flaming gorge hot over the 4th

[mtncat1]

I took my family to the gorge for the weekend and was able to manage a few hours of koke fishing , I know I have made a lot of comments about fishing only biting early morning so I will have to eat a little crow (and some salmon)[]. I woke up early 5 a.m. and headed up to an area just above anvil and below the farm house. I found water temps were74 deg. f. at 5 a.m. capping off in the evening at 82 yes 82 it was hot !Also water level is up about 15 feet over last year (so much for all that rain not helping the water storage) I like to set up to fish away from the other boats at 45' depth. 1.6 mph , the hot set up was RMT pearl squid with a 5.5" green custom dodger. 1 only fished for about 2 hrs to get two limits the largest fish was a 4.5 lb 23" giant (my personal best salmon) with another slightly smaller at 4 lbs. the other fish were 3.5 and 3 lbs rounding 2 limits with small fish. Great trip all in all but once again an extremely short bite window
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[liketrolling]

The water looks like it is still going up
when I was their not to long ago one truck could park there.
Last year I think it was open all year.
after 9am did you start catching the ones from 6 to 12" ?
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[trueblue2]

MtnCat, we were up 6/23 to 6/26 and I believe you were at FG then. I had the radio on, but missed you. We fished the same area and up further to Big Bend. Caught mostly the smaller Kokes, but did wind up with 5 in the 20" range. Had a hard time keeping the pups off the line and wound up keeping a bunch for the smoker. I've not seen a dodger exactly like that in your picture. We used the RMT white squids with orange and pink flashers. That must have been what attracted all the macs.

Also, did find a very large school of Kokes just north of State Line and south of the pipeline that kept us busy for a while. They were all on the smaller side though.

Glad to hear you got a couple of 4 pounders. They're a lot of fun. We're heading back week of 7/19. If you're up there give us a shout.
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[mtncat1]

your right the water is still going up, I have never seen it so high since I have been going there. I didn't fish much and like you have said in the past fishing for kokanee was not good after nine I did get one good one at about 9 on the nose but the rest were dinks . I spent most of my time doing family stuff, but that was fun to.
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[mtncat1]

I'm sorry I couldn't hook up with you up there but the tournament keep me real busy and one of the days we went up to the farm house we got skunked, my best day for koke fishing was at sheep creek go figure.
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