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[Rodney]

This morning, minutes after I was woken up by the sound of rain drops outside, the phone rang. Fishersak asked, "So? Kawkawa Lake? I'm on the road to pick up my dad already." This was somewhat shocking, since it came from the guy who did not want to go yesterday because it was "cloudy". After all, the forecasted weather for Hope was for sunny breaks, so I also hit the road and gambled on Wayne Cox's prediction.

I was delighted to see this when I arrived.



A few risers could be seen as we headed out, but majority of the fish were most likely deep down due to the sunny weather. We anchored at the "hot spots", sent our pink krill down and the waiting game began. At times, schools of risers would come by, so I sent out the fly rod with no response. Finally, an hour into the wait, a few taps could be seen on the bait rod when another school came by on the surface. With a quick strike, I was pulling a good sized kokanee up to the surface. The hook popped off soon after a few silver flashes emerged beneath the boat. I looked back, fishersak raised his hands "What was that?"

Wind unfortunately picked up steadily by 2:00pm. The chops made detecting bites rather difficult at times. Fishersak and his dad moved into slightly deeper water, around 45ft and both of them were into a fish each right away. I quickly shifted as well and found a few bites immediately when the bait hit bottom. Chops were still making it hard to set the hook precisely. The next hour was a sad display, which happens way too often when I fish. Time after time, the hook set into the fish, which released themselves a few seconds later. This must have happened a dozen times. Many times Fishersak looked over and saw me jumping up and down furiously like a dancing monkey. He couldn't figure out what was going on because they were getting no bites at all. Finally I boated one fish, then another, which drew their attention so the boats got a lot closer suddenly. By the end of the trip, I was able to land three, out of too many hook-ups.



At 4:00pm, everyone suddenly raced back to the boat launch because of an approaching storm. Suddenly the mini launch resembled Island 22 during the sockeye season.



A short, frustrating outing but lucky to be out on a weekday as usual. I donated one charity fish to go with Sakkies' two fish so his mom can eat one as well.

Good luck to all who are venturing out during the upcoming long weekend.

[clarki]

When I've fished Kawkawa koks in years past, my terminal tackle has been much the same, however I'm thinking that a slip float might be interesting to try. Ever given that a whirl? 

[Rodney]

Sliding floats would work, but the first problem is depth determination. If the fish are at 40ft where we have been catching them, then you would need to make sure your float stopper is set 40ft up the main line. The second problem is that you need to use a big enough float so larger weight the line would slide freely through the float. The problem with using a sliding float in stillwater is that small weight just sinks too slowly or not dense enough to pull the line down through the sliding float to the stopper. On the other hand, if the float is too big to counter with the heavy weight, it is not sensitive enough for these small fish.

Float fishing on the surface on the other hand, works perfectly fine, not just for bait fishing, but with flies for those who do not wish to flyfish. I sometimes set up a small fixed float (<7 grams Drennan Crystal Avon, Loafer are perfect for this) for my non-fishing friends when fishing with small flies in shallow water.

[Piranha]

Never have fished for kokanee so if i go i'm not sure what time of the day is the best. early, mid or late in the day? Also for trolling a line can i use my fly fishing sinking like or shoud i get trolling line?

[Rodney]

Never have fished for kokanee so if i go i'm not sure what time of the day is the best. early, mid or late in the day?

Time of the day has not been a factor for us since we have mostly been fishing bait on the bottom. Fish usually school around at that depth so the bites come on and off whenever fish come around. If you are fishing flies just below the surface, then photoperiod becomes a factor. If it is too bright, then fish are not as active on the surface, so earlier and later on the day seem to get more subsurface action. On a cloudy day, then time again does not seem to be a factor.

Also for trolling a line can i use my fly fishing sinking like or shoud i get trolling line?

Just troll with the sink line, or even just with a floating line and mono leader. as the fish are only a couple of feet below the surface if they are feeding up there.