Pepacton Reservoir Brown Trout - June 26, 2013

I made the drive to Downsville, NY to fish the world famous Pepacton Reservoir for reservoir-run brown trout. I met up with Rick Flanders and we launched at around 10 am after steam cleaning our kayaks at Al's Sportshop.

The trout were rising out of the water pretty consistently on some spent sulphur spinners from the prior night. The splashes were hard, and there were some big browns coming up as well. With the amount of rising trout, we hoped for a good day with active fish. Rick hooked up almost immediately with a nice brown trolling an alewife. 

I was getting hit consistently, but didn't hook up until I hit the end of point that jutted out into a cove. After a solid fight, I netted a silver colored brown trout that measured 18". Like salmon and steelhead, brown trout become silver colored if they roam in deep open water like sea-run trout. I quickly revived and released the fish after a couple of pictures. 

I continued fishing inside the cove and soon hooked into a second fish as I reeled in my mooselook wobbler. This brown leaped out of the water and crashed back in after I hooked it on the surface only only a few feet from the yak. This brown measured 17". 

My third fish was a few minutes later trolling in the other direction. Again, this fish bounded for the surface after getting hooked. I landed another silverly brown trout, this time with large orange dots. These were the most uniquely colored brown trout that I have seen. To this point, all three of my browns were caught trolling mooselook wobblers on leadcore. 

I caught my forth brown trolling in the same direction This was my smallest fish of the day, just starting to get the silvery, sea-run look. 

By this time, it was a little after noon. It was bright and hot, and the next few passes yielded no more browns. Rick and I switched gears and started targeting smallmouths. The smallie bite was slow, and I picked away at two fish over an hour working some timber with crankbaits. The steep ledges around the reservoir may make plastics a better selection. 

We started trolling again at about 2:30 pm and decided to explore. We left the cove and covered about a mile of shoreline. Rick picked off two more brown trout at the point of the cove. I had some hard hits, but couldn't get one hooked in a couple of passes over the long stretch of shoreline. I headed back to the cove again, and hooked into a fish deep into the cove trolling in 28'. Initially, the fish wouldn't budge, so I thought I may be stuck. But, it started coming up and pulling hard and soon burst to the surface and leaped in the air about 2' near the kayak. Rick thought it was a smallmouth, but it turned out to be a stout, fat bellied 20" brown trout. I kept this fish and put it on the stringer. 

The late afternoon, early evening bite was a disappointing pick. After that brown, I only had a couple of hits, and we started to move our way back to the launch at about 6:30 am, but working some key spots that we had success on the other side of the little bay we fishing in the morning. 

We had focused most of our efforts in 30'. I find browns are more structure orientated than other trout and salmon species, so I looked for points of land and water were the thermocline met the bottom. We mostly ignored the thermocline in the open water, choosing to pick away at browns at the edges of steep ledges that started at 30' and dropped abruptly to 65' - 70'. While making a turn, I went through some deep water and started marking fish up and down the thermocline, which was setting up between 20' and 40'. The bottom depth was 70', so the browns were roaming the open water. This was a massive school of trout, but they wouldn't bite. We worked it hard, and I kept changing direction and speed. 

Soon, my rod doubled over hard and I heard an enormous splash behind the kayak. The brown soon jumped again, and I began a dogged battle on the surface with the largest brown of the day. The battle went subsurface, and the trout started taking drag, and twas controlling me, and not the other way around, and I was afraid I didn't have enough rod to land the fish. After another leap into the air, I got the brown to the boat and saw it was well hooked.  Despite some issues with my net, I landed a thick-bodied 22" brown trout, silver with bright red spots and perfect brown fins. I thought that this was likely my NYS citation catch and release brown, but it was short by two inches. Either way, it was a gorgeous fish and I was extremely happy to catch it. This fish was caught among the enormous school that I marked on my chart. After catching this fish, they were gone and that was the last fish of the day for either of us. 

The surface temperature was almost 74 degrees. 

I marked plenty of fish that day. Most of them were within the thermocline, whether that was in the bottom of the water column in 30', or out in open water in 70'. Often times it was a large body of fish spread out throughout the thermocline. Other times, and less often, they were above the thermocline congregated in tight pods herding the alewives. Three colors of lead was the order of the day, but I went down another color when I fished the open water because it looked like the majority of fish were holding in the 30' - 40' portion of the thermocline. 

It is important to note that the current from the Delaware River is very strong here, and the water moves like it would in a saltwater bay, only the tide never changes! You will find that you will move much faster with the current than against. Most of the fish that I caught were facing into the current, but my largest one was not. 

I caught 5 browns trolling a mooselook wobbler on leadcore. The other brown, and my smallest one, was caught on a live alewife trolled on leadcore. Best speed was approximately 1.8 - 2.0 knots. Faster and slower speeds weren't producing. 

I tied an 8' leader of 6 lb fluorocarbon to the leadcore. 

Pepacton is a great place to fish, and I will make it a point to get up there a few times per year. There is a two fish 15" limit on brown trout, with only one fish above 21" permitted. A NYC reservoir permit is required with a steam cleaning of your kayak. All the permits and long drive is well worth the effort. 

It is quite an ecosystem, and the reservoir is just as advertised - loaded with quality brown trout. 

Kokanee Salmon - June 8, 2013 and June 15, 2013

West Hill Pond, CT. 

Earlier this month, I made a day trip to West Hill Pond in CT to target kokanee salmon. Kokanees are landlocked sockeye salmon. Since they are Pacific salmon, they have a three year life cycle and die after spawning during the fall of the third year. Kokes are a western fish, and the vast majority of kokanee fisheries are west of the Rockies. There are only four kokanee fisheries east of the Mississippi. Two of these fisheries are in Connecticut, one in upstate New York, and a prolific fishery in North Carolina.

New York discontinued their kokanee program during the recession for budgetary reasons. The kokes only caught on in the remote Bug Pond in Hamilton County where a self-sustaining population exists today. Prior to discontinuation, several ponds in the Adirondacks had stocked populations of kokanee.

Connecticut continues their kokanee program and the fishery is on a rebound after alewives were illegally introduced to the kokanee lakes. Kokes are primarily plankton feeders and the alewives competed with them for plankton. As a result, the kokanee population went down and the alewives became overpopulated. Connecticut solved this problem by stocking larger brown trout that forage heavily on alewives. It looks like the population of alewives is down and the kokanee are making a good comeback.

Kokanee are one of the smallest salmon, and rarely exceed about 18" in length. They become big enough to catch during the third year of their life cycle. At this time, they start the spring at about 12" and will grow to as big as 17" by the end of the summer. Since all fish are from the same year class, they will generally all be the same size.

June afternoon on West Hill Pond. 

Like all salmon, kokes are quirky and this is a niche fishery in the truest sense of the word. Since they are plankton eaters, they only strike a lure out of anger or reflex. This makes flash and vibration two very important components to your arsenal of weapons. Flash is crucial to get the attention of the salmon. As such, trolling with flashers or dodgers is usually necessary. Niche lures are also a must, and bright Wedding Ring spinners were very productive for me. I also trolled Kokanee Killers, which is a plastic spoon. I had some hits on the Kokanee Killer, and even caught a nice brown trout on it, but it didn't produce any kokes for me.

Speed is another issue in this fishery. Kokes like a slow troll at approximately one mile per hour.

Most importantly, you need to tip your spoon or spinner with shoepeg corn. The scent is a huge attractor for the kokanee. Like I said, salmon are a quirky fish. Landlocked Atlantics are a very nuanced-based fishery as well.

Managing the leadcore at a slow speed was important. I estimated that my line was dropping about 12' per color while trolling at 1 mph. As such, I was trolling at 3 colors and my lure was in approximately 35'.

My first kokanee salmon. 

During my first trip, I started trolling two leadcore rods. One rod was rigged with a Kokanee Killer behind a Mack Double D dodger. The second rod was rigged with a wedding ring spinner behind a Luhr Jensen Flasher. I hooked into a fish almost immediately that I didn't land or see. Soon after, I caught a nice brown trout. After this, I hooked into another fish that started to fight me differently and harder. As it came to the boat, I thought that it was a rainbow trout, but as I got it closer, I saw different hues - silver with a dark blue mixed hue fading into bright purple. I noticed the different body type and realized that it was my first kokanee and I was extremely happy. It was a beautiful fish and looked very similar to some of the landlocked Atlantics that I have caught. The big difference was the lack of spots and a rounder, stouter frame on the kokes. My wife was kind enough to take a picture and I continued to fish.

I picked away at brown trout as bycatch the entire outing and caught 7 total browns to 16". These fish were not silvery in appearance and didn't look like they had been in the lake for too long.

Near the end of the day, I had just released a nice brown. I had left my other leadcore line with the dodger out. As I reeled it in, I noticed that I had a fish. It was fighting me differently than the brown and when it got near the boat, the fish went airborne. After jumping 3' in the air, I was sure it was a salmon and carefully brought it in and landed it. It was my second salmon of the day caught and was also caught on a wedding ring spinner. This time, it was behind a dodger.

On a three hour trip, I caught 2 kokanee salmon and 7 brown trout.

I returned the next week solo for a morning outing. The fishing was definitely slower. But, I got into my first fish of the day fairly early. Soon after hooking it, I saw it leap far behind the boat high into the air. I knew it was a salmon! After a final tussle next to the boat, I netted my first salmon of the day. For the rest of the morning, I lost several fish and caught 5 brown trout (all released). Near the end of the outing, I caught a second salmon that I lost next to the boat. This time, the dodger outproduced the flasher for trolling. But, all fish were caught on the wedding ring spinner again.

By August, these fish will be around 17", and I am looking to return to West Hill at that time to try for one last shot at these beautiful fish.