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Memorial Day Campout 2016 - A Fish Princess Adventure
Having been thwarted by Mother Nature on Friday, we reset our plans for Roosevelt to Saturday and thankfully the forecast called for wind to top out at 5-6 mph. Alarm was set for 0430 but I was so excited for epic kokanee battle with the kiddos that I was up, dressed and had the coffee brewing by 0430. I went about loading food and gear into the truck and then attended to the task of replacing some walleye gear with trout and kokanee gear on a few of the rods used at Moses Lake on Friday. I woke the girls at 0500 and gave them a 15 minute warning to be ready. They responded pretty well and we were bombing down the road from Sun Lakes toward Roosevelt by about 5:20.
We made a quick stop at Big Wally's to see about replacing some of the gear we had lost the day prior and investigate their donut inventory, however they were still closed when we arrived. Instead, we visited the Safeway in Grand Coulee for ice and a couple sleeves of Hostess donuts for the girls (no fresh bakery at that store). Arrived at Spring Canyon launch around 6:45 and got the boat rigged and in the water around 0700.
We had an excellent game plan ready given excellent intel from Salmonbarry, Widebear, Downriggeral, and Capt Dave. Huge shout out to each of you for sharing so much knowledge to help us be successful. It paid of in epic battles and smiling faces all around!! We started our troll just outside the boat launch buoys with 3 colors of lead core on the first two rigs in the water. These were roughly 135' - 150' behind the boat accounting for the lead core and the top shot. Next we set the port DR with 100' set back at 15' and the starboard DR with 105' set back at 12'. We fished an assortment of spinners, hoochies, flies, Mysis Bugs, behind the combination of Arrow Flash, Simon, and Dick Nite dodgers. While every rod got bit at least once, the best combination was the yellow Eagle Claw rod (which earned the nickname Mustard) with the Penn 209 and lead core line. This rod was rigged with the pink and purple Dick Nite hot head and terminated with Downrigger Al's custom white and pink hoochie. We used lots of flavors of corn and the most consistent producers were: garlic tuna+, anise krill, shrimp/prawn, and shrimp.
We started our catching within the first 20 minutes or so warming up on a couple of mid-size RBT. Guest Fish Princess Tia did the honors of de-skunking the boat again and the Fish Princess did great when her turn came as well! We had a small kokanee take our gear as well and it was kind enough to self release right at the boat so we could search for its big brothers and sisters! As we approached the rock faces toward the dam, we had our first hard take down (on Mustard). I jumped for the rod and attempted the hook set only to find the fish had hit and swam the back hook ahead of the front hooked and used the leverage to free itself. We would see this trick repeated several more times later in the day. I got so involved with the take down and retrieving the gear that I failed to notice a rock outcropping protruding form the rock face and just below the water surface immediately off our bow. The girls alerted me to the impending danger in time for me to slow the boat to a crawl before we bumped the obstacle but I had to throw the kicker in reverse to get us clear. With 2 down riggers out and three surface lines too, the run in reverse created a world class mess and on top of it we had one DR ball hung on the rock. The girls managed to get get the surface lines reeled into the boat while I maneuvered to drag our DR ball free of the rock. We got back all of our gear except one of my shiny new Arrow Flash dodger with my custom cyclops spinner in tow (sad as this had already accounted for one of our prior hook-ups). The DR ball had a few diggers in it but at least the cable was intact. We also had one of the surface lines fouled in the kicker. Eventually, I got enough of the line out of the kicker for it to chug along and I swapped out the beat-up DR ball for a new smaller one.
Having our trouble in the rear view mirror we continued our troll toward the dam and started to pick-up the bonus-size kokanee we were in search of. These fish gave us all we could handle as it took somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 hook-ups to get our 6 kokanee to net for the day. On the bright side, the girls got lots of practice with playing and netting fish. It was really a sight to see watching them play these aggressive and hard-fighting fish! Our first highlight reel of the day was played out when I decided to check a line that was not proiducing and I thought might be fouled. Well it was fouled on a fish that was lazily swimming along for the ride. When it realized it was hooked it went bananas and tossed the hook. When the fight started, however, this triggered two more fish to bite so for a brief moment we had a triple header going. The girls both got their fish to net so at least we bagged 2 of three.
We have a tradition of naming each fish so it will be welcome aboard the Get Reel when it is hooked. Having lost a mess of fish on this day we decided that all of the ones that escaped would be named Houdini (in the aggregate). Our second highlight of the day came on the last fish to close out our limits. After losing the limit fish 2 or 3 times in a row we had a fierce take down followed by a 4 pound bruiser dragging about a half acre of lead core clear out of the water on successive leaps. The fish simmered down long enough for me to collect my lead core and most of the top shot then it saw the boat! It was some kind of pissed off to be in its predicament and it pulled out every stop to escape. First it charged the gear on the starboard side of the boat, narrowly missing as I steered it out away form the gunwale. As quickly as it made that charge it made a speed run back around the stern and charged for the gear at the port side of the boat. Again it was clear of the gear, however, it turned on a dime and reversed course darting between the DR cable and the line form the pole fishing along on that DR. I saw him make his move and acted quickly to dunk the pole down in the water and quickly pass it between the cable and line again freeing the fish to play it to the back of the boat. The Fish Princess stood ready with net in hand as I gingerly worked the fish to the surface. I had been playing it for so long at this point I knew the hooks would not hold in the soft flesh much longer. As I lifted the fish toward the net the Fish Princess went for the scoop. She wrestled the fish over the lip of the net just past the shoulders and began to lift. The fish teetered on the edge of the net and with a last ditch effort the Fish Princess made a lunging scoop back under the brute and he finally plopped into the bottom of the net just as the hooks came soaring skyward from its jaws. We decided we had bagged Houdini himself.
We packed-up and enjoyed a speed run back to the launch ramp with 6 fat kokanee and 3 bonus RBT on ice. We took lots of pictures then loaded up to head back to camp. Before we could leave, Tia had to open the back door of the truck and usher out a large Monarch butterfly that had decided to take a break on the back seat. We were also treated to an amazing display of flags at the grave yard heading out from the Spring Canyon area. All-in it was an amazing fishing day and a special adventure with my daughter and her friend that will last the test of time in our memories.
Thanks again to all those who shared information generously to enable our success! Good luck and tight lines to all of you!!
Dawg
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