STUMP LAKE
fishing reports
Stump Lake is producing kokanee in the one to two pound range as well as some big rainbow trout. Read more about Stump Lake
October 3, 2024
Finally! After a long break from kokanee fishing due to a hand injury, I finally felt recovered enough to get back out on the water. How I've missed it!
I had a hunch that the fishing would still be solid for some chrome kokanee at Stump Lake, especially since most of the adult fish there are triploids—and I was right!
When I arrived I made my way directly from the highway launch and began scanning for signs of fish on the Garmin. After five minutes without a single mark, I decided to venture out to a spot where I’ve been landing plenty of kokanee this year.
I began marking the occasional fish at around 20 feet. I trolled in a northward direction, equipping my rods with slim swing tail dodgers—one with an orange wiggle hoochie and the other with a pink wiggle hoochie. I set the pink hoochie to 22 feet and the orange to 5 feet, hoping that the sparse marks were simply due to the fish being near the surface. I got my first bite on the pink wiggle hoochie about 15 minutes later, but it was just that—a bite.
It was pretty slow going and nothing was happing on the surface rod so I put it down to 20 feet as well. I had trolled a fair way down the lake when I finally started marking more fish in the 20 to 30 foot range. Shortly after marking the fish I caught a nice kokanee on the orange wiggle hoochie. I decided to stay in this general area, but I was only marking lots of fish and not landing any.
I switched out the pink wiggle hoochie for a gold one, which proved to be a smart move. Just five minutes after sending it down, I caught another beautiful kokanee, followed closely by a nice rainbow!
Since the gold hoochie was working so well, I switched out the orange hoochie on my second rod for a gold one. As I was putting the line out I hooked another kokanee on the first rod. With both rods now running gold wiggle hoochies, the action picked up considerably. I kept the rods at 22 feet and quickly filled my limit of kokanee, also catching and releasing three more rainbows along the way.
One of the kokanees I caught today had a very yellow tinted belly and yellow fins, as seen in the photo gallery. I’ve never seen one like that before. If you have any insights on why this might be, send me a message!
It seemed like the fish were concentrated in a relatively small area today. The spot where I was catching them can be found in the photo gallery. I was using a 75-foot setback and trolling at speeds between 1.2 and 1.4 MPH
the Strategy
rod one: A slim swing tail dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's gold wiggle hoochie
rod two: Same as rod one
THE CATCH
Another great day for the gold wiggle hoochie!
kokanee: 5
rainbows: 4
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
August 20, 2024
I have been looking forward to getting back out on Stump Lake, and today a friend was able to join me!
We got a bit of a late start but we were determined to find some kokanee anyways. When we arrived the first thing I noticed was that the spot that had been producing for me had the most boats close to it, and the water clarity was not as good as my last time out.
We first scanned an area that had produced for me in the past but there were very few marks, so we headed over to the same spot I was catching last time. We were marking quite a few fish in the 30 to 45 foot range. After a quick tutorial on the electric downrigger my friend got his line down to 35 feet using a custom bendable dodger and a pink wiggle hoochie. I geared up with a slim swing tail dodger and an orange wiggle hoochie.
It didn't take too long to get our first kokanee on the orange wiggle hoochie, a small 10 inch kokanee. I was unable to release this fish so it went into the cooler on ice. The second fish (a better-sized fish) also came in on my orange wiggle hoochie. My friend, not to be outdone, changed to an orange wiggle hoochie and over the next 30 minutes he put two much bigger kokanee in the boat. The fishing was pretty steady from about 9:45 a.m. until 10:45 a.m., and then there was a long lull in the action. I tried a gold wiggle hoochie but that didn't seem to work. I then switched a Chrome's double spinner with shoepeg and managed to bring in a kokanee at around 11:45, and my friend got another good one on the orange hoochie. I had one more on the hook that I lost by the boat which was good because it was another 10 incher. At 12:30 p.m. we pulled up the gear and headed for home.
Today we were using 15 to 25 foot setbacks and fishing around 35 feet in the same spot I had so much success last time (see the previous report). The usual 1.2 to 1.4 MPH seemed to work well. We also had a handful of bites between catches.
It was a good day! A total of six kokanee caught between the two of us, a few lost and a few bites in 2 hours and 45 minutes. The orange wiggle hoochie was getting it done again today.
the Strategy
rod one: A slim swing tail dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's orange wiggle hoochie
rod two: A 4.5 inch bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's pink wiggle hoochie
THE CATCH
Another great day for the orange wiggle hoochie!
kokanee: 6
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge