This was my 3rd trip up to this lovely lake nestled in the Okanogan near the Canadian border. The lake was once renowned for its kokanee fishery but several years of drought and extreme heat led to a parasitic copepod outbreak that wiped out the kokanee. However, this lake has a ton to offer besides kokanee including a thriving bass fishery. Both Largemouth and Smallmouth occur in the lake in respectable numbers. This trip focused on Smallmouth but as usual I encountered a few Largemouth as well.

I couldn't buy a bite until the long shadows of the mountains cast over the lake but once the cool of the evening spread across the water the mosquitoes and fish came out to play. I was trying out a new salty soft plastic goby tube jig from Savage Gear. Needless to say this lure has earned a permanent place in my tackle box. I caught fish after fish with many Smallies in the 14-16" range before calling it quits around 11 PM.

Taking lessons from the evening before I decided to hit the water EARLY and got out around 4 AM and fished until 9 PM about one hour after the bite died. I caught several Smallies on the goby in the pre-dawn morning with multiple fish at or larger than 18". After that I switched up and found both Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass on senkos before ending the morning on a couple 1 lb Smallies on crankbaits.

Most of my fish were caught in 10-15' of water. When I tried fishing deeper I generally caught only Pikeminnow which are congregating in large numbers to spawn on the north end of the lake. I released all fish and highly encourage folks to release the bigger fish in these lakes where there are no impacts to migratory fish. Yellow Perch are easily caught with jigs and small crankbaits on the north end of the lake with most measuring 8-10". I also found a few crappie pushing 12" but they were few and far between.

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