AFTER A SUMMER working solo, my reserves have been tapped and I’m running a little low on outdoors experiences.
I was lucky enough to go on a halibut trip in June and on patrol with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Police in late July, but August was a long slog learning a new system to design our pages and writing prep football previews.
Thankfully, there was something to look forward to besides September’s promise of Friday night lights and prep football, the fall kokanee bite on Lake Sutherland.
I spent last Friday jig fishing the length and width of Lake Sutherland with the indefatigueable, 79-year-old lure designer and angler Pete Rosko of Port Angeles.
I had a blast even if the bite was slow to come around.
We enjoyed comfortable temperatures, sunny skies which left a bit of a burn (remember a hat and sunscreen), and I was thrilled and momentarily terrified by a bald eagle swooping down to collect a fish mere feet from my big, balding head.
Razor-sharp talons clutching a fish while lifting off silently from a lake will certainly get your heart pumping and instill quite a thrill.
And a couple of meals of tender, grilled kokanee also give you a lift confidence-wise.
So if you’re in a rut, carve out some time for the outdoors.
It helps cure what ails you.
Rosko is such a fishing fan that after our 5-plus hour excursion, he picked up his neighbor Al Brown and headed back out to where we found the bite. That’s dedication.
Lakes report
The pair were back at it Monday, fishing for fun at Lake Crescent despite waves and a lack of fish on the finder.
They moved out of the strong northwest wind by heading to a sheltered bay east of Barnes Creek and the Lake Crescent Lodge and decided to forego their attempts at trolling to switch to vertical jigging using blue-silver Sonic BaitFish and Kandlefish jigs.
Rosko said it took about 30 minutes before he could see the pattern.
“The surface water temperature was 65 degrees, but the fish marks were concentrated at the 80-foot level,” he said.
“Anywhere we went in that large bay the fish were not showing above that 80-foot level. They were tight between 80-and 85-feet deep even in water depths of 250 feet. It did not take long to get a hard strike on a 3/4 oz blue-silver Sonic BaitFish as soon as it reached 80 feet.
Rosko thinks they had found a thermocline, a section of water holding saturated oxygen and temperatures in the 54-to-55-degree range that rainbow trout prefer.
“In no more that 30 minutes of jigging, five rainbow trout were released and three others were never seen after hooking up. The largest was a certified 5-pounder caught on a blue-silver Kandlefish. It fought like a 5-pound pink salmon in its type of strike and energy.”
On their return to Port Angeles, the pair decided to fish Lake Sutherland.
While launching, Rosko struck up a conversation with two ladies finishing their day who struck him as experienced anglers.
“I sensed frustration from one of the ladies as I asked how their trip went,” Rosko said.
“She was enjoyable to chat with despite her account of being skunked that day and on five previous trips. I asked how they fished Lake Sutherland and they said they always trolled.”
Rosko asked if they used a color fish locator and they replied in the affirmative.
“The use of a color fish locator is vital to success whereas trolling is not,” Rosko said.
“The reason is that so many more fish can be caught if you can read a fish locator and jig to the fish marks on the screen.”
This is what Rosko and I were doing on our trip to the lake. Sending the line down to the bottom, reeling up a few cranks (or 14 in some cases) to create a visible zig-zag line on the screen to get to the fish marks. We were just a little slow on the reel-ups when we felt bites at the start of our day.
Rosko advises to turn off the fish identifier as he believes they misinterpret schools of bait fish for game fish, make sure to know where your jig is on the finder and finess jig with short, 2-to 6-inch rod lifts to attract and not spook the kokanee.
He says the best jig to use on Lake Sutherland is a 1/3-ounce all-glow Kandlefish, with 1/3-ounce and 1/2-ounce glow chartreuse, glow-orange or glow-white Sonic Baitfish jigs a close second.
His last piece of advice applies to every fishing lure you can imagine.
“Keep a sharp hookpoint with a fine-tooth file,” Rosko said.
Hatchery Pond stays open
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has extended the fishing season in the Sound Pond at the Bogachiel Hatchery.
The pond was planted with hatchery rainbow trout that were originally intended for Wentworth Lake near Forks before Rayonier closed gates on forest access roads leading to the lake.
Anglers are still hitting up the South Pound, and the state says catchable numbers of trout remain.
The daily limit remains five trout.
Fishing is now scheduled to be open through Jan. 2, 2017 at the pond.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or atmcarman@peninsuladailynews.com
