Things are heating up!

We are finally starting to get some warm weather, which has warmed the water temps up several degrees!  In turn, the salmon fishing has been heating up as well!  The lake is still rising and will continue until it gets within five feet of full.  Watch for floating debris.  There isn’t a ton, but once in a while you will see a rogue log that could do some serious damage!  Also, beware of Mack Island as it is  just about to be completely submerged!

Lake Trout- We are starting to see the fish get a little more active as the water temperatures rise.  By lake trout standards, fishing is good to excellent, but windows of opportunity are still small compared to other species.  Trolling and jigging have both been producing.  As mentioned last report, “sucker soaking” is not an option due to the extremely high mortality rates on these fish that take 20+ years to grow to 20+ pounds!  As with all valuable resources, rationality and common sense is very important despite rules put in place by government agencies.  If you are after food, keep all the fish under 26″ you would like or troll up some kokanee salmon!

Trout- Fishing continues to be excellent for trout.  Casting jigs and jerk baits along the rocks will still produce and trolling the humps and points that you see lots of fish stacked between 15-50′ deep will fill your boat with limits of brown trout!  Rainbows can be caught in the top 10′ of the water column, although we did catch one at 50′ last Saturday.  Good bait choices are the new Venator Wobbler lure, Rocky Mountain Tackle Super Squids, Dynamic J-Specs.

Kokanee- the kokanee salmon seemed to “wake up” over this last weekend, with good numbers caught in Cebolla and Sapinero basins!  The fish are scattered through the water column with decent concentrations from the surface to 50′ deep.  Spinners, squids, kokanee killers, Arnies, and Cherry Bombs have been producing!  Tip your presentation with a piece of white shoepeg corn and be ready to change colors and depths until you find the winning combo.