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Sunday morning, a couple new fishing rods to break in and not much time so we head for Lake Samish. We planned to bring the dogs so we took the truck and the Land Cruiser. The truck and boat headed for the launch and the LC, driver and Dogs went to the park so it would be easier for the dogs to board without getting all muddy. I was running a few minutes ahead of the rest of the gang so after launching I dialed in the fishery before I had to head to the park and pick them up.

Everyone on board, we head back under the bridge into the big lake and start trolling in 60’ of water across the lake from the boat ramp. The game plan was to pull gear off the down riggers and also run a lead line rig and a flat line set up. Based on my earlier exploration I knew the fish were holding between 24’ and 46’ with the thermocline at approximately 15-25’. We ran the riggers at 28’, each rod set-up with a green or chartreuse swing blade followed by a UV/green mini squid tipped with maggots. I didn’t get the second downrigger set before the first downrigger pops the clip. That was how the next 45 minutes went. As soon as the gear was down it was fish on. The fish were a blast, every one popped the clip before offering an epic battle with many jumps and long runs. Within the hour we were headed back to the park, limits in the box to unload our 4 legged friends for their drive home.

The morning was a way fun. All the fish were 13”-15” and the largest was 1.3 pounds, a real fatty. All the fish were off of meter marks. We would troll through a meter mark and then count to about 90 when the clip would pop and it was fish-on. This was the first trip with my new Side Imaging FF where I used it in deeper water specifically to locate kokanee and it proved useful. I set the “SI Range” at 200’ and when I spotted a school of fish on the SI I would steer right or left as appropriate to connect with the fish. I also had the unit in dual screen mode, standard sonar and the SI. The SI would locate the fish and then the sonar would help me fine tune the depth presentation. The water temperature hovered around 53 degrees and our ideal trolling speed was 1.2 mph.

Mike Carey

4/29/2012 5:54:00 PM

wow! I'm off tomorrow, I should go fishing.

rseas

4/29/2012 6:37:00 PM

I wold love to take you but the boat goes in for service tomorrow morning.

Idstud

4/29/2012 8:36:00 PM

Great report looks like I need to get out there. This weekend I took the girls to lake tyee in monroe for a durby. It was a hoot.

Mike@Bills

4/29/2012 9:16:00 PM

Nice looking fish. I hear your the guy who won the Stevens derby last year, I assume your doing it again? Hope to see you there, nothing better than a little friendly competition. Do you ever fish American Lake?

Mike Carey

4/29/2012 10:47:00 PM

that's OK, I have one day off and a bunch of "activities of daily living" I have to deal with. Maybe a little bas fishing in the evening if I get a chance tomorrow. Anyway, it's my turn to do the boat driving.

rseas

4/30/2012 5:50:00 AM

Mike (@Bills?); well almost won. First was in the bag up until the last few minutes when someone entered a huge koke. We ended up with second and had a great time. This year however will be a different story. For us this year mid May through mid June there are so many things that we are committed to, two of which being out of the area graduations. The oldest is graduating University San Luis Obispo with some extremely significant accomplishments under his belt. One of which is to have a satellite he designed, acted as project manager and launch coordinator sent into space. Then the oldest girl will be graduating Culinary school in Portland on May 19th. She has really found her calling (funny, she hardly ever cooked at home) and although she was able to complete her academic and intern requirements early as well as secure a salaried position at one of the higher end locally sourced restaurants in Portland, she has even interviewed for the show "Chopped". All that said, the graduation date is what it is... On that note the youngest is also destine to be a chef, he is quite talented in the kitchen and it will be interesting to see what direction that goes. I also have a two week Jury Duty summons to fulfill during the same time frame. May -June will be interesting but I will be assured to send all the Kokanee Derby fisherman positive Catch-a-Kokanee vibes on May 19th.

rseas

4/30/2012 6:18:00 AM

Regarding American Lake, although I may have fished it as a kid I have not fished there as an adult. We have talked about heading that direction a number of times but never made it. It is a pretty long haul from Burlington and we have a number of good local kokanee lakes. That said I would like to help out with the Disabled Veterans Kokanee Tournament at American Lake next year.

Mike@Bills

4/30/2012 7:53:00 AM

That is awesome that your kids are doing so great! That would be great if you could send those Koke vibes my way, I am just going to go up there and fish I have never even been on the lake before. It looks like you had a question about my name, my name is mike but i work at Bills Boathouse on American Lake hence the @bills. If you are ever in the area we have some awesome kokes down here, the average right now is about 15 inches and they are all over a pound which is way better than last year. The disabled vets got a couple this weekend that were 16 and 17 inches.
Mike

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