RoryN
06-09-2008, 05:58 PM
A couple of my best friends invited my wife and I up to Yale Lake in Washington for a fishing trip this past weekend. First time either my wife or I had been there or fished for kokanee (my wife isn't a "fish" person, but I told her that since it was free fishing weekend, she was obligated to fish :D).
It was pretty wet and cold up there Friday night. We worked a few little drainage canals to empty out the water from our camping area. Luckily our friends invited us to stay in their trailer so we didn't have to try to sleep in our tent.
We hit the lake Saturday morning right around 9 AM. Some rain here and there, and quite a bit of wind as well, but we were all bundled up and stayed relatively warm and dry. First fish in the boat was by my friend's wife, then my wife and I got into the act. Most of the water we hit in the morning was kind of cold, and the fish were anywhere from 20' to 50' down. My friend had me start out at 40' while his wife was a little below and my wife was right around 25'-30'. We spent about 4 hours on the lake with decent results before heading in for lunch. Just my friend an I went out after lunch, but we didn't have much luck. We lost more than we caught that afternoon. All told, we boated 14 nice fish that first day, all around 15-16". My wife actually outfished me that first day, although I got her back on Sunday, when we brought in another 15 or so fish, of which 6 were mine, including a very nice 14" native rainbow.
We were using wedding bands tipped with white corn both days. On Saturday, we had much better luck trolling with the wind then against it. Sunday it was calm and clearing up, and the fish were up in the 15' range near the shorelines. No pictures really worth showing. The fish were nice looking, and they said they were bigger than last year, but none of us hooked anything bigger than 15"-16". Seeing the smile on my wife's face was sure worth it, even though she didn't want to handle the fish. :passout:
Overall a very enjoyable trip. Now my friend has gotten me my first koke and my first sturgeon (although not a keeper) within the last 3 months! I can't wait to get him over here to Eastern Oregon and show him some of the beautiful high mountain lakes we have...and do some more fishin'!
It was pretty wet and cold up there Friday night. We worked a few little drainage canals to empty out the water from our camping area. Luckily our friends invited us to stay in their trailer so we didn't have to try to sleep in our tent.
We hit the lake Saturday morning right around 9 AM. Some rain here and there, and quite a bit of wind as well, but we were all bundled up and stayed relatively warm and dry. First fish in the boat was by my friend's wife, then my wife and I got into the act. Most of the water we hit in the morning was kind of cold, and the fish were anywhere from 20' to 50' down. My friend had me start out at 40' while his wife was a little below and my wife was right around 25'-30'. We spent about 4 hours on the lake with decent results before heading in for lunch. Just my friend an I went out after lunch, but we didn't have much luck. We lost more than we caught that afternoon. All told, we boated 14 nice fish that first day, all around 15-16". My wife actually outfished me that first day, although I got her back on Sunday, when we brought in another 15 or so fish, of which 6 were mine, including a very nice 14" native rainbow.
We were using wedding bands tipped with white corn both days. On Saturday, we had much better luck trolling with the wind then against it. Sunday it was calm and clearing up, and the fish were up in the 15' range near the shorelines. No pictures really worth showing. The fish were nice looking, and they said they were bigger than last year, but none of us hooked anything bigger than 15"-16". Seeing the smile on my wife's face was sure worth it, even though she didn't want to handle the fish. :passout:
Overall a very enjoyable trip. Now my friend has gotten me my first koke and my first sturgeon (although not a keeper) within the last 3 months! I can't wait to get him over here to Eastern Oregon and show him some of the beautiful high mountain lakes we have...and do some more fishin'!