This report is the first day of a 2 day report. It is also the first day of 2 days off in a row, a rare event this summer. The trip was an on again, off again plan and was a no go at bed time Saturday night. Fortunately, my body clock has me out of bed by 3:30 any given day. After a cup of coffee or maybe 3, I was on the move. The boat was kind of in a hibernate status so it took me a hour or so to get it ready and transition from salmon mode to a kokanee catching machine. Boat ready, another cup of joe, the kokanee gear located and stowed for travel it was time to work on the wife. Apparently, I had made enough racket in the driveway and she was already up getting ready to go. We decided to hit Lake Samish so after a quick stop at Holiday for munchables we were headed north on I-5.

Uneventful drive and after a quick AIS inspection we were idling away from the launch. Just outside the buoy the meter was lit up with kokanee so we went gear down before I even put the main in gear. After a loop or 2 around my usual main lake trolling lane it was evident that the fish had lockjaw. A gazillion fish on the meter and all we could scrape up was a scrawny cutthroat. It was time for a change and we headed for the little lake.

After folding the radar-arch to get under the bridge we were in the little lake. I did one loop just metering around before settling on a plan. This trip we would be fishing 2 rods off of downriggers and 2 leadline rigs. First rigger down and as I was deploying the 2nd one the first rod goes off. Karen grabbed the 1st rod as I ran the 2nd to depth. Eventually I slid the net under our first kokanee of the day, the fish was a chrome 13” fish and a great start to a crazy next hour and a half. From the first fish on we had constant action, with multiple doubles and triples. Not complaining but I couldn’t even get all four rigs in the water. It was one of the best kokanee bites we have ever seen on Lake Samish.

Instead of describing the gear we were using the rigs are pictured. Generally, we were running 3 spinner rigs and a Gods Tooth spoon rigged for kokanee. Our leaders were 8-10” and setback from the downriggers about 40’. We were running the riggers at 36-46 feet and the lead line rigs at 2 colors. Our trolling speed was .8-1.2 mph with 1.0 mph being the sweet spot. The business end of things was tipped with either Carp Spit corn or my tuna corn.

It was a great morning on the lake with an easy 20 fish limit. Additionally we released a large pea mouth chub and a handful of cutthroat. In Lake Samish kokanee are considered “Other Game Fish” and carry a 10 fish limit. What a fun day and still had time to get a few things done around the house.

---