We have been trying to make a trip to Dworshak for some time, have not fished it for many years. Were thinking about camping for a night or two, but finally decided on a one day trip.

Left the house at 5:00am, pulled into Dworshak State Park around 7:am. Beautiful day with the clean smell of pine trees in the air, no wind, a little chill, sun with a few big clouds, perfect day for fishing. I have several new lures to try, new Spectre Braid on the downriggers, and Chamberlin downrigger releases that are designed to trip with small Kokanee. We get the downriggers installed on the rails, the rods rigged with Sling Blades, and Kokabow lures, finally get the boat launched at 7:30am.

Without putting the lines out we make a large loop in front of th launch, including the Freeman Creek area to check water depth, and mark fish, see a ot of fish on the screen so we decide to start fishing in his area, while we were doing this procedure a couple of boats put in and headed across the lake.

We then put the lines in one at 30' the other at 40', seeing fish on the screen we are expecting a hit any time, not a hit, try different depths, and change lures, nothing happens. After about two hours we are ready to change locations, even though we are dragging through fish we can see on the fishfinder. Off in the distance across the lake we can just barley see a vouple of boats, so we pick up and head in that direction. When we get there there are five boats spread out in a large area, then we see a net come out. We get the lines back in the 62F water, start a slow 1.2mph troll, this goes on for about thirty minutes without a bump.

Time to try something different, what we are doing just isn't working, back to basics, I rig a rod with a string of Les Davis silver spinners that I fished with forty years ago, attach a wedding ring with double single size 6 hooks, put a fake maggot on the upper hook, and red corn on the trailer, add a little weight, then put out sixty feet of line. Rod had been out for less than ten minutes when the tip starts bouncing, Barb grabs it out of the holoder and pulls in a beautiful silver Kokanee. Now we are really happy and excited, give each other a high five and then get the rod back in the water. We decide to quit using the downriggers, while changing things out Barb pulls in another Koknee

We now have three productive rods out, all catching fish, no more than ten minutes went by without a hit, or fish on, pretty fast action. Did not get any triples, but did get a couple of doubles. After we caught Twenty Kokanee, we decided to pull the lines in, and find a spot to have lunch, our little English Setter "Happy" was ready for a break.

Had been wanting to check out the Canyon Creek Campground, so we located it on the map, put the boat on plane, and headed there. his is a beautiful campground with two campsites overlooking the lake, and a few others back in the timber, they all have large park benches, there is also a very nice restroom, the park service keeps everything sparkling, if you are so inclined, this is a good spot to pull in for lunch.

What started out as a very slow day, turned out really good, but it would have been good even without fish. Dworshak is very beautiful, not a single house on the lake shore, very few people, almost like a wilderness area, and it's over fifty miles long, can hardly wait to return.

Sorry for the lack of fish pictures, we had put the fish on ice as they were caught, I didn't want to put them in the warm outside for photos, but will figure out something for the next trip. Ken & Barb