Jack W: Dwarshak and Snake R

Fished Dworshak last week for four days. Brought home 26 kokanee.

Most of them were firm of flesh and real pink as one might expect them to be. However, I did have two fish that felt 'mushy' when I cleaned them. Had a good time, but doubt I'll go back until the weather and water temps. cool down. I dropped a thermometer down 60 ft. and held it there for a couple minutes. It came back up reading 65 degrees! I was expecting maybe 50 to 55 degrees. Water surface registered 75 degrees. 

Folks I interviewed at the dock said fishing had slowed way down from what it had been 2-3 wks. ago. Two guys much older than myself that I spoke with said they had launched at 6:30 am and fished all day for a total of 25 between the two of them.(It was 7:00pm when we both were pulling boats out of the water that I spoke with them).

Meanwhile bass fishing has picked up and seems to be in full swing. Took my parish priest out last night on the Snake for the first time. He hasn't fished much in the past, but wants to learn. He hooked a 19-3/4 in. smallmouth, a 17 in. smally and several in the 8 to 12 inch range. In all we boated more than 20 fish in two hours, and tossed back at least half of them.

The Corps. has a pretty good flow going on the Snake. So the best techniques for chasing bass here locally is trolling crank baits, etc. Trying to vertical fish using jigs and wacky worm techniques is a real challenge, especially if you are the only one in the boat. I suspect the current is less of a factor at the lower end of our pools on the Snake, above the dams, but haven't had recent enough experience downstream to say for certain.