11/23/2025
Spent the day fishing on Detroit yesterday. What an incredible day it was! We were so blessed to have one of those amazing winter days.
It all started at O dark thirty when I picked up my good friend Bob. We met and up the mountain we went. The drive was filled with great conversation and stories of family, fishing days gone bye. Bob would tell you that he is not a fisherman, but he is a boater. Like most people who like boats and nature, he has fished a handful of times growing up. While he has never fished for kokanee, he has caught one in a moment of luck on Wallowa lake as youngster. This single fish planted a seed of wonder all these years about what the whole "kokanee fishing thing" was all about. After getting to know Bob well for several years and hearing these stories I wanted to give him a great day representing what kokanee fishing was all about.
We arrived at Mongold while it was still dark, readied the boat, and launched in the pole position. We headed to a location my good friend had told me he had luck two days prior. I set the auto pilot on the Minn Kota and I began deploying lines. It was a site to see as the sun rose and the morning fog began to burn off, rods immediatley began dancing. The action was very steady between big kokanee, chinook smolts and small rainbow trout. It was difficult to manage the rods but that was part of the fun. All in all we spent a gorgeous day on the water with clear blue skies, bright sun, zero wind and temps in the mid to high 50's on the water. Amazing!
Bob had a blast and I geared the day to his enjoyment.
We put 13 kokanee in the box and missed many...many more. The smallest kokanee was 11 3/4" and the remaining twelve were 12-13" I was very surprised by the overall quality of the fish for this time of year. They are long and girthy for Nov fish.
Surface water temp was 53.5°. We trolled at 1.2 using a varied selection of KokaneeKid Fishing tackle. Those of you who know, know I started with Ole Blue and it did NOT dissappoint. Wonder Bread and purple twisted hoochie put fish in the boat as well. We paired our rigs with Poulsen Cascade Tackle arrowflash dodgers in colors like gold, moonglow and wonderbread. Of course we used corn in Sean's corn and Kitchen sink recipes cured using my favorite Pro-Cure Bait Scents My cVz Customs rods got another workout. Fish all over my Lowrance made tuning my presentations of my Scotty Fishing Products downriggers easy. We caught fish from 17ft to 34ft on the ball.
Great day and the most aggressive biting kokanee I have seen since Wallowa and Wickiup. The fish were taking the bait and sky rocketing to the surface, many times before popping the clip, and shooting a foot or more in the air shaking the hook if you were not on the rod immediately! It made for an exciting and memorable trip I am positive my good friend will not soon forget.
9 unclipped, 4 clipped with 2 having a pelvic clip. Make sure to report.
