Finally!!!
This weekend marked my first weekend of ice fishing for kokanee during the 2020/2021 ice fishing season.
Its amazing how fast time flies when you’re having fun and spending it with the ones closest to you. Our family has been busy skiing, relaxing and spending some time together doing fun things that do not involve fishing.
Now that the fun is over (or maybe it’s just beginning), we finally spent a full weekend fishing and getting back into the rhythm of catching a couple tasty kokanee in an attempt to restock our freezer with a few more dinners and more kokanee to fill our smoker and hungry stomachs.
Our first trip involved a test run to Ten Mile Lake on Saturday. I’ve been feeling a little rusty watching all the Facebook posts from other members catching some great kokanee. This is the time to thank all of you who posted up some pictures and videos of your kokanee adventures. Those posts kept me anxious to get out there and catch a kokanee as I watched my kokanee reserves being depleted over the last couple months.
As usual, I thought I had everything, but forgot the ice scoop at home. I uploaded a file to our group last winter with the foresight to try and create a checklist that was easily accessible for myself and others. Obviously, this list is not for everyone and I still encourage people to add or take away items from the list. Normally, I would use a list as a secondary backup of what I thought I needed for a trip. This time, I foolishly fell asleep on the couch Friday night and didn’t have much time to pack in the morning before our first embarkment. So, with a light bulb above my head, I had remembered my list I had posted in our group. I printed the list and quickly checked off the items Saturday morning before we left. I felt confident that my organizational skills had proven a valuable asset for this adventure. Time would prove otherwise.
Our game plan was to fish an area of the lake where fish were known to congregate at a depth of 17ft which had reportedly been a successful depth for kokanee this year. We had finally erected our tent and were fully setup by 10am, which was past the bite time for Ten Mile, but we were not going to let that stop us. As we turned the fish finder on, we couldn’t believe how many fish we saw. It did not feel right seeing kokanee in 17ft of water.
As quick as the fish came and were covering our screen, they were gone. Sarah had 2 kokanee on but they got off quickly. It was as if someone had flicked a light switch and our Garmin Striker 4 screen turned blank. Was this going to be our first day ice fishing? Should we have setup over historical depths?
Later that evening I was able to confirm that other members caught their limit in different areas of the lake and at completely different depths. This season seems to have a few kokanee anglers scratching their heads as to why these kokanee are being found in different depths of the lake. Thoughts?
Fast forward to this morning. I was super impressed at how Sarah was the first person up and ready to go fishing. I’ve been getting used to sleeping in, eating bacon and eggs, and being a lazy couch potato looking at Facebook all while wishin’ I was fishin’ before I started my day. The boys impressed me as well. They got ready at record speed and were behaved on the ice (although not entirely necessary due to the depth the kokanee were at today). After yesterday, our approach to the new day was to explain that we did not catch any kokanee yesterday because the boys were being too noisy and running around on the ice. While I do believe this had some part in not catching fish, I more so believe we simply missed the morning bite. The saying “the early bird gets the worm” comes to mind.
Today, we arrived at Tyee Lake at a decent time and headed down the trail to the lake. We gained some time setting up as everyone worked together as a team of determined anglers. It also helped that we had left most of our gear packed and at the door the night before. Knowing where everything was became a valuable time saver.
The morning bite did not treat us as well as we had hoped. Sarah caught the first kokanee of the day and we all would eventually catch a few fish to be proud of. We caught and marked fish at all depths of the water column. Fish were caught at 20-60ft. Not one depth seemed to be more productive than another. We had to make the kokanee chase our gear in some cases, while other times the kokanee hit our jig as soon as we dropped down to them.
We used primarily a blue/silver Williams whitefish flasher and a jig. Pink and orange jigs seemed to work best. As for bait, my mealworms that I grow seemed to work great on their own or combined with either a piece of corn or a link synthetic maggot. (Sarah’s favorite became the pink synthetic maggots with a mealworm). If you need some mealworms in Quesnel, check out Franks Supermarket, Rocky’s, Willis Harper Home Hardware, or send me a private message.
Lunch time is one of my favorite times when ice fishing for kokanee. Normally, the bite slows down around 1130 to 1230. This is a perfect time to grab a bite to eat and stretch your legs if fishing in an ice tent. A few hotdogs later (cooked on the Big Buddy Heater of course) and I was re-fueled and ready to catch a few more kokanee. Austin was quickly loosing interest and the afternoon bite was about to begin. Thankfully, he was able to get into a few and after that nothing else mattered. He was ready to stay until dark. It’s moments like these that I get excited about. Being able to share my passion with my family and have them accept, embrace and sometimes even obsess about fishing themselves helps me continue doing what I love.