Today was a little unexpected.
My plan today was to learn how to target spring time lake trout before my kokanee season started in full swing. I had planned to target lake trout thru jigging, which has become my favorite way to target them. Everything I had heard was pointing to trolling for them in the top 10 to 15ft of water, but I decided to jig because most of my kokanee fishing is done thru trolling.
I brought my kokanee gear “just in case” the urge came over me to troll for a couple fish for the smoker. However, the lake remained calm and jigging was on my mind.
I tried tube jigs and buzz bombs with only one solid strike on the tube jig. I had to figure out what the fish wanted. They seemed lethargic and uncooperative. Then, I tied on a Big-Nasty Tackle super glow rattle jig and sent it down. I had a laker on almost instantly, but lost it just before the boat.
Finally, I hooked into a scrappy fish off the bottom. Since I’m still learning how to tell the size of a lake trout, I slowly reeled it in. To my surprise, I had hooked a whitefish and it got off before I could net it.
I moved over to another location where I marked some more fish in hopes of catching “the big one.” This time, I would get another surprise. A kokanee hit my jig and was fighting like a 14 inch fish on a mission. Unfortunately, by the time it got to the surface it was game over.
This was the first time I’ve caught a kokanee while jigging for lake trout. My learning curve continues.
This experience was one that I will never forget. I’ve caught kokanee in the past on buzz bombs thru the ice and now I’ve caught one on a rattle jig. Next time, I want to try jigging for kokanee again, because it works.
When I got home, my skin was telling me that I forgot to put sunscreen on. It still burns and my forearm now sports a Band-Aid tan like I’ve never seen before. There always seems to be that first sun burn of the year that has me packing the sunscreen for the next couple months. Maybe a long-sleeved water shirt and hat with a neck cover might need to be added to my spring fishing checklist?
When I got home, I made sure to check the stomach of my kokanee. I found some blue colored plankton of some sort in its gill rakers, which I’ve never seen before. It’s stomach contents were mostly chironomids which I found interesting, because it was caught in 40ft of water off the bottom.
Today was a great reminder that there is always something to learn when fishing. Sometimes we have to look for the lesson and other times the lesson comes to you. Either way, I’m very happy I was able to experience catching an eager kokanee that was ready to come home for dinner.