Launched at the Corps launch above Chief Joe around noon. Only 2 rigs in the lot. Sunny,crisp, windless day. Prior to arrival at the launch I could tell there was no water movement because the can line was drifting loose (no tension & upstream). It dampened my spirits but, certainly didn't stop me. I had my oldest with me as he was home from college. He was not to be outdone!!!(More on that later.) We trolled our way from the launch up the Okanogan Co. side to above pump 1. We were running various wedding ring/spinner type combinations behind 4/0 dodgers and swing blades. We also ran various Rapalas. We had very few hits and one long release after an hour or so. As the cold was starting to sink in we opted for bait and barbs. Jakes rod went to bouncing & we got the skunk out of the boat with a 3.5 pounder! We continued to troll in the pump 1 area and it was my turn now. My rod loaded up nicely. I've never seen a double digit triploid jump before. Jake was reeling his line in. I was in barbless mind set and kept the motor in gear. Although, in trying to keep this fiesty pig out of the 3rd line I somehow got the boat turned around toward the fish and had it to the boat way before Jake was ready to net it. He dropped his rod, grabbed up the net and promptly speared,thrust,stabbed or jabbed a nice double digit sized pig of a triploid hard enough to straighten my hook!!! I watched in despair & screamed an expletive that could have been heard around the entire county. I shook it off & told him he was a little too competitive to take that kind of drastic measures to out fish the old man. We had one more small one on and that was it. We came off the water at dark. The cold had sunk in and we had give it a good honest try. It was good quality time spent on the water.
I talked to the one other guy at the launch and he had a couple in the 3 pound range.

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