What a great day! Another successful get-together catching kokanee thru the ice in British Columbia, meeting like-minded people. Stay tuned for our next group get-together. We were talking today about another member fishing trip in March. Hopefully we can meet more members at Tyee Lake, mid-March-ish.
Today was a perfect day to meet new people and learn some more things that will help make our next outing even more comfortable, enjoyable and efficient.
My day started when I arrived at Kostas Cove at 7am. I packed up all my gear on my sled and headed out on another adventure. I made it 5ft and realized right away that the trip in and out was going to be painful. My sled was sticking to the snow and not gliding nicely like my last outing. It felt like I was trying to pull 200 pounds, uphill. The worst part about this was I knew I had an old set of skis that I was given last summer sitting at home, marked for installation on my sled at a later date. Unfortunately, my procrastination and renos have kept me from installing the skis that would have made my journey much easier. I was tested on my ability to persevere and push myself thru the next half hour of starting, stopping, and breathing heavily as my out of shape body was ready to collapse and make snow angels in the snow.
I arrived at our location winded, sweating and with an ice covered beard and hair with frosted tips. Although I started before everyone else, my inconsistent sled pulling technique put me in third place. Reg and Rob showed up in style and before I knew what was happening had their holes drilled (with a gas powered auger of course), tent setup and closed before I knew what was happening. My tent decided it would tangle itself in an unrecognizable mess which made opening it up impossible. Thanks to Reg we were able to flip it right side out and open it up.
Enter Gavin and then shortly after, his friend. It was great meeting you guys today. The pressure was on even more after Gavin showed up and I did not even know it. I was casually setting up and getting excited about firing up my Big Buddy Heater for the second time ever. Gavin had his line in the water quicker than everyone else. I was impressed and did not feel the pressure until Gavin hooked into the first kokanee of the day after fishing for what seemed like a minute. The race was now on.
The first kokanee of the day sparked an urgency for me to get my line in the water. As my uncle used to always tell me when salmon fishing, you can not catch a fish if your line is not in the water. I tried starting my heater a couple times with no success. I was feeling the pressure, good pressure of course, to start fishing. I gave into the pressure, grabbed a rod and sent my gear down the hole. I had started kokanee fishing, but one key element was missing in my tent, heat. As time went on, I kept trying to start my heater. Unfortunately, something was wrong and being a newbie to the heated tent game, I continued to fish and kept trying to get my pilot light to start. I managed to land my first kokanee on my Gibbs Dogtail dodger and pink jig. When I grabbed another mealworm to re-bait my hook, I could not believe what I did. My new mealworm container is now a plastic container (because last time I forgot mealworms in my jacket and was growing beetles at home). I reached inside my container to find frozen mealworms that were impossible to get on my hook. This is why I kept them in my jacket last time, to keep them alive. I will now have to find a slim chew proof container that will fit in my jacket so I can keep my mealworms warm and alive. Thankfully, some of the mealworms were still alive in the middle of the container, so back to fishing I went.
Nick arrived as soon as I had given up hope on having a warm tent and when the temperature outside was -24 with a wind chill below -30. I had offered Nick a warm tent to come fishing in last night and failed to deliver on my offer. Thankfully, Nick was dressed warm enough and getting out of the wind was helping keep us warm. It was very cool watching Nick hand line a kokanee thru the hole.
We proceeded to watch numerous kokanee on the Garmin Striker 4 approach our gear, but not commit. I was using the same gear as last time, my Gibbs dog tail dodger, a pink jig and a mealworm. Eventually, I landed a few more kokanee over the course of the day. Gavin had caught his limit and came over to offer heat in our tent. Thankfully, this kept us fishing long enough for my buddy heater to unthaw. A few more tries and my buddy heater fired up like nothing was wrong. We cranked up the heat and I was very happy once again. Earlier, I put on my extra fleece jacket, because I was getting cold and my toes were almost undetectable. Now, I found myself in the reverse situation. I was getting too warm! Life was great. I was taking off my extra jacket and my toes were thawing nicely.
I had a lot of fun listening to Rob and Reg getting excited every time they caught a kokanee or watched one come up to their gear on their underwater camera. Kokanee were everywhere. I thought I had my limit and stopped fishing. That’s right, I thought I was done. I was warm and did not want to go outside to count my kokanee. I knew I had caught 5 fish that day and was happy to now sit back and relax.
When we stepped out of the tent to pack up, I could not find my 5th kokanee. I did not understand. Where did my 5th kokanee go? It took me until halfway home to realize what my very cold body was thinking. I did catch 5 fish that day. Unfortunately, one of those fish was a rainbow and she was released down the hole in a warm tent. I was not going crazy. I learned two lessons. Keep your kokanee inside your tent because they are easier to count this way. Also, I have never seen fish freeze as much as ours did. Even the eyes were white.
Thank you to Indran and son for coming out to this get-together as well. I wish it was warmer today so I could have come over earlier and hung out a bit more. It’s always great to see families fishing together and having fun.
I look forward to doing this again soon. Meeting new people and fishing with like-minded people is a great way to spend a day. I learned some great things today and can not wait to learn more later. I am excited to use some of the things I learned at a later date. Fishing with new people is definitely a great way to learn quicker than a person would on any internet forum or social media group. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to post your own get-together in your area of British Columbia. You will be amazed at how much you can learn on the ice. There are many ways to catch kokanee. The most important thing to remember is to always make sure you are having fun.