What a day! It started out a little questionable but in the end it was 5 year old nirvana. Saturday we had planned to fish Lake Stevens for kokanee but as luck may have it my daughter had a flat tire at work and duty called. After a trip to visit her car, to Les Schwab, back to her car and then home it was well after 11:00 and the Lake Stevens plan was a dead fish. I considered just staying home and working on the garden but the sunny day got the best of me. We made a lunch, got the boat ready and headed out of dodge. We had evening plans and only had a few hours to fish so we decided to try our luck at Lake Goodwin.

We arrived at the lake around 12:30-1:00 and were fishing shortly thereafter. Being stubborn and crotchety, I decided to test run my new kokanee flies and lures (their conception keeps me from going insane when I can’t get out and fish). Starting out we ran the latest creations behind a chrome and green dodger on one side of the boat and an orange and white swingblade type attractor the other side. Initially the riggers were set at 8’ and 18’ but we fished 8’-38’. We also ran two surface lines, one with a 2” perch colored Rapala and one with a 1” rainbow colored Flatfish about 60’ behind the boat. To be honest the fish were suicidal Saturday, everything we ran at any depth saw constant action. That said most of our larger fish were hooked between 28’ and 36’ while trolling in water that was around 45’ feet deep. One of my new kokanee flies (now rainbow/kokanee fly) saw the most action and was deadly with or without bait.

I tried to maintain 1.0 mph but with the gusty conditions Saturday afternoon it was tough maintaining a steady trolling speed. We ran the surface lures without scent or bait and typically tipped the Kokanee gear with corn or a small piece of worm. I didn’t keep track of how many fish we caught and released but all fish caught with bait or scent got to go for a ride in the comfort of the ice chest. It was a spectacular day on the water and the little guy continues to hone his fish catching skill. In the end we caught our limits of 15 fish with 6 larger fish and 4 of those being 2 pounds plus. Although our afternoon on the water was done the adventure was not over.

Saturday night was opening night at the Skagit Speedway and a not to be missed event at our end. Boat safely tucked away in the garage and arm loads of blankets in tow we were off to the track. It was a thrilling night of multi-class racing. Dirt nachos-n-all we had a blast. The racing went late but the little dude made it through to the end being awake through it all (once we assured him that it is ok to occasionally stay up past his bed time….). He‘s a big kid now!

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