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[Rodney]

I get to fish with my dad a couple of times per year and I usually try to pick a different fishery each time so he gets to experience them all. At the age of 78, some of these fisheries have to be experienced now before he can't physically do it anymore.

Today we spent the morning at Kawkawa Lake, where I already gave it a go on Monday with some success. While I was able to find some pretty thick schools on the sounder on Monday, only one fish was brought to the boat. It seemed like the bites were happening in the morning and tapering off after Noon, so today we decided to go with an early start, by arriving at the boat launch at 7:30am (well, that's early in Rodney's book).

I've been playing around with different ways to position my rod for better hook-set when mooching/bottom fishing for kokanee on the bottom. The bait is sitting on the bottom at 40 feet and straight down from the rod, so I want my rod to be sitting parallel to the water surface and slightly elevated so it's close to my eye level. This way I can see those tiny bites better. Right now I am using a Scotty coaming/gunnel clamp mount on the side of my boat by my seat, which has a rod holder extender attached to it so the spinning rod holder is sitting about a foot higher than the edge of the boat.





There wasn't a whole lot of activity between 8am and 9am. One other boat was out trolling and I managed to bring in one kokanee after a few fish went by on the sounder.



The show really started at 9am when fish started to show up on the sounder constantly. Whenever it happened, the rods would start getting nibbles. We used deli shrimp that has been cured with Pautzke Firecure (red). Only half or less of a shrimp is threaded onto the size 4 hook so the fish don't have to chew on it for too long before being hooked.



We managed to get our limit of 8 fish by 10am, then the bite actually tapered off. Not sure if it was the sudden increase of boat activities on the lake, but they just kind of disappeared from the sounder. We packed it in at 10:30am to get away from the heat.



Here is a happy customer for once!

[flyrod]

Enjoy life with your dad as much as possible because time goes by so fast and the days behind us are memories and very important imprints on our hearts and minds. 

[Dave]

Great fishing report with you and your dad Rodney, and very nicely said Roderick

[Flytech]

Awesome Rod.

[TimL]

Great report Rodney!

[Sinaran]

great report and great read Rod!  glad that your dad enjoyed the fishing kawkawa lake has to offer!

[fishbuster]

Rod great report.  Question on your fish finder.  Going to Okanagan lake next week to do some trolling with my two sons and was just wondering about purchasing a fish finder.  Okanagan lake is a deep lake so just trying to get some ideas.  I just have a 12ft with a 9.9 on it.  I will be running a lake down rigger so thought it might help in finding fish depths.  Don't want to spend a lot of money and something simple to operate.  Thanks

[FlyFishin Magician]

Cool photos and story Rod.  Btw - what kind of spinning set-up is that?  Ultralight (2 - 6 lb rated) rod with a 500 or 1000 size reel?  I'm not very familiar with the gear set-up for lakes, but might need to make a bit of a splash if I want to take my girls to a local lake.  Not sure I want them around my fly gear until they're older!   

[Rodney]

Thanks all.

Fishbuster, I'm not that familiar with fish finders so can't really comment on it sorry. The one I have right now was given to me and I pretty much use it for only two things, depth and sounding fish occasionally. I'm sure it can do way more than those two functions.

FM, I'm obsessed with finding the right spinning outfit for different species I'm going for. This particular setup is the lightest I can find in this province and has worked great. The reel is a Shimano Stradic CI4+ 1000FA, spooled with 10lb test PowerPro followed by around 6ft of 4lb test Maxima Ultragreen mono at the end. The rod is a Daiwa Spinmatic C, 6 foot long, rated 1-4lb, a very slow rod so bends down to the cork when you have a 12 incher on. I use this setup for bottom fishing for these kokanee at 40ft, casting and retrieving for rainbows and cutthroats from shore.

[FlyFishin Magician]

Sounds like a nice set-up!  Thanks Rod.

[Humpy]

Thanks all.

Fishbuster, I'm not that familiar with fish finders so can't really comment on it sorry. The one I have right now was given to me and I pretty much use it for only two things, depth and sounding fish occasionally. I'm sure it can do way more than those two functions.

FM, I'm obsessed with finding the right spinning outfit for different species I'm going for. This particular setup is the lightest I can find in this province and has worked great. The reel is a Shimano Stradic CI4+ 1000FA, spooled with 10lb test PowerPro followed by around 6ft of 4lb test Maxima Ultragreen mono at the end. The rod is a Daiwa Spinmatic C, 6 foot long, rated 1-4lb, a very slow rod so bends down to the cork when you have a 12 incher on. I use this setup for bottom fishing for these kokanee at 40ft, casting and retrieving for rainbows and cutthroats from shore.

Do you have the 4 piece rod or the 2 piece?

[Rodney]

2.

[Humpy]

2.

Thanks Rod.

[DanL]

When young I used to troll for kokanee with my own dad but we never tried for kokanee this way. Sounds like a relaxing way to spend some time.

How do they bite with this method? Soft? Aggressive?

[chris gadsden]

Glad you had a good day fishing with your dad and hooking some nice fish while I was trying to hook politicans here in Victoria. time for him to come to the T. again this year as I know how much he enjoyed it a few years ago.

I was tempted to go out on a charter while hear in Victoria but will wait until next week when I have a full week at the newly named Gwyn Lake.