August Blue Mesa Fishing Report: Bite has gotten tougher!

Over the last 10 days, we have seen the kokanee salmon bite get a lot tougher.  Hard work will still produce good numbers most days, but the fish aren’t exatly committing suicide.  This is a result of the fish seeing the same presentation for a longer than normal jigging season.  It’s all about the details now.  Little changes can make a BIG difference!  So pay attention to the details and always remember that the first boat on the school typically yields the best results!

Try to ignore the crowds and find your own school.  These fish will stay put and usually bite a lot longer than the school of fish that has 25-70 jigs dropped on their heads!  Tip your jigs with corn because you will see very few bites without it.

Trout- Rainbows are showing up from the surface down to 42′.  The Lake City Bridge inlet has been good early in the mornings!  Some anglers have been doing well trolling z-rays, rooster tails, kastmasters, and tazmanian devils in 1-25′ of water for more rainbows.  You can usually see a lot of rainbows feeding on the surface in the morning when the water is calm.  Browns can be found most consistently in 5-70 feet of water along rip rap shorelines and off of the points. They are shallow early and late in the day and then they drop back down into deeper water.  Crankbaits, jerkbaits, and maribou jigs have been consistent producers as well as kastmasters, krocodiles, and blue fox spinners.

Lake Trout- Mackinaw fishing has slowed, but some decent fish are still being caught from 80-140′.   These fish are roaming several different types of structure such as points, humps, sunken islands, and flats as well as suspending out over deep water.  Trolling some type of rainbow or salmon imitation or jigging a tube jig with sucker meat or Berkley gulp! minnow has been most effective, although we have been catching some nice lake trout on unorthodox trolling gear as well.

 Kokanee Salmon-   Trolling has been fair from 40-80′ depending on the part of the lake you are on.  A lot of fish in Cebolloa are running 6-80′ deep.  Change depths frequently until you find results.  These fish move up and down a lot depending on the conditions so don’t lock yourself in to a certain depth.  Knowing how to read your fish finder is a critical skill in consistently catching these fish.  All colors have been producing depending on the day, but chartruse, pink, orange, white, and green have been the most consistent.  Rocky Mountain Tackle squids and spinners and Radical Glow spinners and tubes accompanied by our Lazer hooks from Eagle Claw have been hot!  This stuff is the hottest kokanee gear on the market!  As usual, tip your offering with white shoe peg corn and run them behind a Rocky Mountain Tackle dodger.