Day Two of my friend Robbie and mine fishing adventure. After pounding Cle Elum and missing a trophy laker we loaded up the boat and drove to Keechelus to target kokanee. The lake is dropping but there is still plenty of ramp left at the boat launch. We used the farther ramp which is less steep. There were a few other campers hanging out but pretty much had the place to ourselves, which is weird with the I-90 freeway buzzing along across the lake.

We started fishing the next morning at 5:45. About a third of the way down lake I pulled up the boat after seeing a next pod of fish and we got to work. The marks were 35-50 feet deep so opted to go with downriggers. Keechelus is a one pole only lake, ten kokanee limit, plus two rainbow that must be over 12”. Release all bull trout. We ran standard kokanee gear and Artic Fox Trolling Flies.

Got a fish pretty quick, but couldn't find an area of great concentrations so just worked our way down to the dam, picking off a fish here, a fish there. The kokanee are running small, 9-11” and skinny. We got to the dam around 9:30 and had five fish and lost several. Turned back to the boat launch and fished another hour and a half with just one more in the boat. We did try leaded line just in case but had no action at three colors.

All in all it was kind of disappointing. I’m OK with catching smaller kokanee if the action is good. Today the action was moderate to slow. It’s definitely first thing in the morning bite. The lake should have enough water to launch for another week or two, and then it will get pretty tough. The scenery is great, the road noise is annoying, and the construction noise worse, but hey, another kokanee lake crossed off my list!

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