Even with the weather forecasts for nasty conditions, I managed to get out of the house this past week, just had to get out in the open air. My first destination was Lake Chelan, and then Roses Lake. Later in the week I was able to jump on board Austin Moser’s boat for a shake down try for kokanee on Lake Roosevelt.

Austin Moser, of Austin’s Northwest Adventures, and I have fished the early winter season on Lake Roosevelt for kokanee for the past five years. I really appreciate him including me when he’s scouting for big kokanee. Last Friday Austin, his buddy Wes and I made a shakedown trip to see if the really big kokanee would be around this season.

I had spent the night in Coulee Dam, staying at the Grand Coulee Center Lodge. I like this place. It is always clean and comfortable and they save a space in the parking area for you, so you can charge your electric motor overnight. It was cold that night, and when I got up the next morning it was snowing. It was going to be a chilly run up Lake Roosevelt to the fishing area.

Austin and Wes were at the launch in Keller when I arrived, and off we went. Austin was going to fish in the area of Hansen Harbor. He starts up high on the reservoir and then works his way down. Austin has a great setup for trolling. He can fish up to eight rods, with lines clipped to a cord that goes out to large planer boards. When a fish hits the line comes off the clip and then he just sends out a new one after the fish is landed.

We spent some time talking about our winter gear waiting for the first strike. Wes and I both had heated coats and Austin was dressed in a new high tech outfit for winter. Keeping warm is a big deal when you fish in the winter around here. Having the right gear can save the day when it is cold, wet, and windy.

The first fish hit hard, snapping the line off the clip and when I grabbed the rod I could tell it was a good one. We all had our fingers crossed that it would be a kokanee, and sure enough when it got close to the boat we could see it was. Austin netted it and we celebrated. It was a 23-inch kokanee, and this confirmed what we hope for; that the giant kokanee would be back this year.
We got a few nice rainbow, releasing one, unclipped redband, and the next time I grabbed a rod it had an 18-inch kokanee on the end. We got a total of five kokanee and some nice rainbow and quit early. It is going to be a great winter fishery on Lake Roosevelt.

Check out this week’s photo.

Austin will run a variety of dodgers and spinners trying to find what color is going to work. He likes one of the dodgers from Yakima Bait and really likes the Kokabow blades because they are heavy, and he doesn’t have to add any weight. He fishes right on top and 130 feet back. He used to fish up to 200 feet or more behind the boat, but he feels he loses fewer fish being closer and still catches plenty of kokanee and rainbow. He baits his hooks with a couple of kernels of white shoe peg corn that is stained pink, with a Pro-Cure product, and he really likes the Graybill’s Guide formula Kokanee and Craw/Anise flavors. He usually tries white corn, too, and is experimenting with an orange color stain. So folks, dust off your Kokabow Fishing Tackle gear and kokanee rods. You won’t want to miss out on the fun of the winter fishing for giant kokanee on Lake Roosevelt.

I heard that people have good luck catching cutthroat from the shore in Monument Bay on Lake Chelan, so I headed up there on Tuesday morning. When I crested the hill and could see the lake from the Navarre Coulee Road, there wasn’t a boat in sight. I expected to see at least a couple of boats trolling above the Yacht Club, but there wasn’t a boat on Lake Chelan anywhere. Can’t remember this sight, anytime of year on Chelan. Weird. I found a spot near the monument, put a Rooster Tail on my spinning rod and let it fly. In the first 20 casts there were at least six cutthroat following my Rooster Tail or Little Cleo spoon back to the shore. They would come right to the bank and then veer off. On my third color of Rooster Tail—Wham. A nice cutthroat grabbed the lure and I hoisted it up onto the rocks at my feet. As soon as the tension left the line, the fish slipped off the barbless hook and flopped back into the lake! I guess my luck wasn’t so good, but this is something I want to do again. That cutthroat was at least 12 inches long and a beauty.

After I tried my luck fishing for cutthroat in Monument Bay on Lake Chelan, I thought I had better check out Roses Lake. If you haven’t heard, there was a big plant of rainbow in Roses last month. On November 13th, the WDFW released 17,750 rainbow into Roses, and the size of the fish was 2.5 per pound, or about 11 inches. The fall plant is pretty much an annual event at Roses, and since it rarely freezes solid enough to allow ice fishing, anglers get to take these fish all winter long. The trout in Roses have a good growth rate, too, so anglers are catching trout that average about 13 inches in the spring. There are some dandy carryover trout in Roses, and rainbow of 18 inches are no surprise. Anyway, I stopped by the lake and the first thing I noticed was the work that had been done. There is a new vault toilet, a huge, paved parking lot, a new dock, and a nice fishing platform near the dock that is paved also. If you would like to get your youngsters into some fish this winter, Roses would be a great place to go.