I attended our annual trout fishing event in Conconully, Washington on the weekend of May 18th. We moved the gathering from Jameson Lake last year after many years so we are still learning the lake and techniques. We split time between trolling and shore fishing and had a lot of action doing both. The reservoir is higher than normal, colder than normal and had some color in it from the muddy creeks that were running into it. The lake temps on top ranged from 54 degrees in the morning up to around 56 degrees in the afternoon. We stayed at Liars Cove and had zero luck fishing from the end of the dock. The lake is quite deep there so I assume the fish were elsewhere. A few trout were caught from the sides of the dock and from shore in the resort but definitely not like last year when the action was pretty good everywhere. The majority of the fish were in the cove near the State Park. That area of the lake ranges from 8 to 15 feet so the fish seemed to be concentrated there as were most the boats and fishermen. We concentrated on trolling when it became obvious the fish were not in the deeper waters near the resort and worked the state park area. Trolling was extremely frustrating because the hits were continuous, the hookups constant and the landings minimal. I mean like 10 hits for each hookup and 1 landed fish for each of the hookups.....are you kidding me?? We were using wedding rings tipped with the usual stuff and tried all kinds of hooks and techniques to improve the ratios but never quite figured it out. The fish were predominantly kokanee which was a nice surprise because I didn't catch a single kokanee last year. So we were scratching out fish in the 8 to 14 inch range. Nice but no big deal. Saturday afternoon/evening we found a couple shore fishing spots near the State Park and switched to bottom fishing. Bingo!!! The bite would turn on and off but when it was on we were catching nice fat 12 to 15 inch kokanee with a few larger rainbows and cutthroats. My favorite setup was a red glitter anise marshmallow above a piece of nightcrawler but other combos worked pretty well. So the lesson learned was to still fish from a boat or shore in the shallow areas and ignore the maddening trolling. Great weekend with old friends and good fishing action which I think should actually improve as the lake warms up and clears up. Tight lines to all!!

timber bliss

5/21/2012 8:42:00 AM

djw i have found that with kokes you need to be a bit further out when trolling, reason is you want that fish to be tired when next to the net, the last thing you want is that final jump next to the boat, thats when his little lips spit the hook. good luck

mwdehaan

5/21/2012 11:12:00 PM

Thanks for the report! I haven't gotten up to Conconully Reservoir this season yet. Last season it was one of my favorite places to go. Great for bass and trout. From my perspective of fishing this lake I've always thought there was a small population of kokanee compared to the rainbows there. I've caught maybe one kokanee there for every 6 rainbows. Same goes with brook trout, only saw one there last season. Using a wedding ring with corn had produced me more rainbows then kokes as well. I'm not much of a still boat fishermen unless it comes to anchoring at a good spot and tossing lures, which there are a few spots at that lake where that works great. Majority I've done is trolling and while the above comment mentions fishing further out in the lake, I've had the best luck going about 40 feet from shore. A few areas are nearly a guaranteed hookup each pass. It's news to me that there's cutthroats in that lake! Great to learn something new. Thanks again.

djw0414

5/21/2012 11:33:00 PM

Out of my three limits I had 13 kokanee and 2 rainbows. Last year was all rainbows. Who knows what will happen next year. We were trolling in 8 to 15 depths which were predominantly near shore....about 40 feet out so we agree on the trolling lanes and hot areas. Others in our group caught some cutthroats and cutbows which had a stripe on the sides and the signature two red slashes under the chin. Locals say that is not uncommon for Conconully. I would never of thought to look under the chins because they looked like rainbows with the stripe on the sides. I saw several 2 to 4 pound smallmouth bass caught right from the dock at Liars Cove. I think next year I will go for trout limits early in the day and then spend some time chasing bass. Didn't really bring any relevant bass gear but will pack it next time for a change of pace. Thanks for your comment!!

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