I got to fish on Friday and Sunday with my friends rseas and Robbie. I first fished Sutherland last year and we had some excellent success so I was excited to give it another try.

On Friday we fished the east finger bay, having found the kokanee concentrated in this area. We ran two rods on downriggers and Randy ran his gear on 2-3 colors of leaded line. We started a leisurely 8am and the action was pretty steady. By noon we were limited and back to our camp site. Standard kokanee gear. My best rig was a small pink tear shaped dodger and a Mack’s new kokanee hoochie with the pill float. Pink or orange were the hot colors. Randy ran his homemade gear, which also gave good results. The fish ran a bit small, 10-12”. Still, it’s always nice to limit the boat.

On Sunday it was just Robbie and I. We decided to hit the lake crack of dawn so we could head back to Seattle early. So 6am our lines were down and we were immediately getting fish. This time we fished the main body of the lake, over by the water ski course. Depths were 30-35 feet, and there were fish marks a plenty. Same gear for us as Friday and it was one of the best morning bites I’ve experienced. By 7am we had nine in the boat, and then it slowed down, taking another 45 minutes for Robbie to score his final fish. The fish today were bigger – 11-13” range and shiny!

For both trips, average trolling speed was around 0.9-1.2, longer set backs seemed to work a bit better. Randy's long-lining was killer!

The fish are running smaller than last year (13-15”) but last year we fished it a month later, so these fish will be adding some size to them. Sutherland is a great lake to visit. We only had three boats on the lake this morning.

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