Today was a bittersweet kind of day.
I caught what seems to be the biggest kokanee in a while for me out of Ten Mile and I somehow snagged one of my favorite dodgers on the bottom and lost it. Peter let me know when you’re going to order more Kokabow Fishing Tackle LLC from Alan and I’ll split the cost of shipping with you. I do not know how long I’ll last without my Watermelon dodger. I love that thing dearly and miss it so much. I also lost my purple/chartreuse Old Goat Lure which had not seen much time in the water to prove itself. Again, a sad moment and a moment of silence was had the moment the line snapped.
My day started like any other day. I was fishing by 930am and had a couple hits before the action started and ended about as quick as it came. The wind had blown up the “sludge” from the bottom again and the cottonwood trees had littered their cotton all over the lake. I spent the first quarter of the morning cleaning sludge and cotton from my gear until I found a clear section of the lake with active kokanee in the area.
I circled over the same spot for most of the morning testing various dodger and lure combinations. I also tried my two corn combinations. The anise scent seemed to work best combined with the shrimp scent.
After what was almost a double header, I landed 2 nice sized kokanee one after the other. I then spent the rest of the morning circling the area learning about the kokanee behaviors and how weather affects them. This was the second time this week when a weather front moved in and the fishing died off. It was almost like someone flipped a switch and the kokanee went into lock jaw mode. I’m curious if anyone else has noticed the “bite” slow down on their local lake when a storm/changing weather with clouds moves into the area.
I took some photos to share of the active kokanee I found. In hindsight, in should have also taken photos of the kokanee when they when off the bite. Their signatures on my fish finder changed to boring blobs swimming parallel to the waters surface.
During this locked jaw phase of the afternoon, I managed to put 2 more kokanee in the cooler. However, I worked hard switching out dodgers, lures and changing speeds and depths to find the active fish. I caught a kokanee using an orange Pro Blade from Jason at Forsman Tackle as well which was a lot of fun. This blade moves great in the water and was a great addition to my orange hoochie. Also, I caught the first kokanee of many on my new chartreuse/green Old Goat Lure from Donn . These OG1s are amazing as always. I’ve had great success with every color so far.
All in all, today was a fun day on the lake catching kokanee. Its almost time to have a kokanee smoke off and fill my neighborhood with that great smell of fresh kokanee smoking on our Bradley smoker. Now the only decision to make is, what type of chips should I use?