Launched from Seven Bays at 6:30 and fishing by 7. Just as I finished letting the second rig out and while setting the drag prior to putting it in the rod holder, a hungry 'bow grabbed the offering and it was fish on in less than 5 minutes of arrival. Reset and send that rig back out, get the 3rd rig out and set when bang, fish on again on the first rig. While netting the second fish I see a trout jump behind the boat and the 3rd rig goes down, so it's a quick dump in the cooler, and grab the 3rd rig, reel in, net, and in the cooler it goes. Reset those two rigs and send back to the depths, finally get the 4th rig out, and I get to sit down and take the helm for a few minutes before another fish on and in the cooler. Wow, the 'bows were hungry this morning!

Put 4 in the cooler in less than 30 minutes, then it slowed just a bit, had several hits that didn't stick, then the 5th went in the cooler at just under an hour. We were off to a good start this morning.

The bite seemed to go away as the sun started to come up, but we had also trolled away from where all the action started so I reversed course and went back, good move too. Now in the shade again, we finished our limits in less than 2hrs, so we motored out over deep water while I cleaned fish, and soon we were on our way back to Seven Bays. Boat on the trailer and pulling away from the launch by 10am. :-)

Water surface temps were 74.2°, trolling speed was 2.5 - 2.9mph, leaded line out 150', mono rigs out 195'. Hot lure was a Frisky Jenny "Lennie Special" streamer fly tipped with a chunk of crawler. Hit almost as often was a Frisky Jenny Trick r Treat streamer fly tipped the same way, but it seemed there were more hit and misses with that fly (probably needed to sharpen the hooks). These two flies accounted for 9 of our 10 'bows, with one lone 'bow hitting a #65 Rip'n Minnow perch plug.

The 'bows ran from 13" - 16" and in our 2-person limit we had 7 chunky 'bows that went 15" or better and weighed 1lb, 4ozs - 1lb, 8ozs. The remainder were smaller with the smallest just hitting the 1lb mark. All were this year's net pen released fish, and if our creel is any example, they are putting on some healthy growth already. It will only get better as the water temps come down and they really start feeding.

Great way to spend a Friday morning our before anyone else was at the launch and back in before all the craziness began. 8-)

downriggeral

9/1/2013 11:45:00 AM

Morning Phil,
Nice! Getting the new place in shape and enjoying some fishing? Must be nice not to get up at O dark 30 to fish. Gotta love those Frisky Jenny's but they seem to need to be sharpened for those rainbows to stick.
Thanks for the report; we fished kokanee last night at Loon. Got our 20 and they were really nice and still in good shape.
Will be heading to the lower Columbia Thursday for Kings; have you seen the fish counts...WOW!
Tight lines, Alan

hewesfisher

9/1/2013 5:22:00 PM

Well, I got up at 5:22 after the alarm failed to go off at 5:00. Still got on the water plenty early. What's really nice is not having to get up at o-dark-thirty and THEN drive 80 miles to get to the launch. Much nicer to get up early, have a cup of coffee, and enjoy the 2 or 3 minute drive to the launch. 8-) Read your Loon reports all the time, I need to fish it, but looks like it will have to be next year. Good luck on the lower Columbia. :-)

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