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CHASING
KOKE’S LIVE ON AIR
By:
Ron Wilson
July 24, 2003.... Hurray,
after two weeks of trying, I finally got to check out the Kokanee
fishing at Lake Don Pedro last Saturday. Its been reported as red hot
most of the summer but I have just had to many irons in the fire or
cancellations to see for myself.
Guide
Bruce Hamby and I arrived at the Blue Oaks launch just before 5 am. It
was still dark and the parking lot only had a couple parking spots left!
This time of year there are tons of people who spend the weekend at the
lake and this weekend would be no different.
We
launched Bruce’s 21-foot jet boat and headed out in the dark. The
reason for the early arrival was for Bruce to do an early morning on the
water radio report. We wanted to be catching fish by the time he went on
the air just after 6 am.
We
ran down to Jenkins Hill and turned on the depth finder at one of
Bruce’s favorite fishing spots on the lake. Bruce hadn’t fished the
lake this year, but yet he drove straight to a large school of Kokes in
the dark. We putted around the area looking at the marks on the graph
and the depth they were located at. According to what we saw on the
graph we should run the downrigger balls from 60 to 90 feet deep.
The morning bite wasn't
that hot as we struggled to find the bait they wanted. We caught fish on
an Uncle Larry's black spinner and a striped Apex with different shades
of purple and red lines.
Once the light got on
the water we used Kevorkian and watermelon Apex’s on all four rods to
catch fish.
The Kokes had a lot
of parasites on them and some of them were so bad I didn't even want to
touch them. I don't know what’s happening in the lake but here you
have a fish that swims constantly feeding on plankton and it’s covered
with parasites. This tells me that the lake has not even started to
recover from the infested fish that were planted several years ago. It
looks like the infestation is getting worse!
We
had four rods in the water when Bruce went to the bow to call in the
fishing report. The report would be aired live on Sep Hendrickson’s
radio show.
While
Bruce was on hold waiting for the commercials to finish I was busy
reeling in fish, netting fish and steering the boat.
By
the time Bruce spoke to Sep there was only one rod in the water and
every time I tried to get a second rod back down, I would have to stop
and reel in another fish! Bruce was having a hard time talking to Sep as
he watched me running around the back of the boat. I was having a ball
and by 7:20 am there were ten nice fish in the boat.
Once
Bruce finished talking, he came to the back of the boat and said,
"Just what kind of a mess do you have going on here, anyway!” I
said "the fish went on a tear while you were on the phone and I
couldn’t get the rods back in the water.” Bruce just chuckled and
said, “I know, I was up there watching you have a ball!”
Bruce
had four clients from the bay area that wanted to fish Don Pedro on
Sunday, so we checked out a few more areas before getting ready call it
a day.
Bruce
did one more fishing report and then we headed back to the boat ramp to
get away from the madness that would soon follow.
If
a person wants some great entertainment I suggest a six-pack of your
favorite beverage and a good seat near the boat ramp from about 9 am on.
You will have some of the best live action that you have ever seen!
I
know of several guys in the bay area that spend weekends at the boat
ramps close to their homes just to watch all the hilarious action from
people who don't have a clue what to do with there watercrafts once they
get to the water, let alone trying to get them off the water! From the
stories they have told me I’m surprised that a TV crew hasn't set up
overlooking a popular boat ramp and shot a few reels of film. I bet it
would be a hit on reality TV!
I
was planning on going out again the next day but at 5 am the heat was
already setting in so I went back in the house and became a couch
potato. It was a lot cooler as I watched my fishing on TV. But by that
afternoon I couldn’t take it anymore so I headed to Autolife Sporting
Goods to pick up some white flukes just in case I wanted to fish Kelsey
Bass Ranch again. Tim and I used all I owned during last weekend’s
trip to the ranch!
I
talked to Bruce after his guide trip on Sunday. He and his clients sat
on the larger school of kokanee we had found on Saturday. Bruce
said his clients had a ball reeling in their limits and they were all on
their way home by 9 am!
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