Finally got enough of a break in the weather to give it go Saturday morning. Shake down trip for the 2014 season was Lake Meridian targeting kokanee.

Got to the lake about 0715. Loaded up and launched by 7:30. Kicker was a bit finicky so gave it a little extra warm-up time. Stated fishing just about 0800.

Used same gear and tactics that produced multiple limits last season. Did both surface troll and downrigger troll. Used spin-n-glo's in a variety of colors and an assortment of mini hoochies all baited with fire corn in pink or white or pink Berkeley gulp maggots. Not a single bite, scratch, or sniff to be had.

As the weather turned from overcast to raining to pouring at about 11:30 I finally threw in the towel on the kokes and ran flatfish plugs and hotshot plugs to see if I could scare-up a RBT to at least kick the skunk out (nothing worse than starting off the season with the skunk firmly entrenched in the boat). Took me most of a trip around the lake, to the one spot where I saw signs of fish on a previous pass, to coax a bite.

Actually, after some 4+ hours without so much as a bump, I got two bites in about 10 seconds. The first hit was on the trout colored hotshot - two quick taps that didn't stick. Fortunately, the fish immediately moved to the plug I had running high and back from the first one and stuck on the perch flatfish. No great shakes, just a 7 inch planter, however, I got him to net and released him to splash the skunk at last!

Did my conservation project in the form of fishing an empty Pinnacle vodka bottle out of the lake.

Finished the day by running both motors at full throttle and everything seemed to perform more or less as expected. Parked the boat and hung out all the soggy gear to dry. Hopefully the fishing on Meridian will pick-up as the weather warms and give us another bomber season like we enjoyed in 2013!

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