07-25-2006, 01:36 AM
Hey all, just thought I'd let you know how it went.
Well the weather was nice but intense, low 100's on Sat and Sun. Wasn't hard to catch Kocanee at any depth from 15ft to 80ft. Unfortunate part was that they were all small 10"-14". My experience with catching Kocanee has been with larger fish 18"-22" in the 2-4lb range. It was getting to be a nuisance they were that easy to catch. I was using 2 different Hot Spot Apex lures. One is called "Kocanne Killer" and is red on top and glow on the bottom with two trailing siwash hooks and the other was kind of a red tiger with glow bottom. They were 1" and 1.5" respectively. I also used the old tried and true Cowbells with a weddingring spinner and MAGOTS! My wife hates those little buggers. Trick with the cowbells is there needs to be some copper on them or solid copper is even better if you can fiind them. All rigs were equally productive, lost more fish on the Cowbell rig(more for the soft mouthed Kocannee to pull against).
We had over 15 caught in less than 2 hours(not counting lost fish of course) and it was time to change.
So I changed gear to try for rainbows, unfortunately same size challenged fish as with the Koke's. Fortunately the Rainbows fought alot more. Hooked up on Jakes Lure- brass w/red spots, Rapala Orange back Gold belly(hinged) and the Red Tiger Apex described above(last lure to change and picked up a rainbow so I left it, deeper) and it picked up a couple more.
So overall we fished on Sat for about 4 hours and caught many small fish all of which we put back except for a gill hooked Rainbow(we ate him with our stake dinner, Yum [cool]). I was very discourage by the size of the fish caught and when we got back to the campsite two neighboring fishermen asked how we did and having never fished there before I assumed I did poorly....Well I guess I didn't. The two other gentlemen said that the size Koke's we caught we spot on and if we caught that many we were definately doing it right. As for the Kamloops Rainbows, the big boys tend to school up and bite in the fall to early winter. So another trip may be in order.
Sunday we didn't even fish, the "Dinks" were such a hassle I'm not going back 'til I can find an "Old Timer" who will dish on how to catch the big boys any time of year.....
Overall: It was fun, is a beautiful Lake(resevoir), weather was beautiful, very few boats(competition) and the fish were biting(just not the ones I wanted [unsure])
[signature]
Well the weather was nice but intense, low 100's on Sat and Sun. Wasn't hard to catch Kocanee at any depth from 15ft to 80ft. Unfortunate part was that they were all small 10"-14". My experience with catching Kocanee has been with larger fish 18"-22" in the 2-4lb range. It was getting to be a nuisance they were that easy to catch. I was using 2 different Hot Spot Apex lures. One is called "Kocanne Killer" and is red on top and glow on the bottom with two trailing siwash hooks and the other was kind of a red tiger with glow bottom. They were 1" and 1.5" respectively. I also used the old tried and true Cowbells with a weddingring spinner and MAGOTS! My wife hates those little buggers. Trick with the cowbells is there needs to be some copper on them or solid copper is even better if you can fiind them. All rigs were equally productive, lost more fish on the Cowbell rig(more for the soft mouthed Kocannee to pull against).
We had over 15 caught in less than 2 hours(not counting lost fish of course) and it was time to change.
So I changed gear to try for rainbows, unfortunately same size challenged fish as with the Koke's. Fortunately the Rainbows fought alot more. Hooked up on Jakes Lure- brass w/red spots, Rapala Orange back Gold belly(hinged) and the Red Tiger Apex described above(last lure to change and picked up a rainbow so I left it, deeper) and it picked up a couple more.
So overall we fished on Sat for about 4 hours and caught many small fish all of which we put back except for a gill hooked Rainbow(we ate him with our stake dinner, Yum [cool]). I was very discourage by the size of the fish caught and when we got back to the campsite two neighboring fishermen asked how we did and having never fished there before I assumed I did poorly....Well I guess I didn't. The two other gentlemen said that the size Koke's we caught we spot on and if we caught that many we were definately doing it right. As for the Kamloops Rainbows, the big boys tend to school up and bite in the fall to early winter. So another trip may be in order.
Sunday we didn't even fish, the "Dinks" were such a hassle I'm not going back 'til I can find an "Old Timer" who will dish on how to catch the big boys any time of year.....
Overall: It was fun, is a beautiful Lake(resevoir), weather was beautiful, very few boats(competition) and the fish were biting(just not the ones I wanted [unsure])
[signature]