Today was a great example of Cariboo weather.
There were clouds all around my house that looked like they were ready to release rain upon us. I was hesitant to go fishing as my tolerance for getting rained on is wearing thin. Finally, I decided that we had to try for at least an hour, so Austin and I packed up our gear and headed out to Ten Mile.
On the way to the lake, the skies were starting to open up and the day looked salvageable. When we arrived at the lake, we were happy we chose to go fishing as there was blue sky all around us.
Launching our boat was fun. It was a reminder as to why I do not normally fish Ten Mile on a weekend. The parking lot was jammed with vehicles and boat trailers. I was hopeful to find a spot down below and not have to leave my boat on shore while I “hiked” from the day use parking lot. Thankfully, we found a spot lakeside, but not after enjoying launching beside a boat that “jumped” his place in line. It always amazes me that a lot of people still get everything ready at the launch while others wait patiently to get into the water. It’s always fun backing up on our narrow double launch. One close call with a side mirror and we were in the water and out before the other boat even got in the water.
I had a few spots in mind this evening after seeing what was happening in the lake. I was reminded of the chaos that happens when ski boats are on the lake. The lake was packed. Boats were flying around everywhere. I chose my first spot immediately and started slowly trolling past the day use swimming areas to the back end of the lake where less boats seems to be pulling tubes and skiers. Although we marked fish, we had no takers. Where would we find some undisturbed kokanee?
When we finally arrived at our second spot, something amazing happened. I had to blink a few times and make sure I was still fishing the same lake I launched at. I glanced at the time on my fish finder and it was 17:00. All of a sudden, as if a huge dinner bell was rung (that I did not hear), most of the ski boats and fishing boats left the lake. We then spent the next hour and a half on a more peaceful lake void of any waves. Instead, we counted ospreys flying around in the sky (which was at a record high) and trolled quietly with our electric motor that we fixed on our last trip thanks to a friend.
We trolled around in a strategic pattern until we found where a few good schools of kokanee were hanging out. After a few double headers and a few lost fish, we finally landed a tank of a kokanee. Well, tank might be an overstatement because of how skinny this kokanee was, but it was something to be happy about. We later measured it to be 17 inches long.
After a few hours of trolling and a brief experience jigging for kokanee while missing a few bites, we decided to call it a day. We were both hungry and looking forward to dinner which was waiting for us at home. Before we headed home, we decided to have some fun like we always do. There were a few more ski boats back on the lake. We decided to “jump” some waves and had a blast. After all, if you can’t fish around a ski boat, why not join them and jump their waves.