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Well as a Rainbow trip it was definitely a 5. My grandson was home from working a year in New Zealand and we got to fish together for the first time in a long time. We launched at Porcupine around 8:30 and had the first fish in the boat at 8:45 and the last one before 11:00. We never did double up and we lost a couple so for us that was pretty good action. No wild fish and nothing particularly large, they were all just your typical Roosevelt fatties. My son and I fished out of Keller the day before Thanksgiving and I would say these were a little larger than the ones down there. At Keller we had run dodgers and trolled at the old standby 1.7 MPH. At Porcupine Sawyer and I ran without dodger at 3 MPH. Both methods seem to produce a limit in fairly short order. If we'd had a lick of sense we would have headed for home after we had our limits. But no, we decided to go Walleye hunting. Nothing doing there. Finding winter Walleye seems to be above my skill set. Well anyway it was a good day to be out.
Merry Christmas to One and to All.

BradF

12/16/2023 7:26:26 PM

Thanks for the report. Were you fishing off of riggers? If not do you think you could reach the fish with lead line ? My max there seems to be about 25' at 1.7-8.

I normally winter trout fish Hawk Cr or Sterling but used to winter fish eyes in the arm. I've thought about trying up there for trout this year but haven't headed out yet.

Thanks again for the report.

Part-Time

12/18/2023 10:07:45 AM

We had 2 rods with leaded line and 1 rod on a down rigger that was running around 10 feet. The leaded lines caught the most fish but I think that was more of a lure choice than the depth. I was trying different lures on the down rigger rod just for the sake of experimentation. My old standby Orange Kekeda fly did well and a small pink "plankton hootchie was probably the best. The fish seemed to be spread out and we caught them in both deep and shallow water. I would think right now you could just go to the closest put in and have at. Best wishes hope you have a good day.

strikezone

12/16/2023 8:53:23 PM

Mark- Hi. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Congrats to you and your grandson on your sucessful fishing trip. You have a great fishery over there. This seems to be a banner year for rainbow. My friend and I fished near Keller Ferry for 3-1/2 days back in November. We only used streamer flies on a leaded line with about 50 feet of leader to the fly. Trolled them about 1.7 mph or so. I think we were down to around 25 feet or so. We never touched a Kokanee, but we really had a ball on the rainbows. We had 135 to the boat, but we only brought 20 back home with us. We did give a few to Lori, the cook at the Billy Burger bar each day. She was so appreciative. We haven't been fishing over your way in the late fall since before Covid started.(three years ago). We hope to get back over your way next November. Anyway, take care and stay safe. Denny

Part-Time

12/18/2023 10:41:06 AM

Denny, good to hear from you and glad you had a good trip. Certainly seems like the Rainbow are fairly willing right now. On our November trip to Keller my son caught one wild fish but other than that they have all been the usual suspects.
Merry Christmas to you guys also.

hewesfisher

12/18/2023 6:15:34 AM

Nice haul Mark! Based on our two outings the 'bows seem to be bigger this year. Marry Christmas and Happy New Year to you. :-)

Part-Time

12/18/2023 10:09:43 AM

Thanks, good to hear from you. Hope all is well with you and yours.

JediMbs

12/20/2023 1:13:48 PM

Great catch Part-time! Pleased you and your grandson got to bond over some stellar trout action... I spent 3 months working in New Zealand myself on both the South and North Islands in 98. Amazing country and the South Island has many similiarties to Washington State. I actually lost 2 brown trout there back to back that were the length of a yard stick. Hope you get out again soon. Tight lines and Merry Christmas!

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