Decided to take advantage of the great weather we had Saturday, and headed out to Samish with my new (to me) fishing boat. We were chasing Kokanee but anything on the hook would have made for a successful day. We did not have high hopes at all (we're not crazy, just eager). I'd been sitting on that boat since late November and couldn't wait to get out and fish with her. BTW Its just an old 19ft Bayliner with an outboard, but it was cheap and a lot more comfortable than the 12ft Valco I have used.

Back to the fishing. We used downriggers and started deep. We stayed near the boat launch for the first part of the day, starting just before 6:30am. My fish finder did a great job of picking up the downrigger cannonballs. That's new to me as well, so I'm learning how to fine tune it. Trolled around at 40-50 ft until we started picking up hits on the fishfinder near 20 ft, so the lines came up a bit. Not too much happened at that point so we moved closer to the north end of the lake. Same thing. Most of the "fish" my fishfinder saw were near the surface and maybe one or two near the bottom in 60ft of water. We were going to go under the bridge into the deep part of the lake, but the crew rowers were out in force, so we respected their space and headed to the south end. Nothing there either. Looks like most of whatever was hanging around is still going to be in the area where the lake is nearest I5.

We saw a couple other boats out fishing. Looks like they may have been going for panfish, or they were jigging for bottom fish. Not sure. We started loosing battery power for the trolling motor around 10:30, and after four hours of being skunked, thought it might be a good time to call it a day and a good first effort for the year. Its going to be a few weeks before I make it back there for another try, so hopefully the decent weather continues and the water starts to warm up a bit.

gfakkema

3/11/2013 8:34:00 AM

It's still a little early for kokes, but I too have been out in search of the elusive "silver footballs". If you don't have one yet, get a 2 rod endorsement. This allows you to try different setups to see what is working. Using this method, you can have one rod on the rigger and another "flat lining" on the surface (or add just a little weight to get you in that 1'-10' range). This is especially important in the beginning of the season when the kokes haven't really schooled up yet and are closer to the surface. I have a theory about where to find them (but not sure how accurate this is) and why they were on the I5 side of the lake. Follow the wind. I always seem to find the kokes on the shore that the wind pushes against. Just a guess, but was the wind coming from the west, or southwest? My theory is that the wind pushes the surface water. The plankton, which is what the kokes are feeding on, are then pushed a bit with the surface water. I almost always find the kokes where the wind is headed. Hope this helps a bit, good luck out there and tight lines.

americanmcss

3/11/2013 10:30:00 AM

Yup, still early, but for the sake of fun, and a giant itch to go fishing, it was worth a shot. Definitely going to get the two rod endorsement for 2013 (only have a single pole for 2012). I was able to switch it up between surface trolling and down rigging. I took 3 rods with me so when one was in the water I would work on rigging the others with different setups and then the swap would happen quickly to maximize fishing time. Two were rotated through the downrigger and the third, which is very light action and is about 8ft long is my regular trolling rod The wind was fairly calm early in the morning, but I will give your hypothesis a shot next time I am out there. We mixed up speed, depth, colors, dodger shapes and sizes, lures, and even smells. We could have stayed longer and tried a little harder but there were projects waiting for me at home. If you ever see me out there (look for the ugly as sin white and blue bayliner, mising side windows with "Jig Nasty" (not what I named her) on the transom, feel free to give me a shout. I'll be working on getting my VHF up and running so you can call me on that if you've got it. Thanks for the advice and look forward to a successful year of koke fishin.

gfakkema

3/11/2013 10:47:00 AM

I lived in Bellingham for many years and am pretty familiar with this fishery. I have since moved to Auburn though and probably won't make it up there any time soon. If I do make it to Samish, I will keep an eye out for the "Jig Nasty", but my trips up north will most likely be to Baker Lake for them Socks. If you haven't checked it out yet, rseas blog on kokanee fishing is pretty informative. It can be found here:
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/BlogPost.aspx?bpid=327
If you have any questions on tackle, boat setup or more, feel free to PM me and I will help in any way I can. Also, fishenfreak is in Bellingham and I have heard that he slays the kokes on Samish when not catching every salmon/steelhead he see's, so a PM in his direction wouldn't be a bad idea either.

americanmcss

3/11/2013 12:41:00 PM

Read the article, and its very informative. I am very excited for the Koke Fishery this year. Going to be checking out Toad Lake, as well as Padden, and returning to Baker again. I have been successful at Baker for Rainbow and Kokanee in the past so I'm really looking forward to a couple trips there.

Thanks again for the info and advise. If I have any questions, I'll shoot them to you.

gfakkema

3/11/2013 2:07:00 PM

If you are interested, I made a post on some of the local bellingham area lakes. It can be found here:
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17144&start=20
Like I stated before, feel free to PM me if you want any specifics on tackle.

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