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Rated a 3 even though my day was a 4, my partner's was a 1.

Broke away from the busy schedule I seem to keep these days and headed Roosevelt. Slid the boat off the trailer at Seven Bays just after 7am and pointed the boat toward Keller Ferry about 15mins later.

Decided to fish above Keller Ferry based on recent reports, and as we motored into the area around Hansen Harbor, I saw kokanee feeding on the surface. We moved above them, got gear set and started trolling. Two boats in the area as we started, and they were not fishing where we were - cool!

Got my first hookup about a half hour later, solid hit on my leaded line rig at 150' back. Nice fighter, and as it neared the boat, the aerial displays by what was clearly a very nice kokanee brought concern of losing it. This fish made several hard runs at the boat, and every time it did I feared it would pull the hook. It finally tired enough to net and I was relieved to see it was solidly hooked on the main hook and the trailer treble. My personal best kokanee - 19.5" and 2lbs, 13ozs.

By this time there were a half dozen boats in the area, some sneaking into my trolling pattern. We continued to work the area but no more hits, so stretched the trolling zone. I had a second solid take down on the leaded line rig and this one displayed similar aerial antics as it neared the boat. We could tell it was another nice fish and at first it looked to be another koke, but turned out to be a green backed, silver sided native 'bow. This one was 18.5" and 2lbs, 2ozs.

My buddy's rod was silent and after my second fish my rods were too. At 10am we decided to run to Spring Canyon and give it a go.

We set up a pattern on the north shore across from Spring Canyon and went to work. Was slow and as we rounded a point, my downrigger rod went ballistic. Strong fighter, and as it neared the boat, it made several darting runs. Another dandy kokanee - 19" and 2lbs, 6ozs. I felt good, two beautiful kokes and very nice 'bow on a bright, sunny day which is normally my nemesis at Roosevelt.

My buddy was still without a fish even though he had changed his offering a couple times. I urged him to swap his gear out for what I was using and handed him a pink Kekeda fly. I forget how long it was but he finally hooked up with a really nice native bow that went 17.5" and 2lbs, 1oz. He was relieved to shake the skunk.

We worked hard to find him at least one koke, but it was not to be. I found several groups of kokes in the 20' - 45' range, and trolled right through them at and above their depth to no avail. Finally, at 2pm, we stowed our gear and headed for Seven Bays.

For me, the pink Kekeda was the ticket, bringing the biggest koke and a healthy 'bow as well as two smaller 'bows which were released to grow bigger. I tipped the trailer treble with shoepeg corn soaked in "secret sauce" (actually last year's corn!). My second koke was taken on a pink Apex behind a 4/0 UV chrome dodger. Both hooks on the Apex were tipped with the same corn.

My buddy was using corn on all his offerings, but didn't hook up until switching to the pink Kekeda. We both trolled leaded line rigs 150' back (roughly 3 1/2 colors) and on my donwrigger rod I used a 35' setback behind the ball which I dropped to 12'. I varied depth several times throughout the day, mostly between 12' - 14' which is where the one hookup came, but I also dropped it down as we trolled through deeper schools of kokes in Spring Canyon.

We had nearly glass calm water most of the day. Some good surface chop for about 90mins after arriving at Spring Canyon before it too became flat. The calm conditions sure made the hour's boat ride back to Seven Bays very enjoyable. :-)

downriggeral

3/17/2016 7:16:00 PM

Way to go hewesfisher, glad to see you were able to get out. I have found long set backs on the downrigger to be helpful when running shallow, 75' or more. Haven't had any trouble with the downrigger and lead core tangling unless a fish just had to do it!

Tight lines - Alan

Kekedatackleco

3/17/2016 10:58:00 PM

Glad you got to get out and enjoy some fishing. Those calm boat rides are sure fun to enjoy the scenery we have there. Great report as always and thanks for giving the flies a workout and sticking with them. Happy the Kekeda was able to deliver for you, beautiful fish! Take care, Dave

hewesfisher

3/18/2016 7:26:00 AM

Thanks for the tip Alan, if I find another opportunity to get out while the koke bite remains good, I'll try a longer setback to see how it works.

Dave - Your Kekeda flies are awesome, and even though I have other brands in my box, yours are my "go to" fly every outing! Trip back from Spring Canyon was a real treat, seemed like the boat almost drove itself. ;-)

One thing I neglected to put in my report - trolling speeds were 1.5 - 1.8mph and like Captain Dave mentioned in his koke report, these fish were hitting hard and aggressively.

Hunter757

3/18/2016 9:10:00 AM

Thanks for the tip on the Kekeda fly, just order up a few for my trip next week. I had no clue he was on this website just saw his name above pretty cool. Great looking fish!!

Honda

3/19/2016 12:22:00 PM

Nice report, great fish! Anyone here anything on Roofus Woods? I hears that recently they released several thousand fish. Wondering if anyone has been up there?

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