Smith Morehouse 3/27/21

[MrShane]

Went up to Smith and Morehouse today, was a great day.
Road was decent in morning but lots of exposed road base on the way back, good thing I added UHMW plastic runners on my shanty a few weeks ago.
Mostly sunny and only a couple little 8/9 mph gusts in afternoon.
Caught about 15 Kokes, about 10 Bows, and only one Grayling.
Bite really went nuts from about 10am till noon, but still tough to hook and really had to pay attention to the strike (especially the Kokes, the Bows would usually commit pretty good).
Used small jigs with mealworms, also used some Gulp maggots for an experiment and the mealies outfished the maggots but just by a small margin.
I was the only one up there for the first two hours or so and was too chicken to cross the lake ( sorry Kent, but I do appreciate your tips).
I drove down the ramp, went about 200 yrds to the south and set up in 21 fow.
I never moved from first hole.
Ice about 27-28” but has a layer of about 2-3” of water about 6” under the ice, could get ugly soon.
Two trucks actually drove up to and beyond the reservoir.
Snow depths do not bode well for boating this year...

[doitall5000]

How big were the kokanees? That's very shallow water to find kokanees.

[Kent]

I'm glad you had a good trip. Better to be cautious than to risk your life, under those circumstances. Sounds like ice-fishing season is about over up there.

[wiperhunter2]

Went up to Smith and Morehouse today, was a great day.
Road was decent in morning but lots of exposed road base on the way back, good thing I added UHMW plastic runners on my shanty a few weeks ago.
Mostly sunny and only a couple little 8/9 mph gusts in afternoon.
Caught about 15 Kokes, about 10 Bows, and only one Grayling.
Bite really went nuts from about 10am till noon, but still tough to hook and really had to pay attention to the strike (especially the Kokes, the Bows would usually commit pretty good).
Used small jigs with mealworms, also used some Gulp maggots for an experiment and the mealies outfished the maggots but just by a small margin.
I was the only one up there for the first two hours or so and was too chicken to cross the lake ( sorry Kent, but I do appreciate your tips).
I drove down the ramp, went about 200 yrds to the south and set up in 21 fow.
I never moved from first hole.
Ice about 27-28” but has a layer of about 2-3” of water about 6” under the ice, could get ugly soon.
Two trucks actually drove up to and beyond the reservoir.
Snow depths do not bode well for boating this year...

Great report Shane, I'll have to say it is the best one I've read this year, as far as how many kokes you caught.  Were the kokes coming through in big schools?

[MrShane]

Initially I was bummed out to only be in 21 fow, I tried to judge the steepness of the exposed bank to get in at least 40 fow.
The reservoir is super low and I wonder what max depth right now is anyway, those poor fish might not be able to get much deeper...
They were just little guys, maybe 12” or so is all.
The Koke bite was superb, my first fish was a Koke and it just kept getting better and better.
The best part was a few of those little silver bullets came flying out of the hole about a foot in the air.
10am-noon was on fire but even up until I left about 1:15 pm it was still consistent.
I would get hit on every drop, just tough to get a hook in them.
I’m sure some of them were swatting at it, I foul hooked two.
It is very exciting, after catching about 15 or so fish the regular way, to foul hook a little Koke in the tail.
Yes, they were coming through in schools.

[wiperhunter2]

That is actually a good sized koke for a smaller lake like that. You could be right about the depth where you were fishing, in the Summer it is deeper towards the dam but with the lake being so low, it might not be much deeper that 21' where you were fishing. I have seen people catch kokes as shallow as 8 FOW, so 21' doesn't seem to shallow to me and of course the results speak for themselves.

[Kent]

... in the Summer it is deeper towards the dam...

Only in the summer?

[wiperhunter2]

... in the Summer it is deeper towards the dam...

Only in the summer?

Maybe, I can't confirm it because I have never fished there in the Winter but what you are saying makes sense, the dam area is likely always deeper in any lake.