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Very strange day on Stevens for me today. I was in the water by 5am, pedaling out towards the east shoreline where I wanted to try first. Stevens has always been an early morning bite, with some brief periods other times of the day if you wanted to stick it out. This morning was definitely not an early bite. Not a lot of other boats fishing this morning, maybe a half dozen. At some point I talked to most of them, and there was a lot of skunk smell of peoples boats this morning. Talked to one person that was there the morning before and did real well, today he was blanking using the same stuff at the same depths as the prior day. The only bite I saw was between 9:30 - 10:30 am, then it turned off as quickly as it turned on.

I started with my go to kokanee gear, a 50/50 Elgin Fishing God's Tooth spoon rigged for kokanee by Reli Lures, and on the other line a blue 50/50. Between 5 am and 9:30 I tried everything I could think of, went deep, came up shallow, slowed way down, sped way up, areas I was fishing, lure choices, lure colors, leader lengths etc. I was actually thinkin about calling it a day, so I went back to the original set up and started my long troll back to the dock. Just as I got both lines baited and down into the water, I got a fish on. The brass/nickel 50/50 got bit non-stop for an hour. The other line never got touched all day. After the 4th fish I realized I should probably have the same color on both lines. As I am changing that line out I get the 5th fish. I was thinking hey, another 30-40 minutes I might just limit out. But just as quickly as the bite got hot, it cooled completely off again. I did get one of next years fish. Maybe 8-9 inches right now. I really was hoping I could let him go but upon further inspection 1 hook had really chewed up a gill and the other hook went from the inside of the mouth, out the eye. It wasn't going to survive a release.

There weren't many others fishing, but I never saw a net out today. 50/50 was the ticket for me today, and down 40 feet on the downrigger. I tried at various times running a line up to 20 feet, and as far down as 65 feet. Every bite, takedown etc. came right at 40 feet today. Garlic Bloody Tuna Pro-Cure for scent in the Pautzke's corn Speed between 1 - 1.25 mph seemed best.

Video shows the action from this morning.

ElginFishing

7/23/2017 8:50:00 PM

Yeah, the kokes are acting weird in the morning. I fished yesterday and report/vid is pending. Great job in not giving up as the bite seems to come on almost instantly then just die off.

ElginFishing

7/23/2017 8:57:49 PM

Excellent report and video. I enjoy watching you net the fish, so smooth while I tend to be all over the place!

JoshH

7/23/2017 9:43:27 PM

Hah! I can't really move much, or reach out too far or I will be in the drink :) Guiding the fish to the net is more out of necessity for me than anything else. Believe me, when I have a nice fish on it's hard to resist going after it :)

Sideburns

7/24/2017 1:19:20 AM

I made a run up to lake steven's last week, and was fishing at 530 am. I quit at 1030 with nothing. One of the boats I talked to did catch 2 fish. It seemed like most of the schools on the sonar were way deep, like 60-70 feet. The marks I was seeing in the 20 foot range ended up being perch. The only hookups i had that morning came at 40-45 feet 930. Still recovering from the skunk.

coyoteking

7/24/2017 7:24:17 AM

Nice report. ? How do you rig a Gods Tooth for Koks???

JoshH

7/24/2017 10:24:04 AM

Hi coyoteking - There are 2 ways to get the God's Tooth spoons rigged for Kokanee. Easiest way is to purchase them online from www.zombietinder.com. The 2nd way is to modify the spoons yourself. If you go to Youtube search for user R Elgin, or seach for God's Tooth Spoons. They made an instructional video the other day explaining how to set up the God's Tooth spoons for different applications. One of them they show how to rig them for Kokanee. Hope that helps!

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