plumbertom
Active member
This was my first try for these fish here.
I was accompanied by a local friend with prior experience.
We arrived early and got my boat on the water.
It was a cold but clear morning of mid 30s to low 40s (a best guess) with water surface as indicated by my new Hummingbird DI sonar of 41 degrees.
The water appeared to be clear with good visibility to at least 8' and likely more but I quit watching for the bottom.
We headed for the west end of the lake where a good number of other boats were spread out,
Upon being advised from others there that the fish were right on the bottom, 100+ foot down, we started dropping our jigs selected by my friend, pink for me and green for him.
Right away I got a good strong strike and was hooked up.
Once the fish was up at the surface, my friend identified it as a Mackinaw, another first for me, a bit short of legal but quite fun anyway.
After making further attempts we did catch a few of those Kokanees, however the wind was blowing us too fast across the water to hold the bottom and my anchor rode was too short to serve us.
I put out my trolling motor and used it to slow our drift and that seemed to work also but it was a pain to have to keep controlling the boat even between catches.
What we resorted to was using a trolling rig consisting of a flasher of about 6'' trailing 18'' leader on a homemade wedding ring type jig.
These we drifted off the boat from 40 to 60 feet and just trolled them at the drift speed of the boat in the wind.
This was quite productive for such lazy type fishing.
We finished the day with 20 fish between us. I was not interested in Keeping more than 10 fish so it worked out fine that we didn't limit.
Oh, while using the jigs deep, I also hooked another what I believe to be Mackinaw by the way it behaved while hooked, but it relieved itself of the hook before it got near the surface.
Was a good day on the water and after cleaning the fish. I was correct in keeping more than 10 would have been too many.
Gonna try them in my smoker later today.
I was accompanied by a local friend with prior experience.
We arrived early and got my boat on the water.
It was a cold but clear morning of mid 30s to low 40s (a best guess) with water surface as indicated by my new Hummingbird DI sonar of 41 degrees.
The water appeared to be clear with good visibility to at least 8' and likely more but I quit watching for the bottom.
We headed for the west end of the lake where a good number of other boats were spread out,
Upon being advised from others there that the fish were right on the bottom, 100+ foot down, we started dropping our jigs selected by my friend, pink for me and green for him.
Right away I got a good strong strike and was hooked up.
Once the fish was up at the surface, my friend identified it as a Mackinaw, another first for me, a bit short of legal but quite fun anyway.
After making further attempts we did catch a few of those Kokanees, however the wind was blowing us too fast across the water to hold the bottom and my anchor rode was too short to serve us.
I put out my trolling motor and used it to slow our drift and that seemed to work also but it was a pain to have to keep controlling the boat even between catches.
What we resorted to was using a trolling rig consisting of a flasher of about 6'' trailing 18'' leader on a homemade wedding ring type jig.
These we drifted off the boat from 40 to 60 feet and just trolled them at the drift speed of the boat in the wind.
This was quite productive for such lazy type fishing.
We finished the day with 20 fish between us. I was not interested in Keeping more than 10 fish so it worked out fine that we didn't limit.
Oh, while using the jigs deep, I also hooked another what I believe to be Mackinaw by the way it behaved while hooked, but it relieved itself of the hook before it got near the surface.
Was a good day on the water and after cleaning the fish. I was correct in keeping more than 10 would have been too many.
Gonna try them in my smoker later today.
