Kokanee Salmon Fishing!

It's been a while, but I got the call from my friend Blake of Pisces Outdoors to meet up super early for a morning of Kokanee Salmon fishing at Stampede Reservoir. Blake sells handmade fishing lures on his website and he will be getting his fishing guide license soon so he can bring fishing charter customers out on his boat. He's a lot of fun to fish with and there is always new fishing info to learn from him.

I arrived a bit early so I could get some sunrise photos at the lake. There was a little color to the sunrise but there were no clouds so it wasn't the most impressive one.

Here's Blake's boat as we were launching. We are usually one of the first ones to launch when we get out but there is going to be a big fishing derby next weekend so there were tons of fishermen out the "practicing" for the event.

It was one of the slowest mornings I've ever had fishing with Blake. Everyone we ended up talking to was having a super slow morning as well. Everyone was concerned about how unproductive the derby was going to be in a week.

Blake is out at this lake a lot. He recognized these planes and even knew the pilots names. They were having fun flying very low around the lake, putting on a good show for us.

The lake level is very high this year. Same story at all the local lakes after this incredibly big winter. So... Much... Snow...
We needed it and I'm happy to see everything nice and full. This is an island most summers. But as you can see, it is mostly under water this year.

Fish ON!!! We finally caught a few Kokanee. Four total. It is a very low number compared to most outings with Blake but that was a similar story for all the fishermen we talked to.

Here's the setup that was working best. We also tip the lures with a couple kernels of corn. The Kokanee usually can't resist this set up but this was an unusually slow day.