First of off want to say sorry it took me so long to get this report posted. Took me awhile to get all the kokes I caught brined and smoked. Deadwood was good. I was up there from June 30 to July 5. Trolling mostly for kokanee caught about 10 to 15 per day. So in the way of kokanee fishing it was semi slow. Using A willow leaf or Ford Fender most of the time. The fishing was better in the morning and the fish seemed to be about 15 to 20 ft down and i had the most luck about 50 to 100 yrds off the shoreline trolling along the shore out in the middle was slow. If your going up there soon FYI Road 555 from the banks lowman cut across is a rocky tire biter SOB of a road if you are pulling any kind of trailer take a spare tire and really its just as fast going warm lake rd and down.
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Hey, thanks for the Report.
Me and some buddy's are heading up to Deadwood in a week, first time for us, but we don't have a boat. Well one guys does but he is hesitant to take it up due to the road conditions. Anyway, what is our best options for fishing if we don't have a boat? I was thinking the inlet may be our best chance, plus there is a campground right there. But I have also heard the Dam is a good place for trout. We will have both Fly and Spincast setups with us. Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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I don't know if I welcomed you to the forum, if I haven't welcome. Thanks for the report. It seems like there are many dedicated Koke fans on this forum.
Windriver
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Deadwood is tough fishing without a boat. It's not impossible to catch some fish from the bank but it's typically a much better experience if you can get out and troll, especially since Kokanee dominate the catch most often and they're nearly impossible to connect with from shore. According to recent reports, the inlet area has been good lately. I was there last weekend and saw some bank anglers with 12-14 inch Cutts on their stringers. Deadwood is a great place to camp and swim, if you're into that. The water is unusually warm for what is basically an alpine lake. That and the fishing can be extremely good at times. Here's some evidence in picture form. I don't have a lot of details because this picture was forwarded from a friend by his friend, other than this big Rainbow was 31 inches and weighed over 11 pounds and was caught on July 12, 2009. Based on the background, it appears that they were trolling near the dam.
Good luck on your trip, I'm pretty confident that you'll add Deadwood to your list of favorite places to go after visiting.
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Well I guess we will just have to try our luck from shore around the inlet and the damn for some trout. It's mainly a guys weekend to get away from it all, so fishing will be something to pass the time.
I think I read that there are campsites along the reservoir where you can camp right next to the water, is that true?
Thanks for the welcome and all the help, I appreciate it.
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You could also consider investing some time into fishing the Deadwood river above the reservoir, if you like river fishing. There are 3 campgrounds at the reservoir and all 3 have some campsites that are right next to the water(when it's full). The water level was already beginning to drop when I was there over the weekend of 7/11 and 7/12 and the distance will increase between the campsites and the reservoir as the summer progresses. You can also go on line and reserve a camp site, which might not be a bad idea because the campgrounds tend to fill up over the weekends during this time of year. My personal favorite is Cozy Cove, but the other campgrounds are nice too. You have to reserve at least 7 days in advance and the website is called "reserveamerica.com" if you're interested. There are a bunch of primitive campsites along the river above the reservoir and on the west side of the reservoir itself too so you'll eventually find a place to camp if you're willing to do some exploring even if the campgrounds are full.
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I was just at Deadwood on July 18th. We had two boats, six people fishing and we caught 9 fish (1 Cutt, 2 Rainbows, and 6 Kokes). It was very spotty. We fished mainly wedding rings with and rooster tails about 40 yards off shore.
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