After a couple of years of talk about kokanee and specifically Lake Stevens and its upcoming derby between a buddy and myself we made a "date" for a morning on the water. Today was the day and we were going to meet at the City launch at 5:00AM. for what we hoped would be morning of productive fishing (the lake had been fishing well).
With a cooler of drinks and fresh smoked kokanee had the boat in the water at 4:45 AM and the gear organized shortly thereafter for what looked to be great day to be on the water- no clouds or wind. The buddy seemed to be running a tad late but no big deal; had the chance to visit with a few of the folks that were also early birds - trading notes on what had been working, etc. He was still a no show at 5:45 so called and left a message that I was going out on the lake and to give me a call.
Being one not to waste a day on the water I decided to experiment a bit and with every kokanee I would change gear - the goal was to catch a limit (10 fish) on 10 different outfits. Less than 3 hours later mission accomplished - 10 kokanee in the cooler caught on 10 different lures, in combination with 6 different dodgers and 3 scents (and two with no scent). Caught fish from the surface down to 24 feet below the surface. The successful lures varied from bare hooks (baited with a maggot) to apex lures to hoochies to wedding ring spinners. In short the fishing was good and conditions look like they are developing nicely for those fishing the derby on Saturday.
My buddy - he never did show but did call at 6:21 to report that he had "forgotten" but did say we should try to make it another time- Yeah right!! - LOL
BTW -
Guess I now know that kokanee are not Chinook!!!
Tight lines
Curt