After spending the morning flailing the saltwater and predictably catching no coho, I stopped by Lake Stevens to flush the motors on the boat and see if I could still catch some kokanee in the fall. I fished from about 1pm to 3:30 or so. I wanted to see if the fish would be taking on their spawning colors and where they would be located.

I didn't have any corn with me, so I had to run the wedding ring spinner bare, behind a 4/0 dodger. I used my ultralight trout gear and put the gang troll on the downrigger cable rather than on the line. I started out by the aeration equipment in the center of the lake, then went east and south.

I caught 6 kokanee in the 10 to 12 inch range, taking home four of the bigger ones. I also hit a beautiful rainbow trout about 12 inches long, which I released. All the kokanee had a hint of pink color on their sides, which you could actually see in the water, and the males were starting to get hooked noses and bigger teeth. I hit fish from 17 feet down to 35 feet, with most up around 25-ish.

I don't know if this was due to the fish or the wind/boat speed, but I had 2 fish release from the downrigger. I use the Cannon Offshore light tension clips with extenders and clip in fairly light, but haven't had that many kokanee release. I ended up losing both of them. One I saw release, and it must have come undone before a I could get the slack out of the line. The other, I was cleaning a fish at the time, and looked up to see a kokanee jumping on the surface near the boat. Only then did I realize that the pole was up, and the fish was on my line! That was the last I saw of it.

A great afternoon on the lake, with much less boat traffic than in the summertime!

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