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As a last-minute thought, I hitched up the boat and headed for Lake Samish this morning. Bolstered by a weather report promising sunshine I figured that my kokanee mojo and I would catch our Friday night dinner. Unfortunately, just like the weather report I was wrong. Now that said, I did keep busy. I had 5 or so drive-bys, 2 smaller kokanee in the net and lost 2 fish that were pushing 16” maybe 16” +. In my book good fishing for Lake Samish in February. I launched around 9:30-10:00 and was off the water at 2:30. Although the parking lot was empty when I launched, another rig fished until a squall came through. The other boat and drenched skipper headed for drier pursuits when the rain started.

It was kind of an odd day. Typically, all my early season Samish kokanee are caught on the surface; either flat lining or at ½ color on a lead line rig. Today most of the action was at 28’ on the rigger. I did have a few drive-bys on the lead line at 1 color. Also on my boat most of our early season Lake Samish kokanee are caught on some version of pink or purple, today any color worked as long as it was chartreuse.

That said I was running my custom kokanee flies behind a variety of Arrow Flash dodgers. I went through a number of color combinations before settling in with either a white or hammered 50/50 Arrow Flash dodger and a chartreuse kokanee fly. The different flies, running 8” behind the dodger were tipped with tuna corn. My trolling speed varied between 1.0 and 1.6 mph with 1.4 being the most productive. I was running long setbacks at 60-80’. The water temperature fluctuated between 44.3 and 44.7 degrees.

Today there were 2 year classes of fish hitting. Probably 2016 and I am guessing 2015 fish. As mentioned earlier I lost a couple larger fish at 16-18” and heavy. The smaller fish were only 7-8”. I lost one fish trying to bounce it in the boat, the net wasn’t out yet and the other one just came unbuttoned. I’m thinking that our spring/summer fishery may produce some quality fish this year.

downriggeral

2/9/2018 6:56:58 PM

Glad to see you got out Randy. Sounds like there may some dandy kokes in there this year. I'll have to come over to see the kids and "sneak" out for some fishin'??
ITroll?

Salmon King

2/9/2018 10:51:19 PM

Thanks for the report!
Still...all in all...it sounds like you had a fun day!

outtheresomewhere

2/10/2018 8:43:44 AM

Had a good chuckle at all the tracks on the chart - looks like you really covered that lake well.

Kisutch

2/10/2018 10:38:45 AM

We thought about stopping at Lake Samish, but continued on to get skunked at Lake Campbell. Sounds like the Kokanee are waking up there. Thanks for the report

afk

2/12/2018 6:40:10 AM

Love the shot of the heater. Amazing how we used to do without. Thanks for the report. Andy

Bent hook pontoon

2/12/2018 5:08:36 PM

but we are just a little bit smarter now!

rseas

2/12/2018 6:48:23 PM

LOL, I was in shorts, flip-flops and a long sleeve tee...

kvwilson

4/17/2018 4:09:15 PM

Nice! So there are some kokes in there! Been out twice with no luck. Somewhat new to Kokanee and very new to Samish. Going out Thursday. I don't have any lead line spooled up but have 2 downriggers... Plan to drop gear and cruise the main lake watching the Lowrance. If I can't mark fish, plan to head to the small side. Probably start off with arrow flashers, one side with a pink spinner and the other with chartreuse, tipped with tuna corn, fire corn, and or gulp maggots. Does that sound appropriate? Gladly accepting any tips! Cheers!

rseas

4/17/2018 4:50:42 PM

Good to hear from you and thanks for the reply. If the wind doesn't blow Thursday I plan to hit Samish also. Your plan of attack is similar to mine. I do have a handful of new stuff that I'm going to try also. Although I'll my leadline setups will be on the boat, I'll probably run long setbacks off the downriggers. Tuna-corn is my go to but I'll also have playdough maggots. Weather permitting I hope to see you out there and good luck.

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