by Rob Holman, May 05, 2015

Everybody loves salmon. The thing is, some people don’t consider Kokanee “real” salmon. I kind of feel bad for the little guys. They’re like the crazy country cousin nobody admits to having but everyone does. I’m one of those guys, both with the crazy cousin and a Kokanee hater.

That is until a recent trip to Palmer Lake in Okanagon County with guide Jerrod Gibbons and his crew from Okanagon Valley Guide Service. Now I’m converted. Kokanee are salmon and they are fun to fish for and good to eat!

Maybe I should explain how my conversion came about. It all started in the mid 80’s, me at camp, holding up my fish proudly to the old hand helping us youngsters keep our rods in the water.

“That ain’t a real fish, that’s a Kokanee!” he cried in front of everyone, stealing my glory, and turning me as red as any spawned out fish you ever saw. I think it started there, this unfair prejudice against these plucky salmonids. And didn’t get better. Given the choice through the years to fish for Kokanee or I don’t know, rat fish, it was bring on the rat fish!

And I know I’m not alone in this.

So this March I’m invited to fish Palmer Lake for Kokanee with Jerrod. Mike Carey of Northwest Fishing Reports had been preaching the glories of Kokanee fishing to me, and said he’d really love some video of Palmer Lake as well. I also had a mission – product test Super Dipping Sauce and Moneymaker Tackle. Jerrod also happens to be the owner of both companies whose products have been making waves and catching lots of Kokanee around the state. So, any day fishing, right? I’m off to Palmer.

I leave from Spokane on a Monday. Palmer Lake is located in Okanagon County, just shy of the Canadian border, west of Oroville. It was a couple hours of dramatic country driving before I came into Omak for dinner than headed through the prosperous little town of Tonasket to my hotel in Oroville.

I stayed at the Camaray Motel, and actually booked it on the drive there. It was very reasonable priced, clean, and located about 15 miles north of Tonasket.

I met up with Jerrod and his team, at 5:45 am, the next morning at The Junction gas station. We followed him for another twenty minutes to the BLM boat launch on the south end of Palmer Lake. There was no one else there as we got our gear ready, mounted some cameras for an upcoming Northwest Fishing Reports video, and got the boat in the water.
The day before, guide sponsor Sam Baird of Slammin’ Salmon Guide Service, had posted something on Facebook about the long ride to the fishing hole from the launch. Turns out he was joking. We started fishing not a 2 minute putter from the launch. I chuckled when I thought of his post. Rods in the water, fully rigged and trolling not 10 minutes out of the launch! Not bad.

Palmer Lake is cut in between some pretty big hills. So while it was definitely getting light, the sun was just touching the peaks to the north of us.

“Those hill’s there,” Jerrod’s dad, Tom Gibbons, gestured north. “That’s Canada.”

Okanagon Valley Guide Service (OVGS), is a family business. Jerrod guides, Tom’s the captain. He also specializes in keeping the rods in the water. On this day, I was lucky to have OKVGS’ other guide, Josh “Stump” XXX, with us. Stump usually runs a second boat but today was special – since we were testing out Super Dipping Sauce and Moneymaker Tackle for Northwest Fishing Reports. Stump’s knowledge and experience was a great addition to the trip and Jerrod had him come along. My brother in-law, Paul Moon, was along as well to help with the cameras and catch fish too.

Tom Gibbon’s is a former high school science teacher, who along with Jerrod, developed the formula for Super Dipping Sauce. He also has been a steady influence and contributor to the Gibbon’s family business. The Gibbon’s aren’t just guides and business people – they live the lifestyle of the Outdoorsman.

Starting with Super Dipping Sauce a couple years ago, the Gibbon’s have made a mark on northwest fishing.

“A lot of the guides, they never wanted to share what they were doing. We were like why not? There’s enough fish for everybody who follows the rules. We’ll get ours. We always do,” Tom told me when asked about the idea for Super Dipping Sauce.

Within the first hour, we had a few kokanee in the boat. I was happy, the sun was covering a bit more of those peaks, and the bite was on.
I expected something like rainbow trout. Troll some, net one, dinks and dunks to my limit. Not so this day. They came in bunches. Doubles were the norm, triples and even all four rods going off not uncommon.
“It’s the scent bombs, with the sauce,” I was told.

The Gibbon’s hold patents to put wings on lures – they call them scent bombs. Sold under their Moneymaker Fishing brand, they’ve patented and developed “spinning scent dispersal flashers” and a few other handy tricks.

The wings on the scent bombs help the scent bomb spin tightly and throw scent.

They’ve also got a patented line of upgraded Super Baits with wings, and “Liminators” – hoochies pimped out with patent pending shaker wings.

“The upgrade spins the Super Bait 4 times faster. Means more action and more fish,” Gibbons said.

We fished with Scent Bombs, Super Dipping Sauce, and Liminators all day. Fish averaged 12-14” with a few larger. The longest drought between bites was around 30 minutes, and when we found one, we hooked more. I think only once did we hit a single with no other bites. After we brought this feisty 12 incher in, Jerrod decided it was time to move.
“They’ve got soft mouths. You’ve got to keep the line tight or they get away,” Tom Gibbons told me after my 5th or 6th lost fish. I had started the day with the same warning, but didn’t take it too seriously. After going 3 for 3, the warning was a distant memory. Thus began the lost fish saga.

The action remained hot. Jerrod was landing them, my brother-in-law Paul was. Even Stump and Tom seemed to be able to put them in the boat.
“Typically we lose as many as we land here at Palmer. But we leave with limits for everyone eventually,” Jerrod told me.
The sun was right over head, the time nearing 11 am. We’d been fishing for 4+ hours, averaging 4-5 fish landed an hour and twice that many hooked. A wind storm was due in at 11 am or noon, so I began to feel the clock. There was no sign of the wind yet, a vivid blue day in some beautiful country. Just a handful of other boats on the water. It amazed me.

These fish were fun, feisty, and the action good. My experience in similar “hot” fisheries was usually a bit more crowded. Outside of some dude in a pontoon boat cutting across our bow and 15 yards while trolling, it was a perfect morning on the water.

We started fishing near the lake resort, by the mouth of a creek that was clouding the water up a bit. Just two fish two go and I had my limit. I probably wouldn’t have picked the spot on my own not under this kind of pressure. Jerrod knew what he was up to and had total confidence in his gear. We wrapped up within an hour and I had my biggest fish of the day. In my mind there was no way that fish could “see” my gear, he got sucked in by the sauce.

I want to thank the Gibbons and Josh “Stump” XXX for taking me out. It was a beautiful, fun day, and a great experience. As a guide, OVGS was top notch, and full service. As a tackle, Super Dipping Sauce and Moneymaker Tackle worked as advertised. And as friends, Jerrod, Tom and Josh and I are off to a good start.

Jerrod’s home waters are Palmer Lake, the Wenatchee are, Brewster, Hanford Reach, Lake Chelan, the Icicle River and Banks Lake. Find contact information for Okanagon Valley Guide Service in the Northwest Fishing Reports Guide Index.

Look for special offers for Moneymaker Tackle and Super Dipping Sauce soon on northwestfishingreports.com