Wickiup Reservoir 06/30/12 – 07/04/12
After fishing the Kokanee Power of Oregon Derby on June 16th I was looking forward to heading back to Wickiup Reservoir ASAP. I wanted to head back not because the fishing was red hot, but because the size of the fish was unbelievable. These are the biggest kokanee I have had on my boat and with some of them pushing 20inches and 2 ½ pounds I just couldn’t wait to get back and start fishing again.
The wife and I headed out on Saturday June 30th to Gull Point to try and catch a few more Wickiup Monsters. My expectation was that the kokanee would have dropped down the water column and would be hanging out in the two main river channels, but what I found was that they were still right on top 10 feet of the water which gave them lots of area to hide in. Fishing kokanee on the top of the water column can be a very challenging aspect of kokanee fishing. Not having the ability to see kokanee on the fish finder you have a hard time finding them, you can’t tell if your tackle is going in front of the fish and they just aren’t hitting it, or if you have exactly what they want but you’re just fishing a dead spot of the lake with no fish. We picked up a few fish everyday but never got the big numbers I was hoping for. By talking with my camping neighbors after each day of fishing I was able to figure out that the fish wanted a 2 ¼ hoochie in orange and pink, as well as a Clown R & K hoochie, which I will have on the my store front shortly.
I was fishing four rods during this trip with my two top rods 80 feet back flat lining and with my bottom rods 100 feet back and three feet down on the downrigger. In order to keep my top rods from surfacing I put on a heavier dodger from Mack Lures called a, “Double D Dodger” in the 4.4” size with silver tape. I normally don’t fish these dodgers because of their weight and extra drag, but I have had good luck with them when flat lining because of their weight keeping my tackle down in the water plus by using them correctly you can fish them out away from your boat because of the four different settings on this dodger. The size and fight of a Wickiup kokanee makes me coming back for more every year and with hopes of bigger fish next year I’m sure I’ll be spending more time next year fishing one of Oregon’s top kokanee lakes.
UPDATE: 08/02/12
I have gotten word from my friend Brian Russell that at this point the fish have dropped in the water column and are hanging out in the Deschutes arm. The fishing has really picked up over the past couple of weeks using Pink and Orange hoochies. I will warn you that the fish quality normally goes downhill after the first couple weeks of July, but I’m still going to fishing it on 08/04/12 so I can video tape the adventure. I’ll keep my fingers crossed in hopes that if I smoke them the fish will still taste ok. Brian told me that they still taste fine, and he has been picking up limits on his boat the last three trips so I can’t pass up the opportunity to pick up some more “Wickiup Monsters“.
Fish On kokaneekid