We are having a good time up here in Shaver Lake with cooler weather than the valley and a good bite from kokanee and trout. Weather-wise, you need a sweatshirt when we leave the dock and for the first couple hours, then it warms up and can be a hot 90 degrees before we arrive at the dock. As for the fish, two limits a day seems to be the normal charter day – they are scattered.
I have been fishing the triangle between the Shaver Marina, The Point and Island at 33 feet deep. Orange Koke Busters with a tip of corn behind Captain Jack’s C.J. Dodgers are working for me on the downriggers. The side poles were hot for the first part of the week, but the past few days have slowed as the pre-spawn kokanee bite has improved at lower depths. Trout Busters behind weighted Mountain Flashers are getting the side poles down to 21 feet and that is a good depth for yearling trout now. I have found some nice trout in Stevenson Bay, but targeting kokanee I have stayed in the triangle. The Point produced some pre-spawn kokes for us this week, so expect The Point to the dam to be good in near future.
This is the time of the year those mature 3-year-old kokanee lose their scales and turn to an apricot color. The male have large snouts and frankly they look like their Alaska brothers, Sockeye Salmon. This is one of my favorite times of the year catching these fighters, and they do put up a battle. Most of you know that the 3-year-old kokes will spawn in a few months and die. They have a three-year cycle.
Lots of folks fishing with us picked up their limits this week including Farm Bureau boss Ryan Jacobson and his staff, Bailey Degraw and Courtney Sorenson, over the weekend. They picked up a couple limits on 18 hook ups including Courtney’s 17.5-inch pre-spawn kokanee. In all, the trio kept nine kokes and three yearling trout, tossing smaller ones.
With the boating season winding down, we are experiencing calmer water fishing conditions. I still have to ask, “Why do ski boat operators like to buzz fishermen in covered areas?” Just a pet peeve among trollers.
As the summer winds down, I think you will find a decent-to-good kokanee bite for a few weeks or month, and a good bite on yearling trout that I have found hiding in coves and near inlets.
Hunter Atkinson, a 15-year-old Clovis North student, holds my 2017 kokanee record at 19 inches. Hunter is a gifted fisherman with a bright future in fishing. He battled that big boy just as he should – a jumper that should have came off, but he stayed right on it.
The next issue of the Clovis Roundup will wind up my fishing charter season. I hope to have more encouraging reports to give you. I see so many of you on the lake and enjoy a morning chat or wave as we pass by doing the greatest thing in the world, fishing! Of course, that is my opinion. You can contact me via email at dickchip@netptc.net or by text at 559-281-6948.