PETER HOPE LAKE
Fishing Reports
Less than an hour outside of Kamloops, Peter Hope Lake is one of my favourite lakes- and not just for fishing! Beautiful cabins and hidden arms of the lake make this a great lake to explore. Read more about Peter Hope Lake
JuLy 30, 2024
​I wanted to go to Stump Lake because it has been incredibly good lately, but I hadn't been to Peter Hope for a while and some of the kokanee are a little bigger than Stump. For that reason, I chose to go to Peter Hope in search of big kokanee and hopefully a good fishing report.
The last time I was at Peter Hope it was all about the gold wiggle hoochie, but last time at Stump was all about the pink wiggle hoochie. With that in mind I put on my Chrome's 4.5 inch bendable dodgers, one with a gold wiggle hoochie and one with a pink wiggle hoochie.
I headed down toward the north end of the lake. The fish were marking at 35 to 55 feet. and they seemed to be almost everywhere I went. I sent the gear down to 45 feet and trolled at speeds between 1.1 to 1.5 MPH. It was the pink wiggle hoochie that struck first, putting a good-sized kokanee in the boat. After 15 minutes with no bites I was just about to replace the gold wiggle hoochie on my second rod with a pink wiggle hoochie, but before I grabbed the rod it starting bouncing and kokanee number two was in the boat. Shortly after that came kokanee number three, also on gold. I followed this up with four straight lost fish, all on the gold hoochie. I have been pleasantly surprised at how productive the gold wiggle hoochie has been!
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I set up my first rod with gold as well and it quickly put kokanee number four in the boat. The fifth one took a little while longer. I lost two more before I got one to the side of the boat, except this one was rainbow trout that I quickly released. A little while later I caught another one on the gold wiggle hoochie, but it was another rainbow.
I brought my gear up and anchored over a large school using anchor mode on the bow mount. I tried jigging chironomids for about 30 minutes but I couldn't even get the fish to start chasing my gear.
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Back to trolling I went. I got one rod down to 45 feet and as I was letting line out on the second rod the first rod went off and finally put my limit fish in the boat!
Four of the fish were of good size, two weighing in at over 2 pounds, and two just under 2 pounds. A slower troll seemed to work best today, 1.1 and 1.2 mph were the most productive speeds. I had action at all depths from 35 feet down to 55 feet.
the Strategy
Rod one: A Chrome's 4.5 inch custom bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's pink wiggle hoochie
Rod two: A Chrome's 4.5 inch custom bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a Chrome's gold wiggle hoochie
THE CATCH
A limit of kokanee, two rainbows released, and 6 fish lost.
kokanee: 5
rainbows: 2
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
JuLy 11, 2024
It was an early start this morning to try and beat the heat. I arrived at Peter Hope Lake at just after 5 a.m. and was on the water by 5:25 a.m.
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I headed out towards the drop off and started marking fish right away at 35 to 55 feet deep. I sent down a chrome and copper chironomid while I was setting up my downriggers. I was able to get the marks to chase the chironomid and got one bite, but I wanted to get trolling so I reeled up.
Last time I was out on Monte a gold wiggle hoochie had been working best for me, so I tried it again today paired with a slim swing tail dodger. On my second rod I used a pink wiggle hoochie also paired with a slim swing tail dodger.
I dropped the gear down to 45 feet and moved it up and down as I went, depending on where the marks were. As I got just past the halfway point across the lake (towards the west side) I got into my first kokanee on the gold wiggle hoochie. About 20 minutes later I got into another nice kokanee, also on the wiggle hoochie. I then lost two more on the gold wiggle hoochie over the next 30 minutes.
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I decided to change out the lure on the second rod. I tried multiple lures but none were as good as the gold wiggle hoochie today. I did get a couple of bites on a pink micro smile hoochie and caught a small kokanee on an orange wiggle hoochie. It took a long time to catch my last two kokanee. I ended up getting them both on the gold wiggle hoochie and lost count of how many I lost on that setup. At one point I put a pink wiggle hoochie back on and had a fish on it, but I was busy reeling in a fish on my other rod and didn't get to it in time.
I caught most of the fish at about 50 feet, give or take 5 feet, at a speed of 1.2 to 1.4 MPH. I am sure that I lost well over a dozen fish today which is unfortunate because I was trying out some new high-end number 2 drop-shot hooks I've heard are supposed to up your catch to loss ratio. For me it was the opposite. I will try them again though, one trial run isn't enough to make a true judgement on them. Plus I need another excuse to get out there on the water again soon! It is definitely a little harder to keep them on at Peter Hope with the single barbless hook restriction.
Four of the five fish I caught today were over 2 lbs, with the biggest weighing 2.6 lbs. The majority of the action was in the southwest end of the lake.
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I chatted with a few other fishers today and it seemed like everyone was catching some kokanee, but not many of them. Most fishers were using wiggle hoochies and/or micro hoochies.
the Strategy
Rod one: A slim swing tail dodger with 14 inches of leader to a gold wiggle hoochie
Rod two: A slim swing tail dodger with 14 inches of leader to a pink wiggle hoochie
THE CATCH
It took a while but the gold wiggle hoochie got the job done again!
kokanee: 5
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
June 12, 2024
I have been itching to get back out to Peter Hope Lake, and when I woke up this morning the sun was out and the wind was calm. Today was the day!
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I arrived at the lake at around 9:30 a.m. and started marking fish at 40 feet right after passing the drop off. I dropped down my chironomid jigging gear to 40 feet while I set up my trolling rods and mounted my downriggers.
It didn't take long to get some fish chasing the chironomid- by the time I set up my trolling gear I had gotten 3 bites and lost a kokanee beside the boat. I was second guessing if I should even bother trolling today and just continue jigging.
But I decided on trolling. The wiggle hoochies and the kokanee wobblers have been very good as of late and I wanted to give them a try. This ended up being a good idea!
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I put my gear down to 40 feet. On one rod I was using a 4 inch custom bendable dodger with a pink kokanee wobbler, and on the other I used the same dodger but with a pink wiggle hoochie. These along with spinner hoochies are my favourites to use at Peter Hope because they don't need bait to catch kokanee.
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It only took about 5 minutes for the kokanee wobbler to get into a kokanee, which I lost near the boat. I just got it back down and the rod with the wiggle hoochie was going off. This time I landed a beauty chrome kokanee! As I was putting the fish in the cooler the kokanee wobbler was into another kokanee which I also landed.
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By 10:30 a.m. I had four kokanee in the boat and lost another four. The action at the the beginning of the day was frantic!
It took a full hour to land the next kokanee and I lost two during that time. The barbless hook adds a little extra challenge when landing the fish, especially when they get close to the boat. I didn't catch any kokanee while I was turning the boat, as I often do. A straight path at 1.2 MPH seemed to be the sweet spot today. Depths in the 35 to 50 foot range were all working well.
The fish were marking almost everywhere with the biggest schools seemingly at the north west end of the lake where I caught 4 of my 5 kokanee. It was another awesome of day of catching kokanee!
the Strategy
Rod one: A 4 inch custom bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a pink wiggle hoochie
Rod two: A 4 inch custom bendable dodger with 14 inches of leader to a pink kokanee wobbler
THE CATCH
It was an awesome day of fishing! I lost more than I caught.
kokanee: 5
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge