Wiperslayer and I got up to The Nelle today, arriving at 6 am and were on the water fishing by 6:30. We noticed this boat on dry dock right after launching, looked like they had a nice 4th until they were grounded.
Water temp was 70 degrees and got up to 72 before we left around 12:30. We started off near the dam but had no luck there, so we moved East, no luck there either, so we headed back toward the dam and just before we got there, we caught our first koke of the day. We ended up with three at that spot all between 15 to 17". We headed back East again and found another location where they were biting and we caught 3 more about the same size as the first three. We thought we had it figured out but then that location also stopped producing, we moved back toward the dam again lost a few but no more in the boat, so we headed East again. Most of the kokes had been caught at 25 to 35 fT with pink squid. The power squad had arrived in force by this time, around 10 am and the waves were getting pretty bad but we continued on, picking up our last two before 11 am. This was when we made a mistake, letting one of the two go because it was only 11". The power squad continued to get worse and worse with them getting closer and closer, we continued to get hits but no solid hookups. Finally it was getting too much, with the waves and heat, so we decided it was time to call it quits a little after noon, we were planning on heading in at the end of the route, when our last fish of the day hit and Ira reeled in a nice 19 incher. Tough day out there, the Nelle really made us work for our limits today but the rumors of its demise proved to be just that, rumors but the fish are really hard to locate with no real schools found today.
It is very good to hear of more success on kokes at Jordy. It appears that there are far fewer and much more localized. It has been much tougher to catch them this year compared to the last 3 for sure. A buddy I fish with tried several tried and true spots that produced in past years with no luck a few days back.
He finally located an area where some kokes were willing to play and boated 6 mostly in the 15 to 16 inch range not fast but managed to get some.
So it seems there are still some that have survived all the toothy critters in there, but all the predators seem to be having an impact on the numbers of kokes.
The recent reports are encouraging. I want to check out the spawning run this fall to see how it compares to past years, when I have checked the river.
I was up there today as well and managed to scratch out a limit. Biggest topped out at a hair over twenty. Released several under 12s. Glad to see them and hope to catch them next year. Hyperplaid dodgers pink and white squids and speed was 1.8 to 2. Tried orange as that usually works well but no takers. Fish for me were hanging around mid 30s depth. I have noticed that the Rock Arm fishes better early and the main bay at entrance to arm fishes better towards 10am or so. Did mark a couple of schools but fish are still scattered. Makes for some long trolling runs and lots of S curves. All my fish hit the rod that was accelerating during turns. May kick up the speed next time. As usual bows were around but mostly at 20 foot depths.
Question for you Koke hunters. Do you bait your rigs with corn ?? Seems that everything I read about them says to sweeten your rig with corn !! Never seen anyone mention that .
Regarding the beached boat. I’ll bet that they just hook up to the bow and pull it off with another big boat. Having the bow towards the water will be a big advantage. I would like to hear the story on how it got there !!
