Odell Lake… Late October, “Who Would Have Thought.”

The kokaneekid is still here I’ve just been really busy gearing up for the Portland Sportsman show. I owe you a report from Odell Lake and I’m ready to make October a really busy month for Odell Lake, even though it was really nice being one of four boats on the lake and the only one fishing for kokanee.  Now I was catching next year’s kokanee so if those kokanee were running small it might not be worth fishing for them in October, but the fish I was catching were 10 to 12 ½ inches and really fat which I hope means Odell Lake will be a winner next year with some really nice sized fish.

So the goal of this trip was to have a three day Kokanee Power of Oregon meeting to nail down derby dates, talk about business and have a meeting with ODFW.  I brought my boat because I was told by Mike Mansker that October can be a really good month to catch kokanee at Odell and since he owns a cabin on the lake I figured he must know what he was talking about.  Debbie and I came up to the lake on Thursday evening along with Eric Martin who helped us get the boat in the water that night so we could have a early morning fish before the ODFW meeting.  I normally don’t take people out on my boat but I invited Eric out with me anyway.  I had some gear to test out, and I wanted to do some filming but since I had Eric on the boat I stuck with the tackle testing and tried to figure out where the kokanee were stacking up.  I got on Ifish the night before and someone had reported seeing lots on fish in the 55 to 60 feet of water, but they couldn’t get them to bite.  This was music to my ears I figured they would be hanging out in the middle of the lake from breezy point east and I wasn’t disappointed.

Day #1 10/21/11

When Friday morning came around I got a late start and was worried about the lack of any boats on the lake we drove down toward breezy point turned the depth finder on pointed the boat east and started trolling 1.3mph.  I let Eric have the left side of the boat, and let him use whatever he wanted.  He started the day off with pink R & K Super Micro hoochies which were a great pick because he started catching fish right off the bat.  I was working through my tackle and started picking them up with a pink Spin & Glo with a new item I was given to try out along with a new dodger.  Here is a picture of the Spin & Glo setup and as you can see it has seen better days… I had this originally set up with a bobber stop but after 12 kokanee I would have had a hard time retying it so my dad came up with this setup idea.  I guess even at his age you can come up with good ideas I was just mad at myself  that I didn’t think of it first.  With this set up I can change out the lures without extensive time or effort.

 

After catching a bunch of fish on that setup Eric wanted to know if I had anymore of those, I gave him another pink Spin & Glo in the same color with the same hooks and it was fish on city until we had to head in for the meeting.  We ended that day with 32 very nice kokanee and that new dodger was fantastic with very little drag.  I was planning on having my dad along with me, but he got a last minute flu and wanted to stay home, Thanks Dad, so he had to take my word about the dodger, but I got the action on tape and I could see his wheels turning when he watched it.

 I told Eric to hold his fish out further to make it look bigger than Debbie’s..

 This is October?

Day #2 10/22/11

Day two started early and the goal was to keep testing out new stuff for next year and to do some filming with my kokanee kits that I’ll be selling online and at the Portland Sportsman Show.  With the filming and having to be back by 11:00 for a meeting we didn’t fish much but still ended up with 23.  I went down towards Shelter Cove first thing in the morning to see what this year’s fish look like.  We caught a really big spawned out kokanee and with me only marking a few fished we moved east of breezy point in the middle of the lake 15 foot setback and 1.3mph just like day one.  Caught most of the fish on a wide variety of gear with different colored Spin & Glo’s and Super micro hoochie out performing anything I put in the water.  We had a late night with the board meeting but we got all the stuff taken care of which left us will a full day of fishing for Sunday

 Not what we are looking for..

  Our dog wanted to get in the picture..

Day #3 10/23/11

Ok so the goal of day three was to just use my Downrigger, and Longlining kits limit out and get it on film.  I had no doubt this was going to be really easy, with my go to gear in my kits and the excellent fishing at Odell Lake.  As my dad would say, “Just let the line out and reel them in”.  I had a hard time keeping all four rods in the water with doubles and triples all day.  I used three rods on the downriggers and one rod I used with my longline kit with a 2 oz in line weight that is in the kit.  This was some of the best fishing I’ve had all year all using my kits and I got it all on film I should have it on Youtude shortly I have a friend doing some editing for me.  We ended the day around 1:00 with 50 kokanee caught the fish using a wide variety of the gear in the downrigger kits, and I used both of the Cousin Carl Lake Trolls with only three of the wedding rings in my kits with all three catching fish almost as fast as I could let the line out.  My top secret late season corn recipe that I posted on my last post was working great on day one and day two, but on the third day of fishing I was picking them up with Pro-Cure Wizard Kokanee Killer Korn Magic, and plain corn.  If you are looking for something to mix with your corn look no further than Pro-Cure.  You can visit them at http://www.pro-cure.com/ with their Bad Azz UV liquid bait dye, and cutting edge scents they have everything you’re looking for and a little bit more.  Check them out and tell them that the Kokaneekid sent you…

 Bad part of just two people in the boat… You can only catch 50 kokanee…

 That looks like a ton of work but worth every moment best eating fish around!!!

 Nothing like Sockeye Salmon on Cedar Planks.. It’s a shame my freezer is full.  It’s moment like this that you see the true value of this wonderful fishery…

Here is a picture of the kits that I’m going to be selling for $110.00 each until after the Sportman Show then I’m going to raise the price.

 

 

What’s nice about the kits is they are all tied with 13.9 Tectan Premium Plus line they have Premium Hooks and Vision Rolling barrel swivels the length is preset so there is no guess work, plus you should be able to get one retie out of each lure.  I’m sure Eric wishes we would have retied the Spin & Glo I gave him because he lost the bottom hook the next day after fish number 16 or so, no worries Eric I have one made up with your name on it.  I will  have the kits for sale on my website in the near future, but if you are interested in getting your hands on one sooner send me an E-Mail and I can ship you one.  This kit will help you not only catch kokanee, but help you put limits in your boat.  By picking a good lake, figuring out your boat speed and setback it shouldn’t be an issue.  I will have more kits in the future so keep an eye out for them, or if you are interested in getting your gear in my kits send me a E-Mail and we will talk.  I will only put stuff in the kit that I can personally catch limits with and I put my own personally touch on most of the lures in my kit with my family top secret hook design.  I will also have a good selection of Spin & glo’s for sale on my website in the future plus I will be selling them at the Portland Sportsman Show in booth 131 along with Robbie from R & K tackle so stop in and let’s talk kokanee fishing.  Also if you are interested in custom orders send me an E-Mail, I have a ton of wedding ring designs that I would be willing to make up for you…

Fish On kokaneekid