It’s days like today that remind me of why I love fishing with my family.
After an exciting day of planting new perennials in the garden, we had an early dinner (or late lunch) and prepared for an afternoon of kokanee fishing at Ten Mile Lake.
Our plan was to use what was working on Friday night and hopefully catch our second family limit of kokanee. Unfortunately, we ended up losing more fish than we landed, but thankfully the ones that we caught were a perfect size for our Bradley Smoker.
While the fish were biting almost everything, we dropped down to them, we had to change up our gear a few times to find the winning combinations of the evening. Today, a slower action lure seemed to do the trick. Sarah insisted that we try “her” lure, so we rigged up her Paulina Peak Tackle pink micro hoochie and paired it with a Mack’s Lure red ribbed 6 inch sling blade which we ran flat. The most successful lure combination was Austin’s own Gibbs Fishing dog tail dodger and Gibbs bling blade. My scented special blend garlic corn was on fire once again and we were running out of it quickly as many fish that hit our presentations took some corn with them as they shook off our hooks in a shake, rattle and roll fashion.
We hooked fish at 25ft to 33ft, with 30ft being the average depth. The kokanee seemed to be active and were swimming up and down in the water column as they usually do, so I would imagine depth was not as important as speed or a change of some sort to get them to bite.
We had fish hit on the inside rod as it was slowing down, on the outside rod as it was speeding up and on the rise of a setup that popped off the downrigger. Fish also hit after raising the downrigger ball 5ft and also while speeding up. Our faster hookup was at 2.10mph.
I really enjoyed sitting for most of the evening and watching my boys as they ran the downriggers all by themselves. It was great watching them decide their setback, depth and methods of reeling a fish in. I enjoyed laughing with them as they were having a good time telling jokes and being silly. I look forward to watching them grow and learn more about fishing as they get older.
To top things off, we were the only boat on the water this evening. Besides the wind that was helping us vary our speed, the lake was quiet and peaceful. While another adventure is behind us, I look forward to the next adventure and reflect on past experiences.