Our last overnight boat camping trip of the year, and JoAnn wanted to go back to Lake Merwin. I can’t blame her. It’s pretty lake and as summer ends and school starts back up the crowds thin out a bit. Not to mention, we’ve found the fishing to be quite good for kokanee and bonus, there is actually quite a bit less angler pressure as guys go off in search of salmon and summer run steelhead. Meaning on a weekday you can find yourself sharing the lake with a half dozen boats.

We fished Sunday and Monday. Sunday was a “boat ride” as we started across from the Speelyai launch and I trolled us all the way up the marina. The weather was perfect for us. A bit overcast, a light breeze (that picked up around noon which is normal on Merwin) and temps in the upper seventies.

We fished four rods, standard kokanee gear. I brought both mealworms and scented small chunks of prawn to see what the fish would want. Of course we had shoepeg corn. Based on what I was seeing on the fishfinder I decided to run rods deep from the start (6am), ranging 55, 50, 45, 35 feet deep. We had an “OK” morning, hitting 9 fish and catching 7, plus several missed bites. A black hoochie with spinner and mealworm did the most damage, with pink hoochie and a red wedding ring also being productive. With the wind coming up we ducked into our lunch cove and tied up for a siesta. After lunch we fished from 3-6pm and managed to go 3/5 as we used a sea anchor to control our trolling speed. One thing of note – the farther we got from Speelyai the smaller and brighter the fish got. I was surprised to be catching fish in the 10-12” range all day, and the biggest was a 13” colored fish that came first thing in the morning. I was disappointed. “It is what it is” I thought.

Monday I had to decide. Should we run down to the dam and catch bright shiny little fish, or should we stay around the launch bay and see if we could find bigger fish? We decided on no long boat rides. I had never worked certain spots in the upper end of the lake so thought it would be a good experiment. Glad I did!

Gear , same as Sunday, but in short order the shrimp was put away. It was pretty obvious they wanted mealworms so that’s what we went with. The bite started immediately, and unfortunately the first two fish came off at the net. Deep was again the word – 45 to 69 feet and the fishfinder was never without fish on the screen. We had steady, constant action all morning, hitting fish every 20-30 minutes until a slight lull around 11am, perfect timing to allow an on the water snack of cheese and crackers. Then all he** broke lose.

You know how sometimes the fishing is so good you know that within minutes of setting your gear you’re going to get bit? Well, for the next hour that was our experience. As soon as I would bonk, bait and send gear back down, we’d have another fish. It was like “fishing in a barrel”. Unreal, we caught 7 fish and lost a few besides, and only stopped because we ran out of bait. Truly, one of the better bites for kokanee we have ever had. Also, the fish on Monday were all back to the size we were looking for, 13-15”. Some were turning, but most were still pretty bright.

What more could you ask for? Sunny, calm waters, a beautiful lake, minimal recreational boaters, and cooperative fish – a perfect morning of fishing!

I know, everyone is after those Buoy 10 chinook. But hey, if you’re looking for some late season kokanee action, head on down to Merwin and fill your cooler. We ended up bringing 24 fish home for the two days. It’s a ten fish limit and the fishing is great so don't put away that kokanee gear just yet!

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