Sockeye salmon (kokanee salmon)

Tough bite in the wind today. Only landed one Kokanee hen. A few bucks were biting but not hooking up. They are kind of zombies at this point. I do enjoy having the entire lake to myself on a windy day like this, and standing in the waves makes it feel like ocean surf casting.

Brought the kayak, but when I arrived there was no one fishing on my beloved wind-blown shore, so I decided to just fish from shore. It took hours, but finally hooked up with a Kokanee on the “reaper” spinner. I then switched to the chartreuse woolly bugger, since I figured I’d found the Kokanees, and it’s one of my favorite spawning Kokanee reaction-bite magnets. So… the next two fish ended up being fat rainbow trout! That was an interesting learning experience, as I was throwing several trout lures previously with no action. I then found the Kokes again and landed a few nice ones. All C&R today.