Had a break in the schedule so loaded up and headed for Roosevelt. Launched at Seven Bays about 0630 and headed downstream. Lines in the water shortly after 7 and first hit of the day less than 10 minutes later. Never got to see it, rod buried drag screaming for about 3 seconds, then gone. I waited to see if it would return, but no. As I was contemplating pulling and checking my fly, Debbie's hollers "Fish On" and a nice battle ensued. As it got close enough to see, I was thinking it sure is bright, and then it jumped, kokanee! It was fun to watch it squirt around the boat, jumping right behind the motors. After watching the antics, I seized an opportunity and slipped the net under a nice fish, 17 1/4", 1lb 13ozs, and in the cooler.

Reset gear, then decided to check my silent rod. Pulled it in and the leader had snapped clean off. Really bummed, whatever it was must have been a nice one. As I was retying the leader, I hear "fish on" again and Debbie brings in a nice native rainbow which I deliberately released as we were in "fin clipped retention rainbows only" waters. I get things settled down and get 3 of our 4 rods back in the water so I can finish retying the leader on my leaded line rig. Once accomplished, I send it back with the same fly as before hoping to repeat, but not to be.

After trolling around awhile, Debbie tells me a long line rig looked funny, so I check and it looked like it had dead weight on it. I pick up the rod and pull, no headshake, no nothing, just a heavy drag. I reel in holding the rod high looking for signs of a fish and always the same, no headshake, just constant heavy drag. Walleye, I say, and keep on reeling it in. When I finally get it about 20' from the boat, I see bright flash in the water, hmm, not a walleye, what the heck? Still no headshake or fight, but definitely a fish. Another few feet of line in and it's another kokanee!
Beautiful, bright sides, but no fight at all. Strange. 18", 2lbs, 40zs and in the cooler it went.

We continued working the area until late morning with only a few drive-bys but no takers. Knew it wouldn't be long before my fishing buddy Amber would insist on a shore break, so I pulled gear and we headed out. Short shore break and then headed upstream to work some water near Sterling Point. Not another bite so we pulled gear headed for launch at 1:30.

Gear was leaded line rigs out 150' with a Frisky Jenny "Lenny Special" on one and a "Black Ant" on the other, both tipped with a piece of crawler. Also two long line mono rigs out 225' with Rip'n Minnows in perch and orange. Speeds were 2.8 - 3.0mph and both kokanee were taken at those speeds. After moving upstream, I changed the mono rigs to a dodger and a fly on one and a dodger and Apex on the other, and dropped them down 20' and 25' off the downriggers 30' behind the ball.

Water surface temp was 50-ish at when we launched to 53.5° when we recovered. Bright, sunny conditions most of the day, with some light wind chop early, then calming down later. Winds picked up after noon, but still nice for fishing.

Here we were targeting rainbows and catch kokes instead. The first koke was caught on the Lenny Special and the second on a perch pattern Rip'n Minnow. Just goes to show kokes will indeed hit fast trolled gear and baited flies as well as plugs.

Grilled kokes for dinner last night, two fillets on cedar planks and the other two in a foil "boat" seasoned with salt. pepper, garlic powder, thin sliced lemons and onions served with a fresh salad, grilled asparagus and buttery mashed potatoes. Yum. :-)

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