After reading Mikes report a month ago, i booked a long weekend at Alta. We got here Thursday about 4 and set up camp. Went out at 6 pm and learned the lake. Trusting the Navtronic's chip as it showed me the deep part of the lake, and since the surface temp was 75, I figured they would be deep. Searching the middle, I seen a few marks but no schools. Went back and re-read the report that Mike put in. Showed them over to the south wall area. I went over and the cruised around and suddenly found schools all over. Strange thing is, they were at 25 feet! I really wish I had one of those fish hawks water temp reader. I could see a water incline at 40" but there were no concentrations, There were just a few scattered fish around it. Set one at 26 and one at 35. Soon found that they were at 25. And WOW. These fish were the fist Kokonee's that snapped the line out of the clips. They fought like Sockeye, not fresh water brothers. I was amazed. Caught my 5 keepers in less than two hours. Great looking red Fillets except for my suck butt skill. LOL Friday was a copy of Thursday night. Saturday again! I ran one pink, one orange set up. Corn was over a month old and still caught them. Speed was 1.3 ish. But its was all find the schools and waiting for both rods to go off. The strange thing was, the females were full of big eggs and ready. The males were NOT dark or colored up. No hook jaws! And I caught quite few 10-11 inches, but the big girls/guys were 14" and pounders!
After my 5 Koke's, I ran up the south end of the lake after remembering seeing a lot of fish on the screen from Thursday night. Funny, the Washington state fish and wildlife site does not mention bass. There are a LOT of bass here. The water is so crystal clear. I was in 12 foot of water and could see them cruising on the bottom. I of course did not bring any Bass gear. I did have a tray of trout plugs I use and one was a sinking twitch rapala and I put it on and had a blast. The largest was only 2 pounds, but since I was using a lightweight trout rod, I had a blast. 6 pound test, 6 foot light and a spinning reel? I must have caught 50 Saturday evening/Sunday morning before leaving. I could see them attacking the plug the water is so darn clear!
The campsites at the state park are wonderful, but not very level. If you're bringing a RV, be careful. We had to move around 4-5 times on the lot before our auto jacks could lever ours. But you can pull your boat up the shore next to the campsites and it is safe. I used a Catch anchor and a shore tie up and was secure. We had a big wind come up Saturday night and never moved. Rangers are a great help! All and all this was a 10 4 days to end our camping season.
