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Plan in place I hit Lake Stevens this morning. Whoops WDFW launch in town is closed for a shell regatta so I head for the other side of the lake and part with the 7 bucks to launch. Initially I head towards the east shore and set out the kokanee gear. I was fishing solo today so it was two rods off the riggers. Water temperature was running between 41.9 and 42.3 and the kokanee are starting to organize. I start out with one downrigger at 6 feet and the other at 18 feet. Immediately the shallow rod goes off and as I lift the rod from the rod holder my lure, dodger and a Western Grebe comes flying out of the water. My first fight of the day was in the air and an interesting start to a pretty spectacular day of fishing.

The next hour or so was pretty slow with only a couple drive-by hits for my efforts. I needed to make a change so I decided to work the area northwest of the aerator pen. I worked the area for a half hour or so starting in 90 feet of water and progressively moving shallower I worked my way up onto the flats. As I came up out of 30 feet of water both riggers go off at once and I must have trolled through a school of perch because one line had a 5” perch and the other 2 of them. From the perch party I moved up on to the shelf and focused my fishing in 11-20 feet of water.

At this point I was just flat lining my gear and I had switched from the standard kokanee gear to a Rapala type stick bait and a burnt orange wooly bugger. I am running a new Hummingbird 798ci SI Combo so was really focusing on the different settings and images. While in the side imaging mode I noticed some very large suspended marks and made a mental note of their location. I trolled up above them and then made a turn so the boat was lined up with where I thought the marks were. Keenly paying attention to the FF image the suspended marks came into view and about a minute or so later the stick bait rod goes off. Twenty minutes later I slide the net under an almost 5 pound rainbow. Heart pounding I reset the gear and repeat the drill looking for the suspended meter marks. About five minutes later the stick bait rod goes off again and I am working another large rainbow. This one was very acrobatic so the fight on 6 pound test was a bit nerve racking. A little while later I slide the net under another very large rainbow.

From that point I start expanding my area of coverage. The tactic was pretty successful, for the next hour and a half I never went more than 5 minutes with out a fish on. I was catching a mix of nice cutthroat, smaller trout and another monster rainbow. While working the area I noticed that as I made my circle over the deeper water I was getting a lot of short bites but no fish. Thinking that they may be kokanee I changed out the gear again and started trolling a blue stick bait on one side of the boat and a swing blade/custom kokanee fly that I tie on the other side of the boat. Both rigs were baited with some doctored gulp maggots. The riggers were both set at 6 feet. The stick bait rod started bouncing as soon as I was reorganized and back on the troll. I grab the rod and out of the water jumps what turned out to be my first kokanee of the year. With the box already heavy with fish I considered letting it go but it was the first kokanee of the year so in the box it went.

I worked the area for another hour or so and caught and released my limit of kokanee. The kokanee seemed to be schooled up in 30-40’ of water and as with last year, Lake Stevens kokanee prefer 1.4 mph. The trout-fest trolling speed was 1.0 mph. It turned out to be a great multi-species day on Lake Stevens. I caught 7 cutthroat to about 16” (all released), 3 rainbow in the ballpark of 5 pounds, 5 or 6 smaller rainbows to about 12”, 3 perch (again released) and 10 kokanee to about 11” (all but the first one released). All the trout were caught without bait or scent. As noted earlier I was using doctored gulp maggots to tip the lures when fishing for the kokanee. Photos: Rainbows/kokanee and one of the cutthroat.

rseas

3/24/2012 7:08:00 PM

Mike, there should have been two photos. The photo with the big fish is missing.

Toni

3/24/2012 8:06:00 PM

Awesome report. You should win the derby for sure!

urbanangler

3/24/2012 8:13:00 PM

Man, what a report, and what a banner day. Love how you marked those big trout and zeroed in on them, so cool!

rseas

3/24/2012 8:14:00 PM

Thanks Toni, I have to get the other picture up on the report or nobody will believe it...

afk

3/24/2012 8:39:00 PM

I think you are liking this new fish finder! Thanks for the report

Idstud

3/24/2012 9:56:00 PM

Great report sounds like the new FF is doing its job well. It was a nice day to be on the water Im sure.

MotoBoat

3/24/2012 11:50:00 PM

Nice day of weather and fishing. How many Kokanee were caught on the stickbait lure?

motoxcross

3/25/2012 9:09:00 AM

Wow that Koke sure looks small !!! Or those other's are huge.

rseas

3/25/2012 9:43:00 AM

While engaged in the koke-fest the fish were definitely keyed in on the stick bait. I only got three on the conventional kokanee gear. Over the years I have had pretty good success on the stick baits or even a F5 Flatfish when the fishing is tough, such as early or late season when the conditions are less than favorable. I usually switch out the small treble hooks and add a small siwash hook and swivel connecting them to the forward or belly screw eye.

Toni

3/27/2012 7:45:00 AM

The kokanee looks like a minnow. What a day you must have had!!!

rseas

3/27/2012 8:03:00 AM

The kokanee is 11" and the day was a blast. Just wish I could retire and fish everyday!

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