Many thanks to Kokonuts for his hospitality and willingness to share his knowledge. Prior to yesterday, I had been on Merwin 3 times this year and gotten skunked each time.

After meeting Kokonuts for the first time Thursday morning, we got out on the lake by about 7:30 and had our first fish in the boat in short order. It was really a treat to be out there with someone who can walk the talk! We ended the day bringing home 1 fish short of our limit. We caught more, including a small 'bow! The catching was slow, but steady enough to keep it interesting. Most of the koke's were 12 to 13 inchers along with a couple that were closer to 15 inches (my guesstimate). We fished with a small piece (about 1/2") of nightcrawler, or corn on a hoochie. The worm pieces seemed to work best.

The day was overcast with light and sporadic rain, but for the most part, the water was like glass. It made for a great day on the reservoir!

Jerry and I must have stopped at every tackle shop between Olympia and Woodland, but we finally made it to Merwin around noon. We got the Smoker Craft in the water and began our search for Kokes. We didn't mark any fish on the finder, but with the lake being so calm, it was easy to see where they were jumping. It wasn't a real hot bite, but we were hooking up fairly consistently until dark. The main problem was getting them in the boat. We managed to land 8, but probably lost about a dozen others. We just couldn't keep them on, in spite of the long soft action rods. Most of the fish came from long lining near the surface.

Went out this afternoon. didn't have great expectations as I had expected the spawn to be full on. Fished for 2-3 hours and caught 3 small Kokanee. Great fighters had fun. Fished across the lake from Speelyai boat launch. 65 degrees and water as smooth as glass hardly a ripple and fish feeding on the surface taking small knat looking things.

I caught 2 at around 25-27 feet and a bigger fish at around 42 feet. Sonar had fish all through the water column.

OK, I know the kings and coho are running strong in Puget Sound, and I really should be out there after them, but when WDFW upped the Merwin Lake limit to 10 a day I couldn’t pass up another trip. Plus, JoAnn had so much fun last time that she wanted to go back.

We fished Sunday and Monday. First, concerns about the lake being “over-fished” border on the ridiculous. This is a huge, 4,000 acre reservoir that is full of kokanee. Every spot we fished had marks of fish, and we fished a lot of spots.

The rig details: We ran four rods off two downriggers, stacking and staggering the depths. It was easy to find the ideal depth – 60 feet – from the preponderance of biters at that depth. The usual kokanee gear was employed – small dodgers and either wedding rings or hoochie rigs. I didn’t do much swapping of gear this trip, there was no need. The hoochies I also kept simple. Any flavor of pink was appreciated by the fish. All rigs had corn. One side I used mealworms and the other side I used dyed and cured shrimp chunks. That was an interesting experiment that I will detail below.

Sunday we were the second boat in the water, and at 6:30 am started along the shoreline just across from the boat launch, per a few hotspots noted on previous reports. Within minutes our rods were bouncing and jumping! Depths ranged from 35 to 60 feet, although as the day progressed we settled into 45, 50, 55, 60 as the ideal depths. Trolling speed was best at 1.2mph. The bite for Sunday (and Monday was a mirror image) came hot and heavy for the first two hours. So hot, in fact, that there were times I was unable to keep all the gear running, hopping from rod to rod, passing the them to JoAnn, netting them, catching a few myself – it was kokanee heaven! The fish are starting to turn and we got some that had the beginnings of hook noses, but also plenty of bright fish in the mix. By 10:15 we had 11 in the cooler, ranging from 11” to 15”, but mostly 12-14”. At that point the bite shut off, and I mean like a switch. We eventually trolled the entire length of the lake to the dam. (BTW, this takes about six hours at 1.2 mph to do) Nothing more happened and at 1pm when we decided to anchor up, take a nap, and fish the evening bite.

Refreshed, we resumed our quest for twenty fish at 4pm, and the fish were again on the bite. Not as crazy as the morning, but by 6pm we had another four fish for a total of sixteen fish for the day. Rather than pound the water until dark we decided to return to camp, have dinner, relax, and watch a movie. I have no doubt, that if we had fished to dark we would have gotten the four remaining fish for our limits.

Monday JoAnn and I arrived to an empty launch – where is everyone? Don’t they know the limit is ten, the fish are willing, and there are a ton of them?? Guess everyone has put away their kokanee gear and are salmon fishing. Well, we decided to once again hit the far shore as a starting point. And the same result occurred – a crazy circus act of rods bouncing and fish flying into the net. High point of the morning was a fish that slammed a shrimp rig at 45 feet, popping the downrigger and taking line like a coho (well, OK, a small coho). On Sunday I spoke with someone at the launch who said he had caught an 18” fish, and I was hoping this was my 18 incher. I played him with care and JoAnn did a great netting job. The fish was a hook nose and beginning to get his spawning colors – and a solid 16 inchers. Nice! Then just a short while later, as I started to bring up a rigger to replace the top set up, the bottom rod again popped the release and ran hard. This time JoAnn took the fish and skillfully brought in an almost identical, 15 inch fish. Wow, two kokanee popping downrigger clips, wild!

As Sunday, the bite totally shut off at around 10am. Our final count was nine fish, not counting a tenth fish that I attempted to hoist into the boat on my own. So call it an “old” limit for each day of fishing, and a few bonus fish besides (thank you WDFW!) .

Like I said earlier, fish marks everywhere we went. What is key is to get on the water at day break and have everything ready to fish. When the bite is over, it’s over. What a perfect last trip to Merwin Lake. JoAnn mentioned how happy I looked on the drive home. Yup!

The final fish caught times, depths and totals:

Sunday:
6:40 35ft - shrimp, 6:55 35 ft - shp, 7:15 35 ft – shp, 7:25 50 ft – mealworm, 7:33 60 ft – mw, 8:00 45 ft shp, 8:10 45 ft shp, 8:20 45 ft mw, 9:15 60 ft mw, 9:30 50 ft mw, 10:15 48 ft shp, 4:10pm 45 ft shp, 4:30 60 ft mw, 5:30 60 ft mw, 5:50 43 ft shp

Monday:
6:28 60ft mw, 6:40 50 ft mw, 7:13 60 ft mw, 7:20 60 ft mw, 7:22 50 ft mw, 7:58 45 ft shp, 8:03 60 ft mw, 8:50 60 ft mw, 9:03 60 ft mw

Total Caught:
24 fish, biggest 16”, next 11 14-15”, 12” 10 fish, 1 at 10 ½”, 1 at 11”. 15 caught tipped with mealworm, 9 caught tipped with shrimp (biggest fish on shrimp)

Another good tournament.Real hot.Met up with Tom that morning to partner with him once again hoping to get his first one at Merwin.Tom is one of those guys who is happy to go out and enjoy the day with others, no matter if he catches one or not.This time it was Tomes turn.Of the same rock I got my first one he got his first one at Merwin.Time after time Tom has seen friends and club members that he has taken out to spend the day chatting with and tossing his lures in the water.This time I was happy to se him get his 39incher there.Tom drives a tiller so he has back of the boat.we had just gone past the rock i am learning to love when he said there is one and as I looked saw that beautifly ugly fish go for his lure.Brought it in and the first thing Tom wanted to do was let it go.I made him take a picture with it and then we sent her on her way.Just as long but a lot fatter tahn mine.Great job to my friend Tom.Oh ya I got two pike minnow on my glidebait (LOL).