My husband, who own his own house painting company, had been working on a house on Lake Steilicom for 2 weeks. Everyday he would come home & tell me about all the fish jumping. 2 of his employees brought their poles to fish during lunch & 1 of them limited out in the 1/2 hour they had.
So finally today we took our boat & headed out there.
After driving for 1/2 hour looking for the boat launch, (wouldn't take my directions-typical male lol), we launched & rowed out. As we were heading for the island area I threw in my Rapala Minnow Countdown lure to troll & within about 2-3 mins-BAM-I reeled in a 12" Kokanee. Released of course.
When we reach the island area we anchored on the east side & started casting out. We were bascialy pulling them in (& releasing them) left & right!! Actually I was, & my husband was just irritated with me, so he geared up with his Rapala Rainbow Trout Countdown lure & then he was pulling them in left & right!!
About 20 mins. into this area I was standing up in the boat. I cast out & started my reel back in. As I'm watching my lure come back to me I see this flash of silver & then-BAM-my pole jerks. I have a fish that wants to play!! That's A-OK with me. It took me about 2-3 minutes to land it, but it felt more like 10 minutes & my heart was just racing. Well, the end result? A beautiful 18-20" Kokanee!! I took a photo of this one & then released it. I didn't want to waste anymore time getting an exact measurement in case the fish died on me. But it was a beauty!! I could tell just how beautiful by the look on my husband's face & the whine in his voice when he proclaimed, "Why do you get to catch all the big ones?"
The rest of the day we spent on the south side of the lake, but it wasn't as exciting. There were perch & bass here & there for us, but I'm not complaining. That big one was good enough for me!!
There were people fishing off the bridge catching them, but the fish would fall off before they could get them up. We saw a few big ones swimming under the bridge, but they were too smart for us. The ones fishing offshore weren't fairing so well.
The lake is a producer, but please release your catch for future generations. I would like for my son to catch a big one there someday.
Tight Lines everyone!!

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