Tldr; pretty lake, caught a mac and 7 kokes

Our friends have a piece of property in Fort Klamath Oregon, sits right on a nice spring fed creek.  Two sheds on the property that serve as cabins, off grid, poor cell phone service…very peaceful.  We love going there.  Typically we will fly fish some of the local streams and rivers, but on this trip, his wife had arranged a guide trip on Odell Lake.  The reservation was for the morning trip (typically the calm part of the day), we woke at 2, on the road at 3, at the lake about 4:45am for the 5am launch.  We meet the guide, Bob, in the resort.  When we left Fort Klamath…it was calm, cold, etc.  As we started to climb a little higher, we got some wind, some rain, some snow.  When we looked at the lake, there were white caps everywhere.  The guide point blank told us, he wouldn't suggest going out in this weather…he'd take us…but wouldn't suggest it.  He offered us a Monday morning trip in place.

Monday was a completely different day, he had the full day, so we woke and arrived later - for a 7am launch.  Blue sky, no breeze, lovely morning.  We being going after the kokes.  He's got all the gear setup on the boat, and his Shoepoeg Corn with bloody tuna sauce - we're ready.  We get the lines in the water, two on each side, and my deeper line hits in about 15 minutes, nice 12" koke - pretty thick, pretty fish.  Then boom, again, and again…by now, the birthday boy is looking pretty depressed, so, when my side gets hit the 4th time, I say 'Dean, you get it'…'NO' he replies… I sense a proper funk is brewing.  I land #4 and #5…then would be #6 tangles my lines.  So the guide takes my setup, and moves it to Deans side - now he's got all my gear, and I have new gear.  Then both our lines hit, and we end up with 10 kokanee ( the limit is 25…more on that later, and one lake trout).  The guide asks us if we'd like to start fishing four Lake Trout, as the conditions are about right - and we agree.  Just as we're about the change out the gear, Dean's rod hits…and it's a big fish, the guide yells 'Laker' and we hall up all the gear and downriggers to avoid a tangle.  Dean fights the fish for about 15 minutes and gets it up to and in the boat, wow, a monster lake trout, 9# - nice looking fish.  He bleeds it in the live well.  We properly store the koke gear, and get setup with the Mackinaw gear, one rod on each side of the boat, down to about 160', 5 minutes later 'bam' we get a nice take down.  I start reeling it in, feels smaller to me - htough I later remembered that Dean was fishing lighter weight Koke gear for his fish, and I was using heavier duty Mac gear. After about 15' I get color - oh my, another good sized fish, this fish weighed in at 13#...and that's a limit folks.  Wait, what? Only one Mack?  We go for a quick tour of the lake, the guide chats up a few buddies - sure enough, today was a tough day for fishing both the kokes and the Macks, we didn't see many nets going.

After the guide cleaned the fish, I put some salt and brown sugar on some of the filets so we could smoke them when we got back to the cabins.  I texted Elena when to start the fire in the smoker at 2:50p so it would be ready when we got back.  The filets from the 9# fish were much nicer in color - more of that salmon look, and the guide recommended we save those for cooking in the pan vs. the smoker.  We had some of the smoke kokanee that night and also some of the smoke Mack, very nice.

https://www.odelllakeresort.com/fishing/guided-fishing/
Our guide was Bob.

So, with a limit of 25 kokes each, turns out that camping on this lake for a week, and bringing your pressure canner is a really big thing…that's what most of the boats are doing.  The catch Kokanee all day, then can them at night, and repeat.

I'm really curious to try canned Kokanee?  The flesh is so soft, I'd think maybe it would not can well…but so many people were doing it, it must be good.  I think I'll can a sample after my next koke run - just to see what its' like.

Hey Any Sacto folks or others in the region.  The Sacramento International Sportsmen’s Expo comes to town 1/18-1/21/24

I'm planning to make a day of it on Friday 1/19 - anyone else want to join?

hoping to find some deals on Koke reals this year

See ya,
Brian.

Found myself in San Diego again for the opener of Lobster season.
but this year, no kayak, no fishing poles, no hoops...

but did get to spend time with my 1 mo old grandson (Lucian), Son, Daughter in law, Daughter, and Dad - good times...
but, next year I'm bringing the Yak...and a life preserver and wet suit for my then 1 year old grand son!

overdue report

tl;dr
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Full story
Had a free 3 day weekend, wife busy, time to head to the coast.  Goal, simple, catch squids and halibut in Monterey…that is all, nothing more, nothing less.

Targeted three days of fishing, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

JoeDubC came up and joined me.

Friday, I decided to launch from the Monterey Bay launch.  Lots of work being done in the parking lot, launch was fine - a maze to get out of there, and no fish cleaning station - won't do that again.

Headed out to the red buoy, checking the fish finder all the way out, not seeing much on the finder, not seeing any of the commercial guys out, not even many kayaks and small boats at the red buoy, a bunch of PB's out past the point, but that was too far, especially with no intel on the space.  I started fishing my one and only squid rig…I felt hits occasionally, but not able to land anything, Joe was having modest success.  Heard a radio call from Johnny Ab on the radio…ok this must be it, pedaled over, did our say howdies,  and, this is not exactly how it went…but this is how I perceived it.  I'd drop my line, feel nothing, reel up a bit, jig it, feel nothing etc.  Johny, his buddy on the PB, Joe, they were all giggling like school kids, just catching boat loads of squid.  Me…0 goose egg, nada, nothing,  them…I think they were dumping squid overboard they had caught so many.  Like I said, My impression….may be *slightly* off…but accurate.

After about 100 limits of CnR Johnny and his buddy had to go to work, they called me over gave me some squids for fishing and eating (generous) and then Johnny asks what in my kill bag…I'm thinking, probably a  dead skunk…but I blurt out, just some ice and bait, he quickly tosses in a nice Cabezon he caught…thanks buddy.

You know, I was frustrated with my (poor) fishing skills, but I was loving the day.  Weather, wind and waves were perfect, nice overcast morning that I so appreciate coming from the blue sky sunny heat of the valley.

After a while, Joes boat is about to capsize with so many squid and Mable.   So he's like, "Hey, lets' catch Halibut with all these squid we've been catching….errrr….I mean, I've been catching, and before the Coasties come over and tell me I'm not seaworthy with all this squid on board…meanwhile, he's popping some squid sashimi in his mouth, and playing squid fetch with Mable.

I tell him I'm (atypically) dedicated to squid and stay behind. An hour or so later, he calls me on the radio, one Hali in the kill bag…I'd better hurry over…I'm still stuck at 0, goose egg, skunky for squid. 

I finally start pedaling over, realizing I'm now so frustrated….I'm just no good.
I occasionally drop a sabiki on the peddle over - nothing. I get to the hotel area just in time for the skunks to do back strokes across the ocean.

End of day, 0 fishies, 0 squids.

I cooked Johnny's Cabbie with some butter and served with grilled peppers and ricearoni - delicious - thanks, Johnny!


Saturday, thought I'd try CG pier launch, straight out access to the bay, parking lot jammed with divers, no fish cleaning station - headed over to MBK and shore launched.  I'll stick with MBK going forward.

Launched from MBK, straight to the halibut sands. I caught zero Halibut, crossed paths with a fellow who immediately caught a 40 incher, within seconds of when my bait passed….awesome fish, so cool to see him catch and land.  He was using a big smelt he'd sabiki'd up.

I started fishing the sabiki, caught a rocky of course - freed him.  Caught a few smelts, and began fishing them.

I ended up catching two RF and keeping one…though I'm not sure why I did, after that I was limited to 1 pole, so I could not fish for bait and Halibut at same time.  Not that it mattered in the end.  I think I just needed re-assurance that I could actually catch a fish, and lunch too.

Sunday Morning, the wind came up early, and I packed up and headed home.  It was a fun weekend, though still frustrated to skunk for my target species. 

Things I need to change, 1. get a stiffer rod, 2. get a new squid jig from FW - I think my (Amazon) jig may have some issues - possibly not sharp enough?

Hi All,

I'm planning to tie up some of my own halibut rigs again this year.  I've had mixed results with store bought, and enjoy tieing them.  Biggest challenge - which hooks to use.  Last year I went to FW in RC, picked up some hooks they had - worked well.  This year, I'd like to get more, and looking for recommendations on which specific hooks people use, and where they get them.

Thanks,
Brian.

I've not been able to access for the past few day? anyone else having this issue?

Thanks,
Brian.

Hi All,

considering making the leap to Navionics ($25/yr) to get live charts in my hand, especially like how they include the various restriction zones as well.  very much don't like the cost...for an app that is essentially just showing me charts they get from the government for free.  Now, the app is capable of much much more...but on a kayak, I won't be using many of those capabilities.

I really just want an app that reads the charts, overlays the MPE's etc.

anyone using something different?

I looked into C-MAP (free) but the free version is online only, and no MPE support.

I'm looking for a good pier to take my Dad fishing.  why a pier? free helps, and also very stable, I think he'd have a hard time on a boat - unless it was perfect glass, and jetty would be a non starter.

I took him bank fishing on the Sac a few weeks ago, and he really enjoyed that.  Got a tug on his line, and a bunch of follows.

any pier that might produce some fish would be fun, even catching bait fish supplies a tug on the line, bonus points if we could drop a hoop for some crabs.

I would appreciate any recommendations, and what are the target

Thanks in advance,
Brian.