Late Summer Transition..

The late summer transition has begun where a fair number of fish pile into Cebolla basin and start to school in tighter bunches.  So far, the schools of boats have been bigger than the schools of fish!  There have been a few small opportunities to jig, but trolling has still been far more consistent. Everything else remains about the same.  The water temps are hanging around 68 degrees and climbing to as high as 73 degrees some afternoons.    Good luck and God Bless!

Kokanee Salmon- The only thing consistent about this year is that every day requires a lot of effort to dial in any kind of pattern.  Your reward is that you have a good chance at a master angler kokanee salmon every day!  Most of the fish are now in the 25-55′ foot range and a lot of fish are moving into the 70-110 range throughout the day. Experimentation remains key!  Patterning colors has it’s moments, but doesn’t always work or only works briefly.  Days that start off sunny are still better than days that start off cloudy but we have had some good days that start off cloudy. We are seeing some absolute giant kokanee in the 19-22″ range and a lot of the males are already getting a bit of a beak! It will be interesting to see what August holds for size!  There have been a lot of boats out looking for schools, with very little success.

A little bit of everything has been working in every color.  Pinks, oranges, chartrueses, and greens have all been working at some point during the day. Rocky Mountain Tackle and Radical glow spinners and squids have been top producers as well as kokanee killers, arnies, wedding rings, and wee tads.

Rainbow & Brown Trout– The trout bite is fair if you work “trouty” areas.  Rainbows can be found from the surface to 20′ and if you can find a color they like the action can be good!  Brown trout can be found 20-50′ and the action for them has been good, especially in the morning.  Shorelines and coves with rocks have been holding more trout.  Rocky Mountain Tackle, Venator lures, Arnies, Needle Fish, Taz’s and Radical Glow spinners have all been producing. Use your electronics to your advantage as some areas are stacked with trout!  Every day the preferred depths seems to change and some of the deeper fish are still very keyed in on small red worms and another larva.

Mackinaw Lake Trout-  No change–We are catching some smaller lake trout mixed in with the kokanee salmon occasionally on the same baits.  You can improve your odds greatly by fishing 70-100 feet of water.  Once again, watch your electronics as some areas seem to have “layers” of fish at these depths!  The bigger fish are suspended at 90-140′ over deeper water. Always remember the importance of releasing trophy lake trout to ensure future generations get the same opportunities we get!  And despite no bag limit on the smaller lake trout, only take what you can eat! These fish are the future of the trophy generation!

Perch- Same–The perch are in the coves and there have been several reports of lots of action! Elk Creek, Lake Fork, and Bay of Chickens are just a few of the areas holding fish. Yesterday, we found an 11″ perch floating dead!   With all of the brush that has been covered with the rise of the lake, the perch should have an excellent spawn and the fry should have plenty of places to hide!  Smaller perch can be found in the backs of brushy coves in 8-25′ of water.  They will be hard to see on your electronics due to all of the brush, but a small jig and a piece of night crawler will quickly tell you if they are in the area!