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Went up to the Gorge on Thursday with Sockeyeslayer. We met up with another friend in Mountain View and off to the lake at mach speed to get on the water as soon as possible. We took Sockeyeslayer's boat and as always he was a gracious host. We got on the lake Thursday evening along with a very minimal but very cold breeze. The fishing was slow to say the least so back to the parking lot to spend the night.
Friday we woke to a cold morning and got on the lake to find the fishing slow again. We did end up getting into a handful of kokanee and a couple of trout before the day was through. The kokanee were nice sized for this time of year. We fished throughout the day and ended the day with a bar-b-q of some fish and steak. There's not much better than a fresh grilled kokanee that was pulled from the lake not 30 minutes before cooking it.
Saturday morning we got into the kokanee within the first 2 minutes of putting our lines in the water and had some quick action for about an hour before the fish got lock jaw. It was cold again this morning and with the water on the deck of the boat turning to ice it felt like an ice skating rink before it ended up warming up beautifully. We fished for most of the day and picked up a couple small kokes and rainbows before we headed home.
All in all a great trip with beautiful weather and great company. It sure makes it hard to come back to work after a weekend of fishing. I think our total was just over 20 kokanee and just under a dozen trout with one dinker laker included. Once again the Shasta cripplure kicked butt and caught the most fish out of everything we threw at them. The fish size for this early was encouraging and should make for some great sized fish later in the summer when the koke's really start hitting.
I put some pictures along with the post to show some of the fish as well as what the kokanee meat looked like after it was filleted. I have more pictures and if I have time I will add them to this post later.
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Nice Kokes ! What part of the lake were you fishing ? Is the cripplure similar to the wedding ring? We were there Mon- Wed last week and the kokes were real slow. We picked up 2 lakers (17 & 22 Lbs.) and a few rainbows on the shallow rod. But only 1 koke in 3 days.
Looks good up there though. Its nice to see the lake filling up.
We fished out of Buckboard the first 2 days and all the flooded brush might help the bass alot.
Rainbows are real healthy right now...
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Thanks for the update, and the cool pics. How deep were you marking the kokes?
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TKB, we caught kokanee anywhere from 40 feet to just running a cripplure long lined out of the boat.
We launched out of Lucerne but fished pipeline, anvil, hideout, and several other places in between. The cripplure is nothing like a wedding ring and is made by Shasta, go to shastatackle.com, to see some cripplures and to see Gary's funny face. The beauty of fishing with sockeyeslayer is he knows the Gorge inside and out and is a rep for Shasta so we get all the gear to fish with that we want. We caught most fish on the cripplure's as well as one or two on other Shasta products. We also had good results using the Shuttle Hawk to double stack on the down riggers which is nice. It's nice being able to have five or six poles out of one boat.
We never fished for Mac's but some day I would love to get up there to try for some monster mac. We met fishley on the lake a couple times and picked his brains a bit. He and his father, who by the way supports a pathetic english soccer team (ManU), know the big macs pretty good and have it down to a science.
Can't wait to get away from work again to get up to the Gorge.
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We played more in the channel than we did in the shallows. We did a lot better there on Friday than we did Saturday. We only went inside the buoys once or twice. Is that where you guys were picking them up? We saw a school or two by the wall opposite the beach but couldn't get a consistent bite out of the school.
So what happened with that little work tournament you guys were fishing on Saturday? Any more good fish out of the group? How's the knee and how long until it is back to somewhat normal?
Go Chelsea!!!!!!!!!!!!!![laugh]
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We like to double up the sling blades about 18 to 24 inches in front of a cripplure. It works like a charm and you can still feel the fish fight. I have to agree the shuttle hawk is a great little gadget. It's nice getting two lines on one down rigger and when you catch a fish on either line you can keep the second line in the water while you deal with the "FISH ON"
I would definitely recommend the sling blades and cripplure combo. Fish4life, what experience have you had with the shuttle hawks and cripplures?
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well we are in 1st 3rd on lake trout and second on brown's and 3rd on bow's we kicked butt.ya we stayed against the wall and made a few passes around the bouy's but thay seemed to be tight to the wall and we were useing only needle fish in green and orange tiped with a mealy seamed to work good just had to slow down a lot.well got to go heading to the big city to see if I can go back to work but I dont think I will be able to go back just yet a couple more week's the theropy is kicking my butt hope to see ya guy's soon fish on...
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Thanks for the reply and good job on the tournament. Good luck with the knee and therapy. At least it didn't affect your fishing too much.
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Look for my boat this weekend I will be back up with my brother and another guy and we'll be chasing fish Thursday night through saturday night give me a call on the radio if your out!
SOCKEYESLAYER
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Well I have been using the cripplure/sling blade como for just a year but last summer was my best.... And the shuttle hawk was heaven sent.... I'll bet my average is 3 or 4 fish off my shuttle hawk compaired to 1 off my ball... And the great thing is that once your done fighting the fish the little ol' SH is waiting for another go!
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I couldn't have said it better myself. The shuttle hawk does save a lot of fishing time and works like a charm.
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I bought 2 shuttle hawks but havent put them into use yet... Guess its timeto do so !
2 sling blades ? Hooked directly together ? Both forward ?
Interesting !!!
This has been a constant point of debate between a friend and I...
How far behind the riggerball / shuttlehawk do you guys go ?
(I'm asking specifically about The Gorge.)
Thanks,
Dink
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Yes, two sling blades hooked directly together with the 18 to 24 inch leader behind them tied onto the swivel of the back sling blade. I think depth has a lot to do with how far back you put your baits behind the rigger ball. The deeper your are I think the closer you can put your stuff to the rigger ball. I normally will let the sling blades and cripplures out 100 to 200 feet behind the boat before hooking into the riggers.
You will have to talk with sockeyeslayer to get more details on this next point of interest and I'm sure he can give you more details on depths and distances of putting your lures out. If anyone went to the Shasta tackle booth at the ISE show they had a tv set up showing a kokanee following a cripplure. Again, I don't know all the details but they have a down rigger with a camera set up so you can watch your lures in the water and you can watch the fish follow and hit the lure. It's pretty cool to watch. When they do this you can put your lure almost directly hooked into your downrigger ball. I know a lot of people do this anyways and have good success. I am no expert on downrigging or trolling so I hope my limited information helps.
I will include a picture of sockeyeslayer with a koke he caught this last trip. You can't see really well the cripplure or the sling blades he has on his shoulder but I hope it kind of gives you an idea of what I am babbling on about.
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Well I have been known as the Shasta Tackle Guy around here for a long time and all I can say is The Shuttle Hawk has made my life so much easier! As far as the Sling blade dodger's are concerned using them in tandom is the way to go it really creates a whipping action. In the spring like now I run the bait's about 75-100 feet behind the boat and when they are more active in the summer month's I will run them 40-60 feet behind the boat. As far as rigging bait's run the cripplure 24-28 inches behind the dodger's and you'll have good success
Jared Johnson V.P. of Shasta Tackle
aKa SOCKEYESLAYER
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I was down at the ISE and stopped by the Shasta booth and saw that video, all I can say is wow, I just could not believe how far that koke would go to get that lure. It convinced me that kokanee don't just hit the lure out of anger, I'm sure it wanted to eat it. I went by the booth twice trying to meet Jared but he was gone both times. I think the guy I talked to said the sling blades were right behind the ball and the lure was as close as 8 inches to the sling blade. It must have been close or that video camera could not have picked up that action. I sure wish I had a $1,000.00 sitting around with nothing to spend it on, I would buy that video downrigger setup in a heart beat, nice setup. WH2
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Let me know if you want a camera rigger I might be able to get you a deal that might be hard to pass up. Being a Walker Rep has it's perk's and I would be happy to pass on the saving's if it interest's you.
Jared Johnson
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Now you have me interested but how clear does the water have to be to use them? Could I use it on my favorite lake, Willard? I don't fish the Gorge as much as I would like to but I guess it would work at any of the local lakes that have kokes. I've got to get ready for work now but I'll send you a PM when I get home tonight and get some more info from you, thanks Jared. WH2
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WOW ! No Kidding ? Actually that looks kind of like a lure I caught a few fish on when I was a kid called a "Super-Duper" if I'm seeing it right.
I'm on my way to sportsmans right now to repair a broken rod tip.(My fault, not a fish unfortunatley) I'll pick a few up.
I might hit the Gorge this weekend.
Thanks Boys,
Dink.
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]... That second picture lookes like hideout..... Nice pictures.... Also were u useing the sling blade in front of the cripplers????
