After persuading JoAnn that the heat wasn’t going to be as bad as predicted (97 degrees in the Woodland area) we drove down Saturday evening to find it a delightful mid 80s.

We fished Sunday morning and afternoon, and Monday morning. The temperatures never did get much beyond mid-eighties and with the breeze and shade it really was quite pleasant. The fishing, on the other hand, was not hot.

Fish all over the fishfinder from the word go. Started up at the dam, working back down lake, we ran the usual kokanee gear and ran it from 25 to 60 feet deep. There were consistent fish marks throughout this range, but the fish had a bad case of lock jaw for us. I did see a few caught, and we caught a couple, one nice 14.5” fish, but pretty much no bait, no lure, and no scent was the hot ticket. We ended Sunday with one fish in the cooler. My hopes were still high that Monday would be better, got to stay an optimist when it comes to fishing. Plus, it was so nice, and the dogs were enjoying themselves.

Monday we again started at 6am, minus the hordes of weekend pleasure boaters. The action was still slow, but come 8am we actually had a flurry of fish and bites that, while not the Merwin I’m used to, did put some more fish in the cooler. The hot lures were “Fish With Gary” Bug Spinners and Dawne’s UV green spinner. In front of those I ran Simon wobblers. Green seemed to be the color this trip. We got another nice 14” and a bunch of smaller 11” fish to give us a final two day total of six fish coming home. Certainly not the action I’m used to on Merwin, but better than nothing.

I don’t know if we’ll have a chance to get back to Merwin this year, but I do predict come August it will be kicking out good numbers of fish again, if not sooner.

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