Captain Dave's Guide Service - Captain Dave will put you on Columbia River salmon - including Summer & Fall Chinook and Sockeye, and Lake Roosevelt Kokanee and Trout. Catching fish isn't just his passion - it's his lifestyle. Call Captain Dave to start planning your trip now!
Fish Dawg and the Fish princess arrived Saturday afternoon for the much anticipated Loon Lake kokanee night fish expedition. We visited and enjoyed dinner and a cold one after their HOT trip over from Western Washington. Seems the AC in the vehicle was not working.
Left home around 7:00 for the lake and got on the water 40 minutes later without going through a single stop light! The parking lot was quieter than usual since the weather reports were for some wind and it was somewhat smokey from the fires in central Washington. We went to the "spot" on the Granite Point end of the lake and made our first anchorage in the blowing wind. Well, that didn't work out as planned and so started over to get the boat anchored down in the correct orientation into the wind. Got the lights and everything set up and it was time for instruction on the fine points of kokanee night fishing with maggots and shoepeg corn. Great batch of maggots...big and squirmy! The Fish Princess didn't know what to make of that for sure. (I hence baited her hook for the rest of the evening. Adopted Grandpa?)
I set up my rig and waited for the first bite to show them "how it was done". Of course the first fish took me to school and stole the corn. Re-bait and try again. Stolen again...so much for the captains fishing expertise! Finally got the first one in the boat to demonstrate the swing (no net).
Fish Dawg got his first ever night kokanee....yahooo high fives! The Fish Princess was still trying to figure out the very lite kokanee bite. I caught numerous fish and finally put my pole up to "coach" the Fish Princess leaving Fish Dawg to fend for himself. Ok...bite, hit it, bite hit it, bite hit it. Now the Fish princes is a little gal and her version of " hit it" is a little soft for the needs of hooking those bait stealers! She did finally get the "hang" of it and caught her first ever Loon lake kokanee...yahoo again! Congrats FP.
We managed the first limit of 30 by midnight and went to work on the second one. The bite cooled off and we really had to work at it. The Fish Princess was really putting on a demonstration of fish hooking technique but the landing in the boat part was tough for her. All of that said she was still out-fishing her dad and making me look bad too.....ahh those young people! Reflexes of a cat, almost hate getting older!!
Got within two fish of our combined two day limit of 60 fish. Gave it all we had and and couldn't quite get the last two. Had a great boat ride back to the launch under beautiful Eastern Washington starlit skies and arrived back home as the sky was lightening up for Sundays sunrise. Got up Sunday AM, had breakfast and began the task of cleaning 58 kokanee. Fish Dawg taught me a new way to do the butterfly fillet, thanks works great.
Thanks so much to Fish Dawg and the Fish Princess for making the trip over...it was a BLAST!! Alan
Thanks again for the hospitality and night koke lessons, Al! We had a fantastic time and you spoiled us with your delicious home cooking! Posted my report last night so it is just waiting for an admin to review and give it the green light to go live on the website. A Fish Princess adventure we will not soon forget!!
P.S. Would have posted my comments/thanks to this report sooner but Loon is not on my alerts...
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Captain Dave's Guide Service - Captain Dave will put you on Columbia River salmon - including Summer & Fall Chinook and Sockeye, and Lake Roosevelt Kokanee and Trout. Catching fish isn't just his passion - it's his lifestyle. Call Captain Dave to start planning your trip now!
