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I just returned June 21st from my third annual week long fishing trip to Wallowa Lake with my good friend. Wallowa Lake is such a special place so it is never hard to stay one week fishing. The thought of catching a large Kokanee easily keeps your interest peeked. Gary Miralles of Shasta Tackle handed out 4 lb PLine to a group of his prostaff who were fishing Wallowa that week in hopes of breaking the line class world record. I spooled one reel with 300 feet of 4 lb CX PLine.

This however, was our most challenging trip we’ve made in three years. First the weather was abnormally cool even though we plan our trip two weeks later than last year. For all but one day we wore our long underwear, bundled up in fleece and at times wore gloves and stocking caps. The wind was not too bad, but even a slight breeze felt very cool. The fishing was as slow as we have seen in three years. The surface water temperature dipped to 49 F the second day after a particularly cool and windy day and night. It slowly climbed back into the mid 50’s by the end of the week.

When I say the fishing was slow, it was slow for the bigger fish we were looking for. There were plenty of very small fish (less than 10 inches). We learned lines had to be check about every 15 minutes to check of small fish. We also caught lots of fish in the 12 inch range. Fish 14 inches and larger were hard to find. We were fishing hard too. We were up a first light fishing until about noon when we would head in for lunch and a nap. We were back on the water around 4 where we would fish until dark. The fishing was so slow that after the second day we were discussing options to go fish somewhere else.

One of the highlights of the trip happened when I dropped my Kokanee gear down to 96 feet where a consistent line of Kokanee was graphing on the fish finder. After a while my line pops free from the downrigger clip and the rod slowly folds. Having been down this road before, I was pretty sure my gear was grabbed by a Mackinaw. It only took a minute to determine that I was now tethered to a rather large Makinaw. Forty minutes later we tailed a beautiful 35 inch Mackinaw. After a few quick photos the fish was release back into the water.

On our last full day of fishing, which was Father’s Day, we got on the water very early. With overcast skies and calm winds we felt the fishing would be good. Boy were we wrong. It was without a doubt our slowest morning of the trip.

I dropped down homemade spinner as we trolled back towards the dock. It did not take much time to connect with an 18 inch Kokanee. The lure was baited up again and dropped back down and it got bit again. When I put pressure on the fish it felt like it might have some weight. When I then saw it roll I knew it was a good fish. My buddy cleared the other lines as I worked the fish in slowly to the boat. When the fish got close enough to the boat, we both realize this was the largest Kokanee we had ever seen. When it got next to the boat it made a hard run under the boat. My buddy motored the boat forward so I could stay on top of the fish to keep the line away from the boat. The fish made another run and jumped. To my relief when I reeled down to recover some slack in the line the fish was still hooked. After splashing around on the surface for a short while I was able to lift its head as my buddy slid the net under the fish.

We were both amazed at the size and beauty of this fish as we realized I landed this fish on 4 lb line and it may very well be a line class world record Kokanee. My buddy picked up the fish and guessed its weight to be between 7 and 8 lbs breaking the line class record of ~ 6 lbs. After a photo session we decided it was time to get the fish weighed. The fish was 7.475 lbs, 26 inches long with a girth of 16 inches.

We had little success the short remainder of the trip. It is amazing how one event can completely reshape the outcome of a trip. What was starting to feel like a fishing trip that was not going to meet expectations, ended exceeding all prior notions.