It was great weather and an awesome time to be fishing on the Gorge this past weekend. Days were in the upper 70s and the wind was almost non-existent. Water temps in the afternoons are now up in the mid to upper 50s.
Rainbow fishing is good in the Canyon. The rainbows are stacked up in traditional areas but we also casted along some new shorelines and still found fish. A lot of jigs were successful including hair jigs (black and browns), tube jigs (crayfish colors) and Gulp minnows (smelt). We were more successful with the darker jigs in off-colored water and lighter jigs in clear water. We didn’t get an whoppers, but a few were about 18-inches and several were 15-16 inches. All of them were dark red meat and made for some tasty BQed vittles. Here’s a pic of one that had an interesting spotting pattern.
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We tried trolling for kokanee in several locations from the Mustang all the way up to Sheep Creek without any success (well, we caught more rainbows). By late afternoon, we found some big schools of fish near Jarvies Bay, hanging out in 40-80ft of water near cliffs. They were extremely hard to stay on top of and relocate when lost. We dropped jigging spoons and I was happily rewarded with 3 kokes, one of which was about 17-inches. It was icing on the cake. I was using a 3/8 oz Tubedude signature jigging spoon in chartreuse.
Hope it helps, Ryno
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