Ok so this has been one of the best Kokanee fishing years in Okanogan county. All of our lakes are plumb full of water and the Kokanee this year are fat. It seems like every lake that produces these tasty land locked salmon has fish running larger than years past. Alta, and upper lake of Conconully lake are producing nice Kokanee one the 16”+ average range with big fish up to 18”. Lakes like Spectacle. Patterson, and Lower Conconully are producing easy limits of 11-13” fish.

So what th this being a holiday weekend we decided to go a little farther out of our home base here in Okanogan. I had to work Monday but had the 3rd and 4th off. So after work we jump in the rigs and make the hour drive up to Bonaparte lake. So we pull in to the forest service campground 10:30 Monday night and find a campsite on the water with the perfect spot for our boat! We start looking around in the morning and realize it’s was the last spot on the water and 40 yards from the lighted bathroom with running water. Kinda old but clean and smells good. So B+ on the bathroom. There is no power hookups(no big deal) no showers, plenty of water faucets near every campsite, day use area had a impressive live edge wood tree bench that’s 20 feet long. Super sweet if you ask me. Floating dock for swimming, wheel chair fishing dock(new), and the boat launch has concrete railroad ties for a surface which is way under water due to the lake being all the way full so gravel launch right now. Also a steeper gravel launch at the resort right next door.

Fished off and on Tuesday. Cloudy off and on sprinkles off and on windy kinda gloomy cooler day. Had to go grind a little to find fish. Stayed in the small end of the lake for the most part with just one run up to the bigger end. I had watched a guy with his kids pick away at the kokanee in the morning. He said 20 feet on the wire seemed to be the magic depth. We experimented with depths, Dodgers, lures, scents, speed, and colors. Speed was 1.0-1.8 mostly 1.5 or so. Water temp was 61.7. On the trip up to the big end of the lake we landed a MONSTER it was awesome! My 13 year old spotted the bite and I could tell from the pole it was a nice fish, but once in the net it looked like a Sockeye!

Now 4th of July Morning, slept in just a bit to let it warm up, sun was shining beautiful day! 2-4mph breeze just enough to make some ripples. So the night before I had started to get it dialed in, but the weather is nicer and the sun is out. Meh do what works. So went back to what I left off with, slow start. Then I put on the orange modified Humdinger rugged for Kokanee behind the chrome Mack’s DD dodger and it was game on! Only problem is I only have one. Tried other orange hoochies... nope. So I ran the UV chrome Humdimger on the other side that was kicking butt the night before, and last time out at spectacle lake if you follow my reports. So the orange one would produce a bite every pass through the hole, until the sun went behind a cloud and then the chrome one would get the bit. It was like clock work. Then the sun would pop back out and the orange one would start kicking. This custome rigged Humdinger for Kokanee really is something special! So we got to go hit a lake and get it dialed in over the two days out. Custom cured corn and anis Krill procure was the best scent but sardine, bloody tuna, trout and Kokanee magic all worked fine.

We had a great trip and caught some beautiful Kokanee. Not to mention camping at such a beautiful place. We did hit the restaurant at the Bonaparte lake resort for lunch. The burger was great, chicken strips and fries did the trick. The ranch is good, Tartar and the service could use some work. We found 20’ on the wire to be the ticket. Nothing on the longline so started stacking with more success. Some fish caught at 15’, and as low as 30’. So if your still with me I will tell you exactly where we found them every pass through this section! So if you look at the map of the lake, there is a hole in front of the boys out camp that is 70 feet deep. From the corner of the hole right in front of the boys out camp to just strait out in front of the landslide from this spring 200 yards down the north bank from the boys out dock I stayed as close to the 30’ depth contour as I could follow. It goes from 60-30 right now then you have a little hip at 30 feet down. Find this spot and you are in the promise land. Fish averaged around 16” but ranged up to a solid 18” and I lost one that could of been a personal best. This lake is special. It is so quiet we never fired up the big main motor, just rocked the kicker. The loons have little baby loons right now, cool sounding birds.

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