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For short version just look at the pictures .

My crew saturday and Sunday consisted of three gentlemen who were all employees of a certain boat company up in Collville Washington. I learned a lot about boats and hull design and really would have liked to learn more, but it was kind of hard to carry on a long conversation with all the action we were getting.

The surface water temps are perfect right now and these fish are super aggressive. I feel the Kokanee population is only a quarter of what it was last year. This makes finding them a bit tricky. Once we found fish we got a ton of hookups but only managed to land 60% of these. It's frustrating to loose so many fish, but I've learned to laugh it off and enjoy the sport even when it's frustrating.

Beautiful was an understatement for yesterday's weather. Clear skies and flat seas usually causes fish to seek deeper water, but that is not the case yet. We did mark deeper fish but we could not get them to bite, so we focused on the bitters at 5-15'. For those of you not using planer boards I would suggest using Mack's DD Dodgers. Especially when fishing shallow. When adjusted appropriately these dodger will "walk" their way away from the boat laterally. This will give you a wider spread and in turn help to separate lines. Very cool feature. We caught fish on apex, hoochies, coho killers, wedding rings, plugs, and flies. After much experimenting the fish made it clear they wanted flies the most. Especially orange ones. This gave me a chance to bust out my Arctic Fox trolling tube flies and test them and the action disc against my custom flies. I feel the tube fly has a huge advantage over traditional flies. It allows you to determine the best hook configuration. It was obvious this weekend that we lost fewer fish on the tube flies running two single #2 hooks. Keith's trophy 4.25# 23" Kokanee was fooled by an orange Arctic Fox Tube Fly fished with a #2 WiggleFin Action Disc and no dodger. Looks like I'm going to need to bolster my supply of tube flies and action discs.

Last season I trolled 1.7 mph religiously. This weekend I varied my speed from 1.7-2.5mph. If this keeps up I think I may have to purchase an ITroll throttle control unit from Downriggeral. Sounds like hunt mode would be perfect for this application.

Well, we had a stellar weekend. I even got to land a few fish. The Kokanee are getting fatter, but the bows seem to be getting leaner IMO. Anybody else noticing thin rainbows? Maybe we just caught the starving ones that were desperate for a meal. I may need to slow down to get the fat lazy ones.

I have several opening for this fishery. I would love to have you and your crew on the boat and share with you what I know about this fishery. I promise you will learn something and quite possibly catch the biggest Kokanee of your life.

downriggeral

5/24/2017 7:16:21 PM

Nice going Dave! knew I should have gone down last Saturday; is jealous the right word?
Tight lines and I know "The Experiment Must Continue " Alan - iFishSolutions

Fish Dawg

5/24/2017 8:47:33 PM

Nice haul and very informative report. Thanks for sharing all the helpful tips, Dave!

Lambojac

5/25/2017 6:26:33 AM

Hey I know those guys! Lol. From the report I got in person I knew it was a successful trip. What was the size of that bass??

CaptainDavesGS

5/25/2017 7:07:43 AM

19" and just a touch over 4 pounds.

Part-Time

5/25/2017 8:10:47 AM

Way to go Dave! Great report! The kitchen is almost done and I may get my life back soon and join you down there. Thanks for the inspiration.

Honda

5/25/2017 1:44:33 PM

Were you out of Keller?

strikezone

5/25/2017 10:47:07 PM

Dave: Really enjoyed your report. Sounds like things are starting to improve over there finally. I noticed you have put a couple different hooks on the orange tube fly than what they come with. I see it's a #2 hook, but I'm not sure what the brand or model number is? They seemed to work real well for you tho. I'd like to try them over here on the kokes on the west side if you don't mind sharing. Tight lines to ya. Thanks.
Denny




Denny

CaptainDavesGS

5/26/2017 8:07:14 AM

The hook is a Gamakatsu octopus. I usually purchase the assorted color packs but don't seem to ever utilize the white. 02609-p is the number for the pinks. I imagine a size 4 or 6 fishes best for average size Kokanee.

outtheresomewhere

5/26/2017 8:54:57 AM

Thanks much for the info on the tube fly's - especially glad to be able to buy them - damned arthritis has just about ended my ability
to tie a fly - even a tube fly takes way too long anymore, too many re-starts. Good luck on the sockeye - right now the best chance looks
like around Bateman island - depends on how many they "give" us a day if it's worth the trip from Spokane. I have the itroll feature on
the terrova it's a thing of beauty - now if they would invent a feature to dodge the debris field above the dam - this past week it was bad
all the way up to 7 bays. Got the whole package from the Scotsman at hi-dollar marine - saves on taxes down there and he or Ken will price
match any of the major dealers. Thanks again !

Honda

6/1/2017 7:56:29 AM

How do you fish the tube flies? On a down rigger?

CaptainDavesGS

6/1/2017 8:53:21 AM

Honda, I prefer to fish my flies without a dodger (credit to Downriggeral). I run them alone, or with a wiggle fin action disc. It doesn't much matter your deployment method. Downrigger, lead core, jet diver, line with sinker. Last I fished the fish were on top so I was using 1-2 colored of lead core line. The water temps will probably start to drive the fish deeper soon. When that happen I will transition to my riggers.

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