Wanted to bag my first kokes of the year so I decided to head out to Lake Stevens. I started my troll around 6pm. It was fairly breezy to start the morning, never fun in a kayak. I used Dick Nite clown dodgers on both lines. The downrigger I set to 10 feet with a pink modified God's tooth spoon, the other line had 1/4 ounce lead and a 50/50 God's Tooth spoon. Saw fish surfacing, so figured there was a chance today. Water temps in the morning were around 48.5. After about 45 minutes of no action, and moving the downrigger line around, I was getting ready to pull both lines in and change out lures when the downrigger line went off at 10 feet. First kokanee of 2017!. Ok good, the stink was off. Changed out the 50/50 for a green top. No action for some time. Talked to another boat that was having some success at the same depths I was fishing, top 10 feet. Decided to change things up a bit.

For me today what got the action was a Mack's lure micro Kokanee killer in pink and a Kokanee Khaos in green. Corn was soaked in super dipping sauce and lures dunked in it. All of my action was in the top 10 feet. I did speak to others throughout the day that were catching as deep as 35 feet chasing schools. I was unable to get any takes below 10 feet. Best speed I found was about 1.25mph

It was good to get out, but a frustrating day for me getting fish to the net. I wound up the day with 2, but actually lost 8 fish, not counting takedowns that didn't stick. I had forgotten how humbling kokanee fishing can be. One of these days I will figure this fishery out.

The lake is starting to turn on. By the end of my day the water temps were creeping towards 50. Talking to other boats, most had their action early morning, top 10 feet. A few others were having success deeper. Some others, no success at all. I did find quite a bit of action after 10am, but it was in spurts. Fish are a little scattered still so once you find some biters, I had to try and stay on them, but it would end after a couple. Then I had to search around for more.

No video as I didn't want to show myself sobbing from fish after fish getting off my line :)

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