Man, What a beautiful day at Roosevelt. I think the 100 other boats I saw would probably agree with me. Fortunately most of them were beached enjoying a good camp out.

Well, I already miss the days from previous months this year when all we caught were 3 and 4 pound kokanee. The fishery has changed a bit from what it was earlier in the year. Lots of smaller fish are in the system. I am pleased to see a lot of hatchery kokanee showing up. These fish are already getting plump and I am looking forward to adding these to the cooler when they get a bit larger. I am also curious as to how many of these jumbo kokes we will loose to the spawn this year. One of our three jumbos was colored up slightly. The other three were as chrome as can be.

Finding fish today wasn't too hard. Finding big kokes that wanted to bite was the challenge. All of our fish today were taken between 45' and 90' this included 15 small rainbows, 10 small kokanee, one large rainbow, and 4 large kokanee. The largest measured 22". We lost one other big koke at the boat. Apex seem to be the ticket right now.

I have a stacking tip for those of you that just run 2 rods because you only have two down riggers. I have found a great way to add another line without a lot of fuss. Here's how.

1) Add a second release exactly where you put your current release.
2) Add a little weight to the line you currently are fishing. We will call this the primary line. This will cause it to sink deeper than your rigger ball. I am using 1-2 colors of leaded line with a braided backing. You could also use a small egg weight to get it to sink 5-10'. Clip this to the inside release and place in a pole holder closer to the motor.
3)Rig your second rod with a small Mack's double-D Dodger. Clip into the outside hole that corresponds with the side of the boat you want it to fish. This will cause the dodger to swim away from the other line and in turn give you a wider spread. Clip this to the outside release and place in a rod holder closer to the front of the boat.
4) Engage clickers on both reels and open the bails. Drop your downrigger weight to desired depth using the clickers as a break.

I hope this makes sense. This method has allowed me to run 2 more rods and works really well. The two lines will be separated 10-15'. If you only have one rigger you can utilize this method to run 3 rods. One left, right, and deep center. I will continue to fish Roosevelt Kokanee this month and have several openings if anybody is interested in booking a trip. After that I will be doing trips at Vernita on the Columbia.

Tight lines.

Captain Dave's Guide Service, Booking Now! Columbia River salmon - including Summer &
Fall Chinook and Sockeye, and Lake Roosevelt Kokanee and Trout.
509-939-6727
Captain Dave's Guide Service
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