03-01-2005, 05:15 PM
A new and good friend of mine found out I was going to the Gorge on Monday and told me that he knew of a secret location that ALWAYS had Kokanee schooled up there during the winter. During the summer they're not there, and they're not there every single day, he said, but 9/10 times they'll be there. He gave me very specific instructions and I went there. I punched a hole and lowered my line to find out it wasnt more than 8-10' deep. This guy is either crazy, I thought, or else he is sitting at home laughing at me trying to catch Kokanees in 8' of water. Well, I've never caught a Koke before in my life and know nothing about it, so I decided to give it a try. My wife and I fished for about an hour with only one bite, that I didn't get. I thought I'd been had. Just about then my wife caught a nice 16" rainbow. So, I moved over closer to her and dug another hole. Bang! Something hit my line like a bat out of hell and a few seconds later I had our first Kokanee on the ice. The next 30 minutes was crazy fun! They were nailing my line as I let it drop to the bottom, every single time. I missed several and one broke off my line at the hole, but within an hour my wife and I had our limit of 6 fat kokes between 14 and 16.5" We also took home six rainbow of similar size. We, of course, picked out one of the nicest bows and one of the nicest kokes and took them immediately over to my friend! Anyone else had similar experiences fishing through the ice for kokes in shallow water? Befuddled me, but it sure worked. I'll post some pictures soon, just need to figure out how to do it!
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