Picked American Lake because I wanted to test the big motor on the boat while still targeting Kokanee prior to heading to the Columbia on Sunday. Got off to a late start and hit the lake at 1130 in the morning. Took of from the launch using the big motor which started up the first time with no problem and jetted over to the North side of Silcox Island. Got the trolling motor down in the water and pulled the starter cord and 'snap' I look in my hand and I've got the pull handle and about 3" of string hanging from it. Meanwhile the remaining rope coiled back up inside the motor. No problem... I was not going to keep this from me and the fish. Stripped the remaining string from the coil and manually started the motor in a couple of pulls and started trolling. Within 2 passes had the first kokanee to the boat which was the smaller fish 9" this one came on a red wedding ring behind a 50/50 dodger tipped with white corn. Since I don't have downriggers I had on a 3/4 oz trolling weight and had pulled out 50 pulls (about 60-70 feet) of line. Then nothing... besides eagles, jetskiers, tubbers, wakeboarders. Fast forward 3 hours later and we've decided to leave when the same rod with the same setup starts bouncing and we catch the second fish of the day a beautiful 13" kokanee. Jetted back to the lake on the big motor and headed home. Not bad being now assured the motor would work tomorrow. Restrung the small motor at home and was set for the next day.

Other lures tried... orange wedding ring=0, red/green wedding ring=0, pink hoochie=0, needlefish=0, spoon=0. Also tried laketrolls, an all nickel dodger as the attractant.

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