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There was a discussion about kokanee fishing that went like this " Hey brother in law; heard the kokes are biting at Loon. Wanna go night fishing? Brother in law; wanna freeze to death....it's been really cold at night with temps in the low forties and wind." What he really wanted to do was go down to Roosevelt for some monsta fishing....OK we'll do it. Called friend Gareld and invited him to go along too. Checked weather forecast; wind to 17 and 1/4" rain....whoa nasty! Oh well planned it anyway.

Got up at 4:45 yesterday and checked the weather again....upgraded to .31 inches of rain. Oh this is going to be fun! Better put in the side curtains for the top that is usually used to protect from the sun this time of year. Headed out with some overcast and sputtering rain....aw this ain't too bad; yeh right. When we got up on top out of Spokane where we could clearly see west toward our destination there were black clouds and a huge weather front. We kept on going with the thought of giant kokanee dancing in our heads while we sat in a warm truck drinking coffee and plotting against the monstas of Lake Roosevelt. By the time we hit Wilbur it was a full blown rain storm with wind and buckets of rain. We hit fog as we approached Keller before dropping down to the lake level. Looked like it was March with the temperature at 48 degrees. Didn't put the heater in...who needs it in the middle of June when we have already been at nearly 100 degrees?

The fishing....that's why you're reading this anyway isn't it? Got the top and side curtains up and headed out of the launch around 8:00 and lines in by 8:20 or so. Ran a mix of tackle on the two downriggers and three lead core outfits. Ran quite a while before one of the leaded outfits went off. It was a small rainbow that was hammered and had to go in the cooler. Trolled on and the rods were very quiet. The pouring rain continued, did I mention we were glad to have the top and side curtains? Saw Captain Dave he had four guests under the bimini top and he was standing out in the rain piloting the boat on the hunt for kokanee. They had two kokes to go for the limit of eight and had been on the water since six.

We plodded on and finally got one small koke about a pound or so and it was hooked bad so it joined the rainbows in the cooler. Wow where are those giant kokes? Around one PM we were marking some down deep nearly on the bottom so I shot the downrigger down to 75' and whamo fish on. One of the monstas was finally in the boat. Yahoo high fives all around. Brother in law Dan put one over four pounds in the boat, what a toad!! Continued on chasing marks while another storm front hit us with high winds and torrential rain. Caught the last of our six around 3:00 and called it a day. The Champion gear for the day was a Arrow Flash dodger in silver plate with moon jelly uv tape and a custom bubble gum hoochie from my friend Fish Dawg. Thanks Bryan for the Christmas care package!

Who could rate this adventure a 3 with fish like that so rated it a four. These are world class kokanee this year and they fight like hound dogs on lite tackle; what a blast in spite of the weather.

Tight lines - Alan
"The Experiment must Continue"

widebear

6/19/2016 12:34:00 PM

Just got back with 4 of those kok's. Good fathers day for my son and I. Fish seem to be from 15' to 80'. Thanks for the report Al

fishingbear

6/19/2016 1:54:00 PM

Man those are some nice fish. Way to hang in there.

tnga

6/19/2016 3:03:00 PM

Thanks for the report. Those are great looking and enormous kokanee! Were you guys fishing up or downstream from Keller Ferry? We too braved the torrential downpours yesterday launching out of Spring Canyon and fishing upstream, but had limited success before we had to leave for home around 12:30 pm. Definitely will be back to try our luck again.

afk

6/19/2016 4:56:00 PM

Atta boy Alan. Way to stick with it. Thanks for the report. Andy

bowfisher

6/20/2016 6:50:00 AM

I see You mentioned Captain Dave in your report, I was one of the guests on Dave s boat saturday morn and yes it was wet but we didn't let that get are spirits down in search of big cokes! Dave did an awesome job of getting us on some big fish even tho it was a tough day fishing! Enjoy reading all the reports on here, hope to get back up their soon in my boat an give it a try

downriggeral

6/20/2016 9:00:00 AM

Hi bowfisher - Good to meet you. We were in the white StarCraft with a top and white Evinrude E-Tec. Captain Dave will always work hard to get his guests on fish. Go get em' - Alan

downriggeral

6/20/2016 9:05:00 AM

Oh by the way I found a great way to get the dried on bait oil goo off the boat.....409 cleaner. WD 40 might work too. Soap and water wont\'t get it once dried on. Seems to be a lot of that stuff in the back of the boat around the downriggers....wonder how that got there?

Fish Dawg

6/20/2016 10:19:00 AM

That is a fine assortment of creatures you've collected, my friend!
Glad the assortment of lures I sent along is proving effective.
Good luck and tight lines out there...The Experiment Must Continue. ;-)
Dawg

Honda

6/20/2016 1:08:00 PM

Glad to see that you caught your fish also! Was also on Captain Daves boat on Saturday! Tight lines....

hewesfisher

6/21/2016 10:53:00 AM

Nothing like a great day fishing regardless of weather. :-)

daddysprad

6/24/2016 10:04:00 AM

I'm going to try first time fishing for Kokes this weekend. Can you tell me how far behind the downrigger ball you have your bait? Looks like 12-18" behind the flasher. Any help would be appreciated.

downriggeral

6/26/2016 12:10:00 PM

daddysprad - sorry I didn't catch this sooner. We usually go 8 to 10" on the hoochies, a foot or so on the spinners and 24 to 36" on the Apex behind the dodger. A good rule of thumb is 2.5 times the dodger length. Some of the dodgers we use are very short. Also play with speed. Put the lure/dodger in the water and watch what it does. How much speed does it take to make it work? We trolled all winter at 1.7 to 1.8 but I have gone faster. My philosophy is go faster if you aren't getting bit.

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