Kokanee; Strawberry Reservoir 08/05/13

              
       Two good friends Brandon and Calvin and I decided we would fish Strawberry again for the second time in two weeks.  The day started out very calm and the water was like glass without a ripple, there was very few clouds in the sky, and the water temps were 65 degrees.

             We motored over to the east side of the reservoir, between the ladders and the first channel on Strawberry bay. As usual we started out searching for the schools of Kokanee using my fish finder, and once we found a small school we rigged the poles to the downriggers and proceeded to troll through them. Most of the fish that were being marked on the fish finder were at 12-27’ so we set the lowest pole at 25’ and the other 10’ above it. It didn’t take long and we had caught a small rainbow, and then a few cutthroats, but no action from the Kokes.  So I continued to move through the area paying close attention to the fish finder, again we marked a school of fish and this time we caught a very good Koke, weighing 3.5 lbs. that was just in the pre spawn and getting ready to turn colors.

               It was right after we caught the 3.5 lb. Koke that the predictable afternoon thunderstorms started to approach. The poles were starting to get static electricity in them so we pulled up all the gear and ran to the main marina, docked and went in and had some lunch. If you have never had Lunch at the main Strawberry marina I highly suggest it, the restaurant is clean, the ambiance is rustic, the service is great and the prices are very reasonable.

           It wasn’t long until the weather cleared and we again headed out, this time we tried just drifting with a minnow. After a few areas and no pickups or takers, we decided to troll again. We headed past Haws point through the meadows and ended up by Renegade, just east of the boat ramp. It was at that point we started marking a lot more fish on the screen, most of the fish we were marking were in the first ten feet of the water column. We set the downriggers at 9’ and 18’ depths and started catching rainbows and a few cuts again, at times we were getting consistent doubles, and even a couple of triples. It was a blast trying to keep up with the poles.

               Overall the day was a good day, we ended up catching about 35 fish and four Kokanee.  No large Bows this time, and  I believe the biggest went 1.5 lb. and the biggest Cutt went 2.5 lb., but any day fishing is better than a day working!

Lures for that day:

2.5” Purple and white squid, 2.5”orange and white squid with a Colorado blade, 4.5”watermelon RMT dodger, 4.5”  Splatter RMT dodger.

All squids were tipped with chartreuse gulp maggots.

The best lure speed for the day was 1.9 mph.