Today was another great kokanee adventure.
We started driving south with a few lakes in mind and ended up choosing to fish for kokanee at Chimney Lake.
This time, we opted to fish from the Chimney Lake Center Rec Site. I am extremely impressed at how well the parking lot was maintained. There was plenty of room for parking and the proximity to the lake was perfect for the boys and I to comfortably enter onto the lake without delay.
There was an ice shack placed over 30ft of water and a few other fisherman were fishing close to it. We asked how the fishing was and they said it had been really slow the last couple of days. This was a trigger for us to continue further out onto the lake in search of hopefully finding deeper water. As we walked out, I noticed a flag pole with a red flag out in the middle. I suggested to the boys that we try the flag pole, but they were starting to get tired from the walk and cold due to the relentless wind that was blowing steadily since our arrival.
We ended up setting up over 38ft of water. This was the fourth time using our new Otter tent. We have developed a good system of setting up our tent in the wind. I have been lucky so far and haven’t lost my tent down the ice (fingers crossed here). First, I tied our tent bag to our sled. This proved to be a good idea as the wind picked up the empty bag and tried to take it down the lake. Second, we prepared our anchors. Then, we anchored the two windward side corners down and our windward side hub anchor. Next, we opened the tent and lifted the tent up enough to slide our sled inside. Lastly, we opted to utilize our tent skirt and placed snow on it. We also dug a vent hole at the bottom to help fresh air enter our tent as we were planning on using our Big Buddy heater.
I was amazed at how much warmer it was by just getting out of the wind. Once inside, we started setting up our tent. I was disappointed to find one of the top storage nets torn in half. Somehow, it had snagged on something while setting up the tent. We took it down and carried on. We drilled 3 holes (I had to extend our auger handle to adjust for ice thickness), set up our fish finder and started the buddy heater before anything else. Then, We got the rods ready and as I was setting everything else up, Ethan had a hit right away and without bait too! We checked the fish finder to confirm it was a hit and saw a kokanee swimming around checking out his presentation (my buzz bomb from my last trip).
As soon as everything was setup and we were all ready to settle in, we started into the candy that we brought. The over sized bag of Sour Patch Kids did not stand a chance against 3 hungry boys who later would attack a tub of gummies. We soon discovered that the fishing was not going to be as good as we originally thought. We would spend the next couple hours searching the water column for active fish that might come into the call of our ice flashers.
Lunch time came quickly today. I dug out the hot dogs and placed them on our buddy heater rack. We discovered one technical difficulty that we did not anticipate just before lunch. We had left the toilet paper in the truck and it was time for a few of us to relieve ourselves (of course, this type of relief required an outhouse). Back to the truck we went. I felt like we were walking in the desert on the way to shore. The wind was still blowing strong and the snowdrifts had covered our pathway. Our experience using the outhouse was perfect (besides the hike thru the snow to get to it). The toilet was clean and we were able to almost close the door completely to help with the chilling wind against bare skin. When we arrived back at our tent, we were welcomed with a warm gust of air that smelled delicious as we unzipped the tent door and jumped inside. It was so warm that we had to de-layer down to our t-shirts. Now this is ice fishing!
After lunch, I was determined to find out where the kokanee were hanging out. I considered moving for a brief moment and then decided that the wind would make it too difficult to relocate and keep the boys happy, which would result in ending our trip that seemed to be going well. It was hot chocolate time (the boys know they have to wait until later in the day to get hot chocolate). This was the perfect time to re-think my approach to locating active fish. I decided to try right below the ice as the time was approaching 13:00. In the past, on Ten Mile Lake, I have seen kokanee come up to the surface between the hours of 13:00 and 15:00. I believe that the kokanee must be coming up to actively feed in the afternoon just before sunset. My plan worked. We were seeing kokanee right below the ice. What better way to keep the boys interested. In the end, I landed what appeared to be 3 different age classes of kokanee. The boys came close, but were not as lucky. It was fun watching them get excited as each kokanee came in to swipe at their jigs tipped with our homegrown mealworms.
As quick as the kokanee arrived, they were gone. Well, an hour and a half of fun was had and then they were gone. Most of the kokanee were only swimming up to our jigs. They were not interested in attacking our offerings.
We started packing up to leave. When we looked around the lake, we saw someone flying a large kite at the North Rec Site. What a great day to fly a kite. As I loaded my tent into the storage bag, I noticed that the hubs on my tent were starting to show signs of what looks like rust. I could be wrong, but this should not happen on a tent that has only been used 4 times. As I continue to use my tent, I still love it, but am slowly concerned as to the quality of the tent. One thing is for sure, time will tell how well my Otter tent is built.
On our walk out, we noticed a tent that was having a hard time staying open in the wind. The windward side of the tent was not anchored down and the hub kept collapsing in on the fisherman inside. We stopped to watch this hub continue to collapse and talk about the person inside getting hit each time in popped inward. We discussed the importance of having the windward side of our tent anchored. Thru observation, we learned to appreciate our tent and how well it held up to the wind.
While loading up the truck and getting ready to leave we noticed the person in the collapsing tent continued to have troubles with the wind. His bucket started rolling around and blowing down the lake. At one point, we watched the wind pick up his tent and roll it over. Thankfully, he was able to catch it and hold onto it before it became a tumbling tumbleweed. We watched as there was nothing we could help with from where we were. Then, just as we were ready to leave, we watched the fisherman start walking his mangled tent back towards the parking lot. We waited and I helped him get his tent unraveled. This was a valuable lesson and reminder that ice anchors do work.
We arrived in Williams Lake just in time to pay a visit to Surplus Herby’s. Surprisingly, I was able to restrain myself and did not buy any fishing tackle. There were 3 NEW Gibbs ice gators and a HUGE selection of the NEW Gibbs ice minnows hanging, waiting on the shelves. The prices were great too! It took everything in me to leave the ice fishing isle, but I did it. Then, we found what we were looking for. We found the perfect containers for our Canadian Kokanee Corn and our Mealworms. We emptied the bin and now are the proud owners of 275 containers that we will be using to sell our mealworms and Canadian Kokanee corn in to anglers in need. Send us a message if you’re interested.
Lastly, I was able to cap off the day thanks to Tim Hortons. I bought a nice hot coffee for the drive home, turned on some music and hit the highway just in time for the boys to fall asleep for the ride home. Today, I was extremely happy to be able to spend time with my boys. We had what I’m hoping will be one of many boys ONLY fishing trips (although we missed Mom dearly). By the time we parked in the driveway we had been gone for 12hrs. I am impressed, because not all fishing trips with kids are like this. Maybe I owe my boys’ stamina to every trip we took that only lasted a half hour after setting up. We have had many fishing trips that only lasted 2hrs from start to finish. Or, maybe all the fun things we get to do while ice fishing help them look forward to each trip. After all, who doesn’t love candy, grilled hot dogs and hot chocolate? The kokanee on the ice are only the icing on the cake.