with one of his hoochies. We spotted no action from the jiggers after several passes around the upper area so headed down the narrows looking for something on the fish finder. Robbie was playing musical lure trying to find the one that would work. Finally we spotted a fish being caught by a long liner so we figured the fish must be too shallow to spot on the finder. Taking information gleaned from Phil Johnson We raised our downrigger balls to 10 feet and let 75 to 100 ft of line out before attaching it to the release. That was the ticket. We had to work at it but soon we were into a fish every now and then. The Apex was more productive in the morning, but later in the day Robbie's hoochies were hot. We lost some nice fish besides the two nice ones we landed and if I would have switched to a hoochie sooner I am sure we would have landed more fish. Our fish were the 1st and 3rd largest of the derby.

Not much else to add except second what John Ward mentioned about this lake being difficult to fish. The Kokanee are worth the challenge and I will be back to try and find a 20 incher.

This report submitted by Brian

     I fished this impoundment for the first time in the derby sponsored by the Marina there (Abby's Concession). This is an unusual koke fishery in that this impoundment is long, narrow and is always flowing to varying degrees, depending on the outflow from below Round Butte Dam (which backs up Lake Billy Chinook).
     Now, for the "rest of the story": On Fri. I trolled with Robbie Thorsen (of R&K Spinners) for several hours and only got one good bite with a long-line release. We managed to hook-up with the bottom and some branches too often. We returned without any fish. The only fish I saw caught were some rainbows trolled up on a shallow long-line setup. Most fish marked on my finder were hugging the bottom. Saturday, my wife and I were trolling as contestants in the derby. We trolled deep (40 to 70 ft) for the most part. I got one 16 in. koke at 70 ft on a copper and pink spinner. After no more trolling action, I stopped to jig Nordics off the bottom where I was seeing the most fish. I had several hits and one nice koke almost up to the boat which came undone. Then the wind came up with some heavy gusts that ended effective jigging. We came back to weigh-in at 2 pm. with the one koke. Yahoo! I found I didn't have to be embarrassed as few kokes were caught. I heard the champs were Brian Russell and Robbie who came in first and second, respectively. I'm sure there perspective on this derby will soon follow.
     The bigger rainbows were large but in spawning condition. Simtustus, as I mentioned earlier, is a unique koke fishery with a big learning curve...at least, for me. The big deal is to run (at 10 mph.) all the way up to the log booms below the spillway and arrive early (like 5:30) and cast jigs into the area beyond the logs. Do this until all three turbines kick in; then troll down thru the narrows as the fish follow the current downstream. During this period the fish should be suspended with a shallow troll sufficient. The marina and campgrounds are very nice and well-managed. Randy and Kathy are the concessionaires who are great hosts and very helpful. I look forward to a derby here next year, maybe a little later than early May when it can very cold. A really beautiful setting in the Deschutes canyon with nice sized kokes. I will be back to try again.

Fished Haystack reservoir for the first time Saturday. We were on the water around 12:30 and fished until 6:00. One rod was fished on a downrigger and the other was long lined with ford fenders. An arm load of terminal tackle was used with out success for Kokanee. We only managed one 12" brown on a R & K spinner on the rod long lining. Marked fish, and saw two fish landed by another boat that looked like nice sized Kokanee. Pretty slow day but a least the weather was warm.

The ramp at the west end, water skiing end, is open. I have seen some boats fishing but have not talked to anyone.

This report submitted by Leroy