Yaaa! Spring has sprung. The nice weather forecast had me unpacking and cleaning my boat from it’s winter slumber. Checked all the gear and electronics, everything is working, sweet. I decided to hit Lake Stevens and re-start my kokanee bug. I was hoping the warmer weather perhaps awakened the koks early this year. So with hopes high I contacted my fishing buddy Robbie and we made plans to hit the lake at O’Crack’O’Dawn.

Well, Crack O’ Dawn turned into more like 7:30 due to a license malfunction, one my friend Robbie is not likely to repeat. It wasn’t that big a deal and we were soon running our four rods at various depths and locations.

And a special bonus – planer boards. Yup, we ran one off each side. With the fish up shallow they are a perfect tool to cover water to either side of the boat and have one’s gear not directly behind the boat.

We used a variety of sling blades, dodgers, hoochies, wedding rings, small pink flies… in short I went through my tackle box. Scents – up, various flavors applied. No matter what we did we could not get a steady action started. We ended up catching three and losing one. Depths ranged from surface to 20 feet. Three of the fish came off one planer board so I will definitely give them another try. Big fish was 14”, the other two were 11”.

Lot’s of fishing jumping today – all the way into the afternoon. Getting them to bite was another matter. I didn’t see a lot of nets out, some here and there, and one report of a boat getting 11. But I’m thining that was the exception, not the rule.

In any case, time to dust off the gear and hit the lake!

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