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Cooper Lake Report
Kittitas County, WA

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Details

08/11/2018
61° - 65°
Trolling
Rainbow Trout
None
Other
Cloudy
Crankbait
Morning
08/12/2018
4
1448

Been at Cooper the past two weekends hoping for more Browns like the one I caught in my last report.

Quick report from last weekend....fly rod had Intermidate line instead of type 6 sink. Spinning rod worked Daredevle TW Midge spoons pretty much all day. No Browns, but 14 RBT. My Classic Trout Fly rod tip broke on a small RBT early on so most of day I used my Spinning rod.

Saturday I brought two spinning rods. One rod I tried many different lures and different depths. The other was pretty much no weight and spoons.

I worked the logs to the left of the launch and got 3 and headed down to the mouth of the river to work the shallows and drop offs along the river mouth. Picked up a few on my way down and one might have been a Brookie as it was very small and came off at the boat. I saw a dead Brookie at the launch and it was about the same size.

Talked to an angler working the left side of the river casting and retrieving a F3 Rainbow Trout Rapala and doing well with small Browns, so I stopped trolling and did some of the same with a Brown Trout version.
Nothing so I left the Rapala on and trolled it and a F5 version.

That darn little Rapala was on fire while I tried an assortment of shallow plugs on the other rod with nothing. I quickly caught 10 RBT on the Rapala and then the bite stopped.

It picked back up later on and I caught nine more either on the Rapala or a Pink Daredevle Spoon. The wind was picking up and blowing back towards the launch so I headed back and let the wind provide my speed. I switched out the Pink spoon for a Hammered Brass and not even a minute later I picked up another nice Brown. Not as nice as the one two weeks before but enough to get the blood pumping again.


This one was 12-13” and not nearly as golden, but still a thing of beauty to my eyes. Picked up one more RBT near the launch for a total of 26 for the day. Planning on headed back if the winds look good next weekend and try a few more different things. The Browns keep me coming back.


Comments

MotoBoat
8/13/2018 11:41:05 AM
Would be interesting to read what new tactics are deployed during your next visit! Appears to be a very healthy number of Brown Trout in Coop.
TMBob
8/13/2018 5:16:01 PM
MB, I really have no clue how on how many healthy Browns are in the lake. Been there 3 time and caught 47 fish, 2 of them Browns. Pretty low percentage.

I also have no clue on catching this species. From what I have read, early morn or late eve seem to be the best hours given the right conditions (water temp, lunar, weather) and they are also an ambush predator and prefer cover and that plugs, spoons or larger lures that imitate small fish.. This is for Stillwater fishing.

Both were caught on spoons, (1.25”) both were caught about 1pm, both were caught on the top foot of the water column or less. This is the only intel that I can try to digest, but percentage wise tells me it’s not the most effective form to increase the odds. I’ve worked the logs and drop offs.

Since I only fish Ultralight and without a depthfinder, add in very little knowledge about Browns my tactics are limited.

Type 6 with a foam fly....slow drag off bottom. The foam fly will act sorta like a marshmallow set up.
Try a Kokanee set up with a small amount of weight. There are some Kokanee in the lake.
Work the shallows really early in the morning casting Rapala’s, something I have not done yet. It’s hard to get up that early! Maybe even cast a streamer in these areas which is hard for me to do with my limited fly casting ability’s in add very clear water.

Do you have any suggestions?
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Hammer Down Excursions

Phone: (208) 839-9993