July Blue Mesa Fishing Report: A two day slow down, but fishing is still hot!

Overall, the kokanee salmon fishing remains good to excellent!  Over the last two days the fish were a little harder to entice, but today they were back in full force and very aggressive!  Trolling and jigging have both been effective, although most folks who don’t spend the time to find their own schools of salmondon’t typically do as well as those who do.

Remember common courtesy.  There has been a lot of traffic on certain parts of the lake.  If you don’t like being around a lot of people or have a hard time being friendly, stear clear of these high traffic areas!!!

Trout- Rainbows are showing up from the surface down to 42′.  We are mostly catching these fish on kokanee tackle while fishing for salmon.  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 80-120′.   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-  We are seeing some interesting changes.  Trolling is still excellent from 20-80′ depending on the part of the lake you are on.  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.