After our trip last year, Dave Peterson was "Gung Ho" on a return trip this year and the rest of our crew was just as excited. Dinker couldn't make it so Eric Cole joined me to meet Dave and his nephews, Jeff and Eric Peterson, at the rented lakeshore house Wed. evening. I was bringing along a replica rainbow mount for Dave from his Alaska trip the previous summer and also had two of the previous State Record kokanee mounts we did for locals, Gene Thiel and Wan Teece. It was a perfect combo business/fishing trip at one of the most beautiful lakes in Oregon!

Some of my friends have asked me why I would get so excited about fishing for kokanee. It was never one of the highlights in my fishing experiences until I had heard about the enormous kokanee that the lake was starting to kick out about five years ago. Ron Campbell's brother had caught a 6.75 LB. kokanee that was then the current state record. Kokanee of that size intrigued me and the thought of fighting a kokanee over 5 LB. on the "buggy whip" rods we use was something I wanted to experience if possible. To date, my biggest kokanee is 4.5 LB. and, though that barely raises an eyebrow under current size conditions the past few years, it is an amazing battle on light gear and something one never forgets! The fact that the lake produced (5) State Kokanee records and Ron Campbell's 9 LB. 10 oz. current World Record didn't hurt either.

Click to view image

We got out early the first morning and scratched out a few keepers ( over 15 in.) and a boat load of juvenile kokanee. We are talking about 6-8 in. kokes and there seems to be a lot of that year class currently in there. After a bite to eat at lunch, Eric and I were working an area that had promise and we marked some bigger marks that we were hoping were kokanee. Turned out our hunch was right and we dialed in on a school of larger kokes and managed to pick off (5) larger kokanee in about as many passes through the run. We were pulling 1.5 Apexes behind Shasta Slingblades and they were jumping on them. When it was over, we realized that we had one of those special moments when you had a plan and executed as you hoped and it all came together. All the kokanee were around 20 in. and up. This was one of the highlights of the trip.

The next day was similar with lots of dink kokanee and a few of the bigger kokes mixed in. We were catching at least 15 fish each outing morning or evening but the majority were smaller rainbows or the juvenile kokanee that were probably second year fish. I did manage my best kokanee of the trip that taped around 22 in. and was a little under 4 LB.

On Saturday, we got into another good bite mid morning and as we trolled down along the east shoreline, Eric's flatline rod goes off and it is obviously a big kokanee. There is no mistaking a big one after he hits and is on. Unfortunately, he was a "long distance release" as it threw the hook. We were a little bummed until about five minutes later when his rod goes off again and this time it instantly burned off 100 feet on my Tekota 300 on its initial run. This was the toad of the trip and measured 23.5 in. and weighed in at a little over 4 LB. on my scale. This was the biggest kokanee that Eric had ever caught. We were stoked.

Dave and his crew had been working out of their boat and had not done real well only scratching out a few kokanee and some planted rainbows each day. Their luck would change on Sat. as they decided to pull a plug the size of the juvenile kokanee and were rewarded with the biggest lake trout Jeff Peterson had ever caught. The big mackinaw was 36 in. and weighed 20 LB.! That was the big fish of the trip and capped four great days of fishing on the premier kokanee lake in the world.

As I have said in the past, if you want to have a shot at the biggest kokanee you will probably ever catch, get over to Wallowa Lake this year. Be sure to stop in the Sports Corral to get your gear from Larry or Brad Snook. They have all the stuff that is working including the live maggots that you tip your hooks with.

Tight Lines,
Rick