First post in a long time.... First time fishing for Kokanee since 2015...
We made it out on the water early, at first light. Started trolling just passed the no wake zone and within the first two minutes or so we had a strike but no hit. The strike was on an orange spinner with dual hooks and a nickel 00 dodger with uv tape. Shoepeg corn on the hooks and a small amount of sandshrimp goo on the dodger. I was running around 75ft setback off the ball which was at 25ft. That was the most luck we had. We fished along the usual channel by the highway and marked several humps on the finder but couldn't get any biters. Surface temp started out at 46 and was 48 at the north end over the deep hole. I varied downrigger depths from 20-75 ft, usually chasing the blips on the screen at around 50-60 ft. I focused on using shoepeg corn and fake maggots while my cohort used fake corn along with various scents. We tried every color we could, throwing every color in the tackle box at it. Varied speeds from .85 up to 1.5.

Although we didn't even come close to the action, it was fun to get back out and get the gear wet again. A day of fishing in the rain is still better than a day of work. We quit around 10:30 when the rain became a nuisance.

Kisutch

4/18/2018 9:16:03 PM

I'm from Bellingham and fish samish quite a bit. I've only been once so far this year because it has been so cold. Ill be hitting it almost every chance i get in late may and early june. Look for me in the inflatable grey boat. Another poster on here, Rseas, is a big lake samish guy and he has some really helpful old reports on this website that you can search for.

One of the only places I got bites early in the season last year was shallow water. We went exploring just off the ends of docks at times and found some aggressive schools in 20-25' of water. As the water warms up they will move out deeper. I also really like the small portion of the lake past the bridge, plenty of fish to chase and you are away from the interstate noise. Most of my time is spent over there.

Good luck out there, thanks for the report.

americanmcss

4/19/2018 7:47:39 AM

Kisutch,
Thanks for your response. We hope get out as much as possible this year too. Hopefully with the positive forecast for the next week or two, it will warm the water up a bit and get them biting. I wondered if we should have tried the western shore but we stuck to the areas we know more.

I have followed Rseas posts in the past and learned some of my techniques from his postings. Hopefully I'll get a chance to meet him on the lake, and you as well. My buddy and I fish out of a 15' livingston. Its a simple setup, but on the good fishing days its landed us some good keepers.

ChesterDog206

4/19/2018 3:40:31 PM

Thanks for the report. Just knowing the water temp helps me a lot and saves me gas. I usually wait until early June to target kokes on lakes but sometimes there's an exception or two. Reservoirs are a different story all together. First koke outing since 2015? Way to dust off the rods and get out there! Last Saturday was wet!

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