Suttle Lake still producing 10/4 & 5

[bernduffy]

I was glad to get back to this wonderful lake 10/4&5 after a memorable week long campaign last summer. The number of kokanee, brown trout and rainbows is staggering. I had to turn off my fish finder alarm (which by the way is set to go off only upon detecting large fish) because it was so annoying...wow!
I caught a couple of dozen kokanee and kept 7 larger for good smoker fare. They are darkening and the males showed full milt for spawning.
I don't target browns after discovering how wily they are. I think they are the smartest fish around. I take my hat off to the very talented, long persevering fly anglers I saw hunting them. Heard of some very nice catches.
Maybe I have a touch of ADHD, but I prefer the plentiful koke action, which I got a lot of. Had a very high percentage of lost take downs, maybe 50%. I think most of those were smaller fish. I have already smoked up the catch and they are like candy. I am impressed at how far into the fall you can still catch eatable kokanee.
Two further mentions: Yes, power boats are still blasting around the lake from 10 - 5. And: The restroom had a pathetic little sign: "This Campground is closed due to a temporary lapse in government funding"...but everything was open. Go figure.

 

[FishFinger]

I also have come to enjoy Suttle lake. My wife and I were also there on Friday but our results were much different. In previous visits this season the Kokes were as thick as thieves with large brown seemingly everywhere below the hordes of Kokanees.

However Fridays visit left me scratching my Mellon wondering "Who let the fish out". My only thought was to quote Jase Robertson "They gone".

We were on the lake @ 7:00 am, launching near Link Creek. We opted to target brown trout, but we didn't mark anything more than a spattering of fish, not large schools as in weeks prior. We searched nearly the entire lake from depths of 3' to 60' and from Lake Creek to Link Creek seeing nadda.

After reading your report I'm having a real lack of faith in my fish finder; although the hundreds is Kokanee we have canned to date would suggest I should trust it....

We've never been skunked fishing Suttle, aside from last Friday that is.

We both used the restroom near the cleaning station, it was open but the aroma suggested a pumping was needed.

Thanks for your report, my fish finder and I are going to have a serious discussion about it's proformance, otherwise I might introduce it to my friend; the framing hammer.

 

[bernduffy]

On Friday (from 1:30-4:30) I found them bunched up tight in the NW quadrant of the lake. On Saturday, the NW quadrant was completely fish-free, leaving me with that same question: "Who let the fish out?" But after searching, found the whole herd stretching across the middle of the lake in the 40-55 foot depths, cruising the entire water column. They seem to school up and move together.
Before you take the FF to the woodshed with framing hammer in hand: we've all had days where we just somehow missed the area where the prey are playing hide and seek. Also remember that your FF has a relatively narrow cone and really can only give you a look at maybe 10% of the water.
Now if you'd like to visit my computer with that hammer, be my guest...!

 

[jamisonace]

Great report. I have yet to catch my first kokanee and I've tried. One of the most plentiful fish around and I can't get one to bite!

 

[FishFinger]

Bernduffy, I told my wife about your Suttle report. After a moment of silence... "But... We didn't catch anything" she replies; followed by "Is the fish finder broken".

The 10 degree cone of coverage makes sense. I'll bet your right I simply didn't "find" them.

Her distrust in our ff stems from my Giligan moment, when once on Prineville Res, I mistook the demo screen for functional sonar. I was excited to tell her "Oh big fish at 30'" just seconds before our prop sank into the mud in 2 feet of water at the far east end of the Res.

Oooops.... Of course I promptly blamed the electronics.

So as you can see our ff can't be trusted and maybe Christmas will fix that!