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7/1/14 Stampede Kokanee Fishing

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Stampede Kokanee Fishing

Stampede Kokanee Fishing today. with Ben Stern took his two sons Cole and Luke on their first fishing trip. The bite was a little slower than it has been. The best part of this trip was the fact Ben was making this a learning trip for the boys. Not just about fishing but how to respect the outdoors. They learned only to keep what they were going to eat; Ben explained the whole circle of life in the outdoors to the boys. They watched a Osprey take a fish for lunch, the Seagull’s eat the carcasses of the fileted Kokanee. We also talked about the life cycle of a Kokanee. Ben plans to bring them to one of this years egg takes. They ended up keeping seven for dinner tonight. Our fish were all caught once again on Sep’s Copper Side Kicks and Radical Glow Pink Tubes tipped with pink Pautzke Fire Corn. To book a Stampede Kokanee Fishing trip with Captain Rick Kennedy of Tight Lines Guide Service click on the  link www.fishtightlines.com or call (888) 975-0990.

Ben, Cole and Luke Stern

Stampede Kokanee Fishing

6/22/14 Stampede Kokanee Fishing

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Stampede Kokanee Fishing

We spent the last couple days on Stampede Kokanee Fishing. Once again we found some great action. The fish average 13” but are full of fight and make fantastic table fare. The water continues to drop and the big schools of fish we found over the last couple weeks have all scattered. The Kokanee are pretty much scattered all over the lake. The best location we have found the last couple days was right in front of the boat ramp. Copper Dodgers seem to be the ticket for us with Pink Radical Glow Tubes. For some reason the spinner and bug bite has slowed way down. All our lures have been tipped with Pautzke Fire Corn in either Pink or Natural colors. We have been getting at least one or two calls a day asking about the boat ramp. There are a lot of opinions about the launching conditions. As of today I can tell you I have pulled several two wheel drive trucks out before I could launch or recover my boat. I don’t advise trying with two-wheel drive unless the water comes up. The people with four-wheel drive haven’t had a issue so far. As of today the water is a foot below any concrete ramp. I have attached a couple pictures that I hope will help paint the real picture of the launching conditions. For more information about booking a Stampede Kokanee Fishing trip contact Captain Rick Kennedy at www.FishTightLines.com or call (888) 975=0990.

Pictured left to right: Mackay, Eugene Hari, Ronald Fong, Bruce Yoshimura

Stampede Kokanee     IMG_4475

6/22/14 Stampede Reservoir     6/22/14 Stampede Reservoir

6/15/14 Stampede Kokanee Fishing

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Stampede Kokanee Fishing

Stampede Kokanee Fishing continues to be fantastic. We’ve set up camp and been fishing Stampede for the last few days. The bite has been the best I’ve seen it in years.  The fish are starting to school but it seems like no matter where you go the Lowrance screen is loaded with fish. Today, we had quick limits and also spent a little time with one rod deeper for Mackinaw. We only landed one Mack that was about 16″ and had another grab. The small mackinaw took a Berkley Gulp Minnow trolled behind a Pro Troll Flasher. Our Kokanee today were caught on Small RMT dodgers and Sep’s Sidekick dodgers with Pink Gamakatsu Spinners and Uncle Larry’s Spinners all tipped with Pautzke Fire Corn. We caught fish from 32′ to 55′. Call Captain Rick Kennedy of Tight Lines Guide to book your Stampede Kokanee Trip.

www.FishTightLines.com 

Harry Hein and Chris Osheroff both from Carson City NV

Stampede Kokanee Fishing

Stampede Kokanee

Stampede Kokanee Fishing

Stampede Mackinaw

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3 Limits of Stampede Kokanee

6/11/14 Stampede Kokanee Fishing

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Stampede Kokanee Fishing

Captain Rick Kennedy has been on Stampede Kokanee Fishing the last couple days. What an outstanding Kokanee bite. The Kokanee bite was as aggressive as I think I’ve ever seen it. The fish were stacked in some spots like I haven’t seen in years. The last time I remember schools of Kokanee like this is when Ted Samford was still guiding on Stampede and we use to jig for them. For the first time in many years I broke out the Kokanee jigs. We caught fish trolling and jigging. These fish we fighting a lot harder than they were a week ago. They averaged 13” but were all nice fat fish. The fish we caught trolling were down 38 to 61 feet. Our best set up’s were a RMT Watermelon Tsunami Dodger with a Radical Glow Tube and a Sep’s Fruit Salad dodger with a Uncle Larry’s Mad Irishman spinner all tipped with Pautzke Fire Cured Corn. Our best jigging was today 50 yards from the boat ramp in 60’ of water. www.FishTightLines.com

Ron and Ronald Westbrook of Visalia and Jack Quint of Snoqualmie WA

Stampede Kokanee      photo 3

5/3/14 Stampede Reservoir

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We fished Stampede Reservoir. today for the first time in over a month. We started at 6:00 AM and decided to make a pass or two for Mackinaw before targeting Kokanee. It wasn’t long before the wind started and the forecast called for some pretty strong wind later in the day.  We figured we better go load up on some Kokanee before the wind got too bad.  As soon as we dropped our gear in we started hooking up.  We spent most of our time right in front of the island in about 60’ of water.  We ran two lines on downriggers behind Shark Cannonballs and one top line straight off the back of the boat. We hooked fish from the surface to 45’ deep. We ran three different set ups and they all did well.  Our set ups were a Sep’s Strike Master (watermelon color) with a Uncle Larry’s Pink Tiger, a Sep’s 4/0 Watermelon Dodger with a Uncle Larry’s Pink Tiger and the third was a Dick Night Pink Dodger and a RMT Assassin spinner on the top line. We used Abu Garcia 4600 reels loaded with 6# Trilene. Everything was tipped with Shoepeg Corn that I cured with pink Pautzke Fire Cure.  The bite was as good as it gets. We landed 18 Kokanee between 6:30 AM and 8:37 AM and lost more than we landed. It was a fast and crazy bite. I even caught 3 for myself to take home for dinner. These Kokanee went big; the average fish size today was 12” but fat and clean fish.

Launching is not a problem, however, I recommend four wheel drive if your boat is very heavy. The water is down far enough that all four of your tires will likely be in the mud. I had no issues launching today.

www.FishTightLines.com

Left to right, Biff Brethour, Anthony Dukes and Garry Dukes all of Cool.

   IMG_4285     IMG_4278 

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3/21/14 Stampede Reservoir Kokanee

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We launched at 7:00 AM (a little later than planned) and headed straight across from the ramp and started targeting Mackinaw. We fished for Mack’s for a couple hours without a touch. We noticed Kokanee breaking on the surface all morning, I threw out a top line with a dodger and spinner. It wasn’t long before we hooked two Kokanee landing one.  As we got close to the island I marked some nice schools of Kokanee at 30 to 50 feet deep. We rigged up two Kokanee rods and dropped one to 25’ and the other to 50’. Both rods hooked up. We ended up fishing this school for a half hour or so and putting a nice bunch of Kokanee in the box.  We found another nice school off the point by the dam. We caught our Kokanee on Sep’s Watermelon Strike Master Dodgers and a pink Uncle Larry’s spinner. As far as corn, we didn’t have any! I had stripped my boat so they could use it in a show last week and forgot to put any back in. I did have some Berkley Power Grubs so I cut them in chunks and used that as corn. The Kokanee we caught on the surface were only about 10” and the deeper ones were up to 12”. That’s small but it’s early. The surface temp on Stampede today was 43 degrees.  Launching is no problem; unfortunately there is no snow anywhere around the lake.

www.FishTightLines.com

 

8/11/13 Stampede Kokanee

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We had a group of three today in search of Stampede Kokanee. I elected to start down by the dam based on the previous days results. The fish were stacked in the area but man did they have lockjaw. We picked up a fish every now and then, but it was anything but red-hot. It seemed like everyone I talked to had the same results. After a couple hours we moved back over between the island and the rock pile and started picking up some fish that were sitting right on the bottom in 55 to 60 feet of water. My Chrome Shark Cannonballs now have a beat-up nose but that’s what we had to do to get our fish. The fish we got off the bottom were a little nicer fish. We sent our clients home with one short of limits. The set up of choice was once again the Sep’s Gold Starlight Dodger and an Uncle Larry’s Pink Spinner. We also caught a couple on a Pink/Silver Fish Flash with the same Spinner and Corn was Pautzke Can-O-Corn with some Smelly Jelly Sticky Shrimp scent added in. The lake level is dropping quite a bit everyday and the water was 3 degrees colder this morning.  I’m guessing that’s what has the fish scattered and the bite not too consistent.  Taking Monday off and back up to Stampede and Tahoe starting Tuesday…

www.fishtightlines.com

8/10/13 Stampede Kokanee

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We started off this morning on Stampede in the same area using the same set ups as previous days, however, it didn’t take long to find out things have changed again. If you have been following our reports from Stampede, you will see that over the last few days things have been changing quickly. Today, we caught fish from 21 feet to 65 feet and everyplace in between, no consistency in color, depth or tackle. We had four clients that wanted to call it a day by 10:30 as they had other plans. When we called it quits we had 10 kokanee in the box. We hooked most of those fish around the island. After dropping the clients off, I picked up my wife and three of my granddaughters. The kids hooked and landed 5 Kokanee in no time in front of the dam. We found fish stacked up over in the corner of the dam and also at the snag (a place in the Davies Creek arm Ted Samford named years ago). The fish over at the dam seemed a little bigger and fatter than the others. We also talked to a few other boats and most had the same results. Our best set up was a Sep’s Gold Starlight dodger with an Uncle Larry’s Pink Tiger and a small Pink and Silver Fish Flash also with the same Uncle Larry’s Spinner all tipped with Pautzke Fire Cured Corn behind Shark Cannonballs. For tomorrows trip, I think we will start out by the dam to see what happens. It was much colder this morning, as the boat seats had frost on them. Things are changing in the high country!

Pictured L to R

Charlotte Brown, Brooke Kennedy and Ella Brown

 cphoto     bphoto     ephoto

8/8/13 Stampede Reservoir Kokanee

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tlgsToday, we had a family of six with young children. They requested we start at 7 AM rather than the normal start time of 5:30. We headed straight over to the island where we have been fishing previously. We dropped in and within a few minutes we landed a double. We continued to work that area, landing a Kokanee every now and then. Everything was different again today, the fish yesterday were at 35 feet, today they were down at 55 feet. The Kokanee average 13 inches they were fat and in good shape. We threw everything in the boat at them, the lure of choice was Sep’s Gold  Starlight Dodger behind Shark Chrome Cannonballs.

8/7/13 Stampede Kokanee Continue to Bite

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maxwell

After a couple days at Lake Tahoe we moved camp over to Stampede. Today’s trip started off completely different that the last time we were on Stampede which was just last week. Dark clouds blanketed us as we left the ramp. We started off at the regular spot which is just off the island. I had to look twice when I glanced at the Lowrance. There were fish stacked like I haven’t seen on Stampede in a long time. We dropped a Sep’s Strike Master with a RMT Assassin spinner on one side and the same dodger with an Uncle Larry’s Tropical Tiger on the other. Both were tipped with Pautzke Fire Cured Shoepeg corn behind Chrome Shark Cannonballs. We made two passes without a touch. Finally, on the next pass we hooked up and lost it before we good get a look at it. This was the case for the next four hook ups. We finally boated a couple of nice Kokanee. After those couple of fish the bite started getting slower. I switched things around to try to get these fish to hit anything. The screen was still loaded. Every boat that went by made a comment about how slow it was. Finally, I found the combination they wanted. A Sep’s Gold Starlight dodger with an Uncle Larry’s Pink UV Spinner with the same corn, started to produce several fish. It was never a red hot bite, we ended up doing well with just a couple short of limits. I believe the low pressure system that was over us had to have something to do with today’s bite. After dropping off our clients I picked up my wife, Tresa and went to look at some other spots just in case I needed them for tomorrows trip. We were behind the island when I marked a bunch of fish in 40 feet of water sitting right on the bottom. We dropped in a Pink and Silver Fish Flash with the Uncle Larry’s Pink Spinner and within a couple minutes we had two fish on that set up and another on the Sep’s Gold Starlight with the same spinner.

The Maxwell Family (Left to Right) Mark, Luke, Will and Sam or San Carlos CA with a few of the Kokanee they caught today.