February 28, 2021

Is kokanee fishing in the wind productive?

Fishing in the wind usually tends to be a challenge for any species and during most times of the year. For kokanee, I often question whether it’s worth fishing when a storm front is pushing in. I’ve seen kokanee turn off the bite when these systems push into an area and today was no different (or so I thought).

Last night, we received a large dump of wet snow. When we woke up to go fishing, I decided to shovel our driveway and back deck in anticipation of the warmer afternoon temperatures that were forecasted. I was also in no rush to get to the lake as it was still early and figured we could still make the morning bite if it was still at 0900. The last thing I was thinking (or hoping) before leaving home was how tough it would be to pull our loaded sled thru the fresh snowfall at the lake. A heavy, wet snow generally pushes down on the ice and forces more water on top of the ice as well. Needless to say, I was hoping a trail would be blazed for us if we left a little later and was wondering how much water was going to be on the ice.

When we arrived at the parking lot we had to plan our angle of attack thru a freshly plowed road berm. Surprisingly (which I shouldn’t have been), no one was at the lake fishing yet. We were going to have to park in a location where we could get out of the unplowed parking lot without getting stuck. I was also wishing I had not procrastinated and built a smitty sled now when I needed it the most.

As we were loading up the sled at the truck, the sound of the wind blowing thru the trees was uninviting to say the least. I knew we were also going to face slushy, wet conditions and was ready to pull the plug on this family adventure as soon as someone was ready to go home. Amazingly, we ended up staying and fishing longer than I anticipated in less than ideal conditions.

Our first challenge, after crossing the wind blown wetland, was the setup our tent. I approached setting up the tent as methodically as possible. First, we chose a location where we could get as close to the “hot spot” as possible that we found yesterday. Then, I gave the boys a 3/8 piece of plywood to stand on to keep them from getting too wet in the slush that we were standing in. Next, we armed ourselves with ice anchors and proceeded to secure one corner of the tent skirt to prevent it from tumbling down the lake like a tumbleweed. After securing 3 sides down to prevent the hubs from popping in on us, we slowly started moving our gear inside the tent. The boys patiently waited in the chilling wind on their island of plywood a few feet away as I shovelled more snow into the tent, trying to make a solid area to stand on.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we were all inside the tent and protected by it’s thermal layers. The wind was still howling as if it was trying to get inside. As every minute passed, we got warmer and started carefully planning where we would be sitting for the morning on top of the unstable snow and ice slush base that we had carefully compacted.

Words can not describe how well we all worked together to try and keep dry and warm. I drilled the first hole and Austin started fishing while I moved slowly to help pack the floor inside our tent. He hooked a kokanee right away and lost it. Then, he hooked another as a huge schooled came thru. It appeared to be a huge fish and was fighting well until he got it up thru the hole. Somehow, it got hooked in the back and we had to let it go.

After we finished drilling our holes and started to settle in it was time to turn on the buddy heater, because toes were getting cold already. Our tent got so warm (at everyone’s request other than mine) that I ended up in a t-shirt for most of the day. I was actually sweating just standing there, but my family was warm and dry and that’s all that mattered to me.

The schools that we marked when we first arrived seemed to disappear as soon as we were fully setup. One of our favorite ways to kokanee fish is to sight fish. We closed all the windows and eventually found fish just below the ice (thanks to the boys wanting to try sight fishing). Cold feet and hunger disappeared while we excitedly watched kokanee swim up to our jig and either tap it or turn at the last second. After what felt like only a few minutes, the bite died down (we put a couple fish on the ice) and we were back to cold feet and listening to the wind trying to get in.

Our day started and ended in a similar fashion. We wanted some photos and I knew what was going to happen as soon as we moved from our safe, dry and warm location. As soon as we moved outside to take photos the boys’ feet couldn’t help but get wet. Every step was a slushy, wet and unforgiving step. Again, I carefully planned our departure to reduce items from getting wet. After each item was carefully placed in the sled, we exited our tent and the boys were asked to stand to the side of the tent to help reduce the chance of injury should the tent try to fly away like a kite in the wind. As each ice anchor was pulled from the water it was in, we collapsed the tent from each side. The last anchor was carefully removed after all 4 sides and the roof were folded down and squeezed together in the wind.

With our 7 kokanee in hand and a long sloppy walk ahead of us, we started towards the truck. The wind kept blowing as a reminder of what we had been fishing in all morning. It made pulling my heavy sled thru the slush bearable as it cooled me down with each step I took. We were greeted by some anglers at our truck as they too were leaving and we had a short conversation on how the fishing was. It would appear they had no luck fishing, but had also arrived after the “bite” and were fishing closer to shore than normal for kokanee.

Did the wind affect our fishing productivity? While trying to assess our success and compare it to the day before, I do feel that the wind had a negative effect on our fishing. Although the kokanee seemed active at times, they were not as aggressively hitting our jigs like the day before. Is wind the factor to look for next time we go fishing, or is drastic changes in weather more important? Next time, we will have to compare different weather patterns to find out, but for now we can only imagine that yesterday could have been our more productive day due to the lack of wind. Either way, we had fun and we will be back.