Gorge July

[KokeKiller]

I had to put in my .02 on this one seeing how my boat spends its time during the week in Lucerne dry storage and on the water every Friday Sat and Sunday from mid June to mid November. It is too easy to leave the boat, coleman trailer and all the gear at the Gorge and hop in the truck with a couple pairs of shorts and a cooler of food on Friday and run up. In any case, IFG makes some good points that I would like to add on to. First, you cant beat the smallmouth fishing during June. Plastics and light tackle gear are hoot for numerous smallmouth. Go uplake for larger fish. Stay in Utah for numbers. Second, the kokonee run shallow in June and as the summer progresses, they will go deeper and deeper. In June you can catch kokes using lead line and silver pop gear with the needlefish. Kokes in June are found at about 30 feet of water, open water. In July and August, kokes will start bunching up in deeper water. Get out the downriggers but dont drag pop gear around, use dodgers instead. Trail dodgers 50-75 feet behind the boat. Each week during the summer you will need to go 5 feet deeper. By the end of August and into September, kokes will be schooled uo from 60-70 feet in open water. Another hint: where you find kokes, you will also find Mac. Run cranks right underneath where the kokes are and you will be sure to limit on great tasting 2-5lb macs. Imitate the kokes using white or pink. Flatfish and APEX lures work well too. An option for both is to run the cranks and then stack a needlefish 15 feet above it for kokes. Catch a koke, turn around and work that school again. Again go to Utah for small fish and go to Wyoming for the larger fish. Pipeline is fine during the week but too crowded on the weekends. I like running up to Squaw Hollow, Ranchhouse and even as far as Big Bend. Now for the money fish. Macs are scattered thoughout the lake during the summer but start migrating towards Antelope flats in late summer and into Linwood during the early fall. There are spots that hold fish all year but you would need GPS or a dang good memory to find them. I fish smallmouth in June, Kokes til the weekend after Labor Day and Macs in Linwood till its time to come home. I am not the most skilled at a vertical jig presentation and have always liked trolling deep for my macs. This created a lot of hang ups at first as Linowood is filled with gravel mounds that just love big rapallas and flatfish. It took a while to figure out the mounds and how was best to work your bait into the gullys where the big ones lay. I do best working the hillside that runs east to west and working where shallow water (85 feet) falls to deeper water (120 feet). I cant give all the secrets away but will give this up, stink. You have to get your stinky bait just as close to the fish as possbile. I have caught suspended fish, fish on the bottom and fish close to the top and can only say that a reaction bite is more likly than the fish being hungry. Starts getting cold in October but water temps usually dont start falling until late October. One thing I could never figure out is Labor Day weekend? Everyone pulls their boat out of the water, loads up and goes home? Fall at the Gorge is by far the best season. Nice water temps, sunny warm days with only a hint of a breeze and cool nights and no one is there! Back to the Macs. I run a large jointed rapalla on one side and a large double jointed qwikfish on the other. Lots of patience. I trail both at different depths and lengths from the boat. Early in the Mac season I run the lures pretty tight to downriggers in response to everyone else in the bay. Later in the season I run the lures further and further behind the boat. So what are the results: Too many 5 lb kokes to count, a Big Fish picture book full of macs, some while I am in shorts with no shirt and others with full on winter gear and a foot of snow on the bow of the boat and also a ton of great memories. Gorge is my top pick. Besides that, you get to drive through Evanston and get the good beer.
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