Today marks another notch in the learning curve belt.
I awoke to the pleasant sound of my wife Sarah telling me I should go fishing because “it’s a nice day outside.” If I’ve learned anything over the years, I’d say that we should all listen to our wives (or husbands 
) encouraging proposals and go fishing.
So off I went on a “mission to go fishin.” I arrived at Ten Mile lake and was fishing at my typical 930am departure. The weather did not look as my wife had previously mentioned, but my sleepy eyes encouraged me to push forward and continue on my day. I was wishing I had stayed in bed when I looked into the distance in the north eastern Cariboo skies. The day looked like cloudy, rain filled weather was once again on its way.
Yesterday, I marked many active fish close to the northern section of the lake, so I decided to start there today. Thankfully, the lake “sludge” was almost gone and there was almost no indication of its presence which was almost unfishable in some sections less than 24hrs ago.
I followed my usual routine and picked a starting point where I put my boat in neutral and prepped all my gear for its journey into the depths of the lake. All of a sudden, while minding my own business, two older gentleman pulled out of the bay they were in and started trolling directly towards me. I couldn’t believe it! Did they not see me floating there out in the open??? Later, I wished I would have spoke up and stayed right where I was. However, I decided I would move out of their way and not say anything. I was doing an experiment to see how long they would go before noticing my boat and I floating right in their collision course. As I put my boat in reverse, they looked up and turned their boat away from mine. As I started moving, the line I had ready and resting over the side of my boat got caught in my prop and started peeling line off my reel. I had forgotten about the line and now needed to clear the line from my prop before I started fishing!!! As these guys trolled by me, one of them said “been there, done that many times.” I truly do not think they realized that the only reason this happened was because of their poor navigation skills and my forgetfulness and kind nature. Next time, I might have to remember to hold my ground, because I was there first (kind of like combat fishing on the Vedder river 
).
The day couldn’t have gotten worse after this right? Wrong. I have never had a prop issue and did not have a socket or wrench to get the prop off to quickly clear the line from it. Slowly, I took one piece of line at a time off my prop. I had to go to shore and get in the water (soaking my shorts more than I wanted to), but I got the job done and was on my way shortly after getting rained on and wet some more.
I’ll admit, I almost went back to the boat launch and loaded my boat up after this. I was contemplating going back to bed to get some more rest, but of course my addiction got the best of me as I marked a kokanee on the finder right away.
I was marking active fish in the location I had guessed I would. One kokanee turned into another and then nothing. I ended up changing setups a few times and must have circled over the active fish 10 times. My assumption is that the weather that moved in had put the fish off the bite. I continued to troll in a figure eight pattern until I started getting bored of the area and most importantly, stopped marking active fish.
I had a second location in mind and was on my way after I had a second encounter with the old gentlemen who for some reason liked to troll right up close to your boat and not acknowledge that there is an entire lake available. This time, I held my “ground” and waited for them to adjust their course.
When I arrived at my new location, I went past it just enough to prepare my gear and get it down into the “zone.” It was exciting to watch to clouds clear and blue skies appear. It was like a movie. The blue skies and calm waters set the mood for what was about to happen. The water was crystal clear and inviting. For a split second, I though about going for a swim, but decided to continue fishing.
Active kokanee were all over the place. I had gone back to the basics and started trolling pink hoochies. I used a smaller pink Mack’s Lure hoochie with a moon jelly smile blade paired with a Brad’s extreme dodger on one rod and a chartreuse Mack’s Lure wiggle bill with a P-line hoochie paired with a Mack’s sling blade on the other rod. I had a hit right away, but lost the fish. It didn’t take me long before I had put 3 more kokanee in the cooler and called it a day before 13:00. The last 3 kokanee were chunky and thick kokanee compared to what I’ve been catching.
When I got home, I made sure I double checked and confirmed that I had removed all the fishing line from my prop. I removed my prop and re-installed it. Thankfully and unfortunately I was able to learn one more thing while one the water, always stand your ground and let the other boat run into you. If you don’t, you will loose another dodger (my Gibbs Dogtail dodger) and spend the next 15 minutes clearing fishing line from your prop. Well, I was kidding when I said let the other boat run into you. Instead, carry a really loud air horn and use it at the last second or simply yell at the boat trolling slowly towards you. Of course, the real lesson learned today was to make sure I have a socket and wrench for my prop and to hope I never have to use it.