Fished a Sunday a couple of weeks ago (the day they shot the Day One Outdoors kokanee episode) and went home with tail between legs and skunk firmly entrenched in the boat.

So I went back to school, tied-up some of the gear recommended by Bill Herzog in the April 2014 issue of STS and talked to a couple of guys that had success that day and came back armed with some new tactics and new determination on Sunday, 6/1.

The guys I visited with a few weeks ago had caught their kokes using a Dick Nite pink splatter dodger on one side and a silver/pink Aero dodger on the other with longish leaders of 18"-24" terminated with a plain pink glow squid body over double hooks.

I took my first queue form their success and atarted with one rod rigged this way with the addition of the crystal flash on the top hook recommend by The General. This produced the first fish and a long release as I was resetting gear. I also ran the pink splatter Dick Nite along with a Wannafishalure Pink Ice. This combo was good for 2 fish out of the limit. The others in the limit were caught on the Aero dodger and Herzog's pink glow and UV pink squid with the 24K gold Pentac micro-blades.

I read gfakkema's kokanee primer last week and used some of those tips as well. Top lines were run 15-20 feet with 85' setback stacked on top of lower lines at 30-35 feet with 100' setback. Used the larger Aero dodger on the bottom and the smaller Dick Nite dodger on the top. Was effective at picking-up fish both deep and shallow. Also ran some gear in gold/silver and orange, but they were dialed-in on pink Sunday. Another tip I used form the timely primer post was to use at least one piece of plain corn on every presentation. Used maggots for a while based on the tips form the anglers a few weeks ago but they produced nothing for me. The hot bait Sunday early was plain corn and later in the day a combo of plain corn and bloody tuna corn (one piece of each rigged open-end toward the fish - mostly top hook only although I think I did have a take with corn on both hooks late in the day).

My determination and previous experience with kokanee biting crazy early motivated me to get moving at 0215 and out the driveway by 0300. Arrived at the WDFW launch at 0350 only to find the gate locked. Spent some time getting the boat ready to launch and gear prepped-up but it was frustrating to see an hour of precious first-light fishing time go by the boards waiting for the security guard from JBLM to open the gate. At least I was first in line to launch and got fishing by about 0515.

Was 2 - 3 by about 6:30 then it slowed down. Got another fish around 0930 and then another 2 about 30 minutes apart between 1200 and 1230. Lots of eagles out there again today. Even got to see one chase down an osprey and steal its fish!

Preparation and persistence paid-off for me today. Thanks to all who shared info in print, online, and in person that helped me be successful. It is greatly appreciated!

Tight lines and good luck out there!

Fish Dawg

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