Lakes Green Peter Reservoir Fishing Reports

OregonNative · Jul 20, 2011

GP Kokanee Update 7-20-11

GP Kokanee Update 7-20-11

GP Kokanee Update for 7-20-11.

Went to GP again today and fished jigs by the boom down at the dam. A few other boats caught a half dozen, but we were skunked.

There were plenty of fish between 40 and 70 feet. The fish finder was beeping constantly! Boy I would sure like to learn the secret of catching these fish:think:

bernduffy · Aug 14, 2011

The only advice I can give is keep changing terminal tackle and or bait until it works. And start early. I remember one day at GP when all they wanted was something orange; didn't matter what is was, as long as it was orange it got hit. Until the bite shut off at about 9am. Next week...you guessed it: anything but orange!
But if between those several boats there were say 8 rods working the booms and only 6 caught, that's really slow...not sure anything would have helped. Some times they're just not interested...dang it. Remember that kokanee only eat plankton, so the fact that we can get them to strike at all is kind of amazing.
I'm trying to get down there this week so I'll post my results.

bernduffy · Aug 17, 2011

Hit the beach by the dam at 8 am. I'm in a pontoon powered by an electric motor so wherever I put in, I can't stray too far from that point. So I trolled the area by the dam. Three boats were jigging by the booms. A couple of trolling boats came through and left. Man, was it quiet. The fish finder was marking occasional individual fish (some of good size) but no schools. I threw the entire tackle bag at them: different dodgers, trolls, hootchies, wedding rings, dick nights, apex, 3 different kinds of corn etc. I got one strong hit on an orange apex kokanee killer, but that was it for the morning. Water 71 deg. Wind picked up around 11 but was not too bad. After my truck nap, I joined the poor souls at the booms for afternoon jigging. Now we're marking good numbers of fish...25 -55 feet down. Everyone is getting bumps, then finally a couple of fish are caught and a couple lost. My lost fish was kind of strange: I was counting pulls then noticed my line piling up on the surface. Hmm, what's up with that? I reel in, feeling absolutely nothing, just a little extra weight. When I get the lure to the surface, I notice a 10" kokanee is hanging on the hook, lying on it's side, not moving. Gee, it sure gave up fast, no fight at all. (Yeah, right: I'm sure you see what's coming.) So I lead it to the net..and at the very moment it touches the net - it explodes...tail walks out of the net, goes under, jumps 2 feet in the air, lands on top of the boom, flops onto the other side...and shakes the hook loose. You've got to be kidding... The good news was that I now knew what they wanted: a little white lead jig with red eyes tipped with shrimp/anise corn. Stuck with that, got more bumps, then landed another 10". Very dark back means they're turning.
Which means they are probably moving to the spawning areas. Next time I'll put in at Thistle and head up the arms. What was strange was to see so many fish and have so few landed. They just weren't biting. Still, I love GP during the week and will definitely get back before koke season is over.

troutdude · Aug 17, 2011

Nice report. Your day sounds atypical for the season up there this year.

Do you suppose those "good size" fish might be chinokanee? Just a thought...

bernduffy · Aug 17, 2011

Yeah, just might be remnants of the chinook stocking from years back. I'll change tactics for those big sonar shadows and let you know what happens. I also know that the wind blows plankton toward the island end of the reservoir, so the kokes school up more in that end. But those were definitely decent kokanee schools at the dam in the late afternoon. Yet all we got was one fish per rod for 4 hours...not good...but all the bumps kept us in the game. One of us was a GP regular who has had many days in the 15-25 range. He was just baffled.

troutdude · Aug 17, 2011

A 25" koke from GP? No foolin? I've not heard of them getting that big up there. That would be awesome.

I'm gonna hit in October with another OFF'er for those chinokanee. The other feller got into them good last year in the fall...in the upper end. And, I've seen them in Quartzville Creek in the early spring (some 25 years ago). The ones I saw were easily 5+ pounders! (Or were those just BIG kokes? IDK)

bernduffy · Aug 17, 2011

Sorry for the misunderstanding: I meant he'd caught 15 to 25 kokanee a day. I heard of a 19" koke from GP.

troutdude · Aug 17, 2011

Whoops. My bad. I misread that.

I have indeed heard of them up to 19".

Oh well, maybe some of those chinokanees are 25"? Hmmm........

OregonNative · Apr 29, 2012

We went to Green Peter today to see if we could get into any Kokanee, but we ended up totally skunked

. The fishing seemed slow for everyone we spoke with, but a few were caught here and there. To add to our woes our fish finder went out on us, then the engine's mixture adjustment control broke on our way in for the day. Fortunately we were less than a mile from Thistle Ramp and made it back with our electric motor. Then to top it off, one of the rear tie-downs broke when securing the boat to the trailer

.

On the bright side, I could not ask for a nicer day. Sun was out, and even when the wind picked up around 1 pm, it never did blow all that hard like it can on that lake. If I didn't have poles to watch and a boat to steer, I would have just rocked to sleep. We did make it back to the ramp ok, and had a safe drive home. All and all a good day.

The surface water temperature was 56 degrees. Before our fish locator broke, we were marking fish mostly from 90' - 150', which is weird because everyone we spoke with said they are catching at 25' to 40' for the few they did catch.

troutdude · Apr 30, 2012

Wow. Murphy's Law wouldn't let go of you yesterday! Good for you; for sticking with it in spite of the rotten luck.

This time of year, I use a flat lined trolling rig. No deeper than 20 - 30'. Its a great way to pick up some 'bows with an occasional koke in the mix. On GP--in early spring--I find it better to target the bows. Kokes are a surplus. All of the fish are spread out, in cooler water.

Hope you have better mechanical luck next time out--and some fish in your cooler.

indyflyer · May 1, 2012

Two of us were at GP on Friday, fishing was slow but we picked up a kokanee and a couple of trout each. What was a surprise was my first fish:

I learned a new technique for bass: wedding ring tipped with corn! She was 18 1/2", and returned to the lake to populate more big bass.
My lone Koke:

Sorry to hear about your mechanical problems, we avoid such things by fishing from kayaks.

JeannaJigs · May 1, 2012

Holy crap batman did we bypass may and already get to the end of June?!!

I keep meaning to fish up there but get distracted by the river below there.

troutdude · May 2, 2012

Nice Bass!

jaxworks · May 20, 2012

We stayed at the Whitcom Creek campground and tried our luck at Kokanee for a few days. Since we didn't have downriggers like all the locals we only got 3 as they were at at 35 feet or below. Hard to stay on that depth flatlining. The trout gods smiled on us as we got about 35 and the weather was perfect. The lake was even flat in the afternoon on 2 days. We worked some of the shorter arms and had good luck the whole time. The resident female mallard duck flew over and we fed her for awhile. Slept in the ole Bayliner so didn't have pitch a tent. Man, retirement is great!!

capblack · Mar 24, 2013

fished today from 7 am until 3 pm. 12 fish in the boat, and we lost at least that many. fished 5 rods 2 on the downriggers and 3 longlining. 3/4 oz and about 100 ft back. pink wedding rings and hootchies for the most part gold and watermelon dodgers. beautiful day on the lake, the wind didn't kick up until we were about ready to leave. the fish were all 9 to 11 inches. the water is creaping up on the high water ramp, the toe is under 3 or 4 ft of water, but the low water ramp is still usable

C_Run · Mar 25, 2013

Cool. Were the fish very deep? Hope to get up there soon and try out the arsenal of gear I've been picking up to see what's going to work.

capblack · Mar 25, 2013

didn't mark very many fish, but i picked up a few around 10 to 20 ft on the downriggers, and most were caught on the longlines

C_Run · Apr 10, 2013

Fished ten hours yesterday. Caught one and lost one before 4:00 and then encountered a hot bite and ended up with 6 but had many drive-bys and long distance releases. They were biting very lightly but biting. Biggest was 14". Was fishing approx. 20' deep with a hootchie spinner and fire corn.

capblack · Apr 10, 2013

C_Run said:
Fished ten hours yesterday. Caught one and lost one before 4:00 and then encountered a hot bite and ended up with 6 but had many drive-bys and long distance releases. They were biting very lightly but biting. Biggest was 14". Was fishing approx. 20' deep with a hootchie spinner and fire corn.

are you using a double hook setup? what size hooks? i like to use #4 gamis most of the time, but this early in the year, i think #6 hooks lead to less drive-bys.

C_Run · Apr 10, 2013

I just used a Rocky Mt. super squid, off the shelf with a double hook. This was the first time I went this year and only the fourth trip I've made for kokanee. I had a higher success rate last year, I believe. It was exciting to have things heat up at the end of a long day. A couple of the ones I lost at the net were operator error with the net and should have been in the boat. I'm learning little by little.