The Lake Stevens kokanee derby has come and gone. Although there were varying opinions about the number of tickets sold, there was a good turn out for the aquatic festivities. With the help of derby organizers both the morning and afternoon launch ramp rush went smoothly. On the water there only a few minor crossed line incidents and I believe that everybody had a great time. For the adult division there were 72 people that weighted fish. There were also a large number of kids participating in the derby, each going home with a loot bag and many with a prize. From a fisherman’s perspective; although the fish were less than corporative overall the derby was successful, well run and we had a blast. As a bonus we had the pleasure of spending time with fellow Washington Laker Toni and her friends Glen and Cami of fishn2gthr4ever video productions. We also got to swap fish stories with a number of our old friends. With the fellowship, everything combined to make for a great event and we are looking forward to next year’s derby.

As far as the fishing goes, for our boat the catching was a bit of a struggle. We started out hot with a quazzy-quad only getting two of the fish to the boat. From that point forward we had to work for our fish. With the exception of one rod we were running the usual arsenal of kokanee gear. Small dodgers followed by custom tied spinner or mini squid rigs. All gear was tipped with shoepeg corn, shoepeg corn soaked in carp spit or cured shrimp. Although we did not have an opportunity to pre-fish the tournament past experience suggested that a specific rig would target larger fish. We ran one rod set up with a small green and red dodger followed by a custom tied spin-n-glow. As luck may have it that rig was responsible for the second place derby fish.

The surface temperature varied between 56.4-57.6 degrees with the highest temperatures being first thing in the morning. In looking for the perfect trolling speed we ran 1.0 mph to 2.1 with 1.6 being the most productive for out boat. If you look at the track plot picture you can see that we fished all over the lake with area in front of North Cove being our favored hunting grounds. The other picture is second place fish.

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