Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Upper Columbia Guide Service
Busted out the Kokanee gear and drove down to Merwin to enjoy the beautiful day. Dropped in at Speelyai Bay and the reservoir is a murky torquoise shade with a lot of floating wood debris, some quite large. Watch your props!
Fish were scattered about and bite reports from other boats were slow. We managed to land all 3 keepers that bit in the 12 in range. Released 3 babies and 4 pike minnow safely. Had a few other little strikes here and there. Trolled anywhere from 15-80 ft. The 3 caught were in the 35-40 ft depth range. Typical assortment of wedding ring and hoochie variations with shoepeg cured in bloody tuna scent the night prior. Never really marked "big schools". Water temp ranged from 48-52. Trolling speed 1.0-1.2 but did speed it up here and there to no avail.
Had fun navigating the driftwood and finally spent a day on the boat in a t-shirt. Favorite moment came when the girlfriend splashed fish guts in her eye when a beheaded koke still had some reflexes left and flipped his body. She tossed the chrome beauty across the boat, but I netted it before a loss. When flushing her eye with a water bottle was suggested she refused because "I'm not wearing waterproof mascara!" Gotta love it! She's actually a pretty good angler and great company! :-)
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Upper Columbia Guide Service