Green Peter Lake

"From a guide standpoint, is an overpopulated kokanee fishery really a bad thing?" That was the question Owin Hays posed to guide Damon Struble of Nomad's Fishing Adventures while live on the air of Outdoor GPS while we were trolling for kokanee on Green Peter Lake. With seven year old Michael McIntyre on board reeling in a fish on live television that would surely make him the coolest kid in his class, it's difficult to speak negatively of the overpopulated fishery. "He's seven, he doesn't care how big the fish are," said Struble. The average size of Green Peter Kokanee is roughly between six to eight inches, but it's not uncommon for them to be even smaller. One thing is for sure, as long as Michael was happy, so was his guide, his grandpa Mike, and of course Dave Calhoun, who was doing a live video of the all the action taking place for the show.

Green Peter probably isn't the first place that comes to mind when you think of kokanee. It doesn't have the beastly 15" and bigger fish that you're more likely to find in Detroit Lake. The biodiversity and by-catch is nothing like the mackinaw in Odell Lake. Even though there's a small, naturalized population of Chinook, they're nothing like the commonly caught landlocked kings of Lake Chelan. While the fishery may not have the quality of other kokanee fisheries in the Northwest, it definitely has the quantity. The kind of quantity that makes it fairly easy for a novice to get their limits before noon earlier in the season when the fish are up top. As summer progresses, there's a few necessary adjustments, but bountiful opportunities for every kind of angler.

Our trip took place in late May on Memorial Day Weekend. The Thissel Creek boat ramp was a little crowded, so we launched at the Whitcomb Creek ramp. In spite of it being a long holiday weekend, the boat traffic overall was still fairly low. With 3,720 acres of water to roam with lots of coves and hideaways, the pleasure boaters weren't as much of an issue at nearly full pool. The Whitcomb Campground was full, but Sunnyside Campground almost always has spaces available and RV hookups. There's a few shorelines that are great for primitive camping by boat, and even a few floating restrooms if you really gotta go but can't make it back to the ramp. Above the lake is Quartzville Creek, which has plenty of camping areas, helps spread out the crowds a bit, and provides some of the best trout fishing in the lake near the mouth of the creek.

Quartzville Creek contributes a lot to the character and identity of Green Peter Lake. The area became host to the first known populations of adfluvial chinook salmon in the state of Oregon. Likely stemming from spring chinook hatchery juveniles released into the lake, this population has only fairly recently developed in the past decade or so. While it's fairly uncommon to find one of these fish, it's still exciting with every bite to know they're in there.

Trout stocking takes place in both the creek and the lake throughout the summer, so even when the kokanee begin to migrate deeper for cooler waters when the weather heats up and the water recedes, there's still plenty of fish to target at varying depths. Kokanee Power of Oregon typically holds it's annual derby there in June, and by July downriggers are almost a necessity. Earlier in the summer, the lake often hosts several bass tournaments. The rocky shorelines and stumps are popular areas for largemouth and smallmouth. The warmwater fishery provides a wider range of fishing opportunity to change things up now and then when the day doesn't go as planned for coldwater species.

When the kokanee are at a depth that's within reach, you will catch them. They were hitting every color and every flavor on board Struble's boat, but I got a little nosey about what he puts on his corn. "I'm not secretive about it. There's enough fish out here for everybody, and the more that get removed, the less competition there is for food, creating a better grade of fish in the long term." He does like to vary at least two scents, one on each side of the boat in little ramekins so everyone has their own little personal bait station. On the port side, the corn was marinating in a little tuna, a lot of Pro-Cure Bait Scents Garlic Plus, and a generous sprinkle of Lawry's garlic salt. Seeing the little bits of parsley from the garlic salt floating around in the container almost tempted me to put a little dab of it on my porkchops I brought for lunch. On the starboard side of the boat, the corn was soaked in tuna oil with powdered krill. Most of the time, it didn't seem to matter. But like most details in fishing, when it did matter, it mattered a lot. We rolled through several schools where the krill was getting bit more often than the garlic, and vice versa. Either way, it doesn't hurt to put a little variety on the buffet.

Struble likes a trolling speed of 1.3mph. At the time, we were running 8-10 ounce lead cannonballs at about 60 feet. This is about the cutoff for Struble's program before transitioning to downriggers. The Lamiglas Classic Glass rods seemed to handle the extra weight fairly well. Struble reminded us that with the scope of the lines, 60 feet of line being out was more like being 30 feet down. Later in the summer, the fish are more likely to be at around 60 feet of depth, but having a downrigger minimizes the scope of the line and gets the gear in the zone. Most of the fish we were seeing were at about 30-40 feet deep. Even if you're above a school, the more aggressive fish will rise for a bite.

As for the gear, we were using Hawken's Simon Dodgers, but the black and white with red dot on one side and chrome on the other seemed to draw the most strikes. Small presentation hootchies outfished the larger ones. Damon's hook set-ups were pretty unique and interesting. the smaller bodies hoochies had size 4 octopus circle hooks, and the fish that bit, didn't seem to come loose nearly as much. As easy as it is to lose kokanee after hooking up, we still managed to land a good 80 percent of the fish that bit. For the larger bodied hoochies, Struble likes using a Tru-Turn hook on the top, and a size 4 octopus hook or a treble hook below it. The long shank of the Tru-Turn hook puts the point well towards the back of the skirt without using beads to space the hooks out. Having a trailing hook is pretty crucial, as it tends to hook the fish in the body after they bite the top hook and start thrashing about, which helps tremendously with the landing ratio.

The abundance of fish, the variety of fisheries, and the scenic views of Green Peter Lake make it a hidden gem among kokanee fisheries. It may not have the world class trophy kokes, but it's a great place to take kids like Michael out on the water and get into some action that will get them hooked on fishing. If anything, they'll get bored of reeling in fish. After a few minutes of playing angry birds during a lunch break, we pointed him towards the screen of the fish finder. As we'd pass over a school, pointing out all the little dots on the screen, we'd have a little countdown to takedown, and he was engaged with the action again. "It's kind of like a video game," I said. We dropped off Dave at the dock, and asked Michael if he wanted to go home early with 95 fish for the boat, or go back out and chase our limits. He was eager to get back out on the water and back into the fish, and I'm sure he'll be ready to come back out another day chasing limits again.

This article was published in the May 2020 issue of Northwest Sportsman Magazine