Ok, the weather report wasn’t that bad but it seems as though it was WRONG. As we left I-5 and headed up the hill out of Marysville to Lake Stevens the persistent rain turned into a full on snow storm. By the time we got to the top of the hill we were driving on a completely white road. We launched the boat in the snow but by the time we were actually fishing the snow had stopped and the sun was trying to break through the clouds.

With the improving weather we were optimistic about putting the first kokanee of the year in the boat. We pulled a variety of standard kokanee gear at various depths but were only able to scratch out two drive-bys with no fish for the box. The water temperature varied at right around 40 degrees and we did a frequent change up on our trolling speed, running 0.8 to 2.0. Our two hits were on shallow running presentations, one off the rigger at 8’ and one on the lead line rig at 1 color. We saw just a small handful of fish jumping with no schooling fish on the meter. South of the aerator pen we did see a number of very large meter marks at 90-100 feet and were wondering if they were related to the very large fish we hooked in the lake late last spring. I think that a cut plug or two will be on board for the next trip.

With the new seat boxes our boat is much more organized and they worked out well. It was really nice when it was time to go home. Everything went in the boxes and we didn’t have to transfer much from the boat to the truck. We are also running a new fish finder. We found a great deal on a Humminbird 798ci SI Combo. Being a smaller screen unit I was a bit concerned about the readability of the images when the unit is in the DI or SI mode but I found the images to be quite stunning. In the SI mode everything from a rock, log or underwater bank to docks were clearly visible. So far we are very happy with the upgrade. I’ll try to include some screen snapshots in the next report or possibly in a discussion thread. Other than the no fish thing, it was fantastic to get back on the water.

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