Odell or Green Peter

[catfish125]

Buddy of mine has a boat and we both want to try trolling for kokanee for the first time. Any suggestions as to which lake? What should we use to target them? How deep are they this time of year? Any info would help as we are both rookies. Not looking for any honey holes eith just general target areas. Thanks

 

[4labs]

Never fished GP did take a drive to see it a couple of months ago and didn't like the parking at Thistle, the other ramp wasn't open but a big beautiful res.
I fish odell and launch at princess creek. Fish straight out the ramp and head straight across to rocky point. 20-40 ft on a DR and longline 100FT back with a 1-3 oz banana weight also cast jigs to jumpers .and look to see were the other boats are. Most will be on the highway side up by shelter cove jigging. Use the standard Paulina peak tackle and white wiggle hoochies also do well. Tuna mixed with shoepeg corn works. have a couple of small jigs incase its a jig bite along. Shelter cove has all kinds of gear also. Look for the Lucky Duck that's were the fish are.

 

[troutdude]

4labs gave ya some sage advice, right there.

The fish at GP are usually plentiful. But not very large either. So Odell IMO, is a better choice. Or for fat fish, head down to Wickiup.

 

[catfish125]

Thanks labs for the great info. I will let you know how it goes!

 

[4labs]

Thanks
I hope you have great time , theirs only one other thing I should say and that's use the wind forcast above all else . That dictate where and when I fish from the coast to the mountains

 

[catfish125]

Thanks Labs. What wind mph would you recommend not getting on the lake?

 

[4labs]

All depends on the boat and who you fish with. My wife hates white caps breaking over the bow and so do the labs so 10+ is the limit when they are there.My buddys drift boat really beats you up above 10 and odell can be as bad as the ocean above 15 when you have to cross it from south to north so its really up to you and how far you are from the ramp and some lakes you can find some shelter. Lemolo is the best to fish when diamond is blown out and twin is great when wickiup is howling but the coast is a whole another beast. Nearly lost my 18ft off Gold Beach and I thought I had that dialed in plus started grapping life vest on a 24ft striper when a 10+ft wave over took us once coming in. My wife saw it from the beach and started calling 911
So for me 10 with family and 15 by myself and 15 is really uncomfortable running downriggers but have seen guys in 20ft plus north rivers with no problem above 15 ( duckcross has a big boat and should commit on this).
So good luck and lets use know how you do and inc picts if you can.

 

[troutdude]

Pretty much like clock work, on GP specifically, the wind starts up about 9:30 or 10:00 everyday. It's pretty rare that there is no wind, out there.

 

[catfish125]

Sounds good I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

 

[catfish125]

Made the trip it was pretty awesome up there. Fished saturday first light till about 2pm. Weather was great all day orange and white 1 oz jigs seemed to be the ticket. Ended up getting 7 that day. The bite was hot that first hour then slowed way down. Sunday the weather was a little colder and windier. The bite was super hot that first hour putting a dozen in the boat. Bite shut down near princess so we headed closer to shelter where everyone was at. Didn't pick up anything there. Didn't really look like anyone else was either. We got off the water about 930am. Thanks for the tips! Tight lines!

 

[troutdude]

So you went to Odell, or the GP?

 

[catfish125]

Odell and had the best luck out from princess creek ramp.

 

[rogerdodger]

reports I have had are that Odell kokes are a bit smaller than usual this year, GB a bit larger than in recent years.

 

[troutdude]

Glad to hear that GP's fish are larger this year.