Fishing for small kokanee but caught this instead

[oldranger]

During the winter and early spring there are 4 rivers to fish if you want to brave the cold, wind, and snow. There is one lake to take my boat to: Lake Billy Chinook. I focus on catching kokanee, landlocked sockeye. the the rod/reel combination i use is a really light and super flexible 7 1/2 ft rod with a small level wind reel. I typically let out from 40 to 80 feet of line before attaching it to a clip on my down rigger line. despite the very lightweight reel and rod my mainline is 20 lb braid and leaders 15 lb mono or fluorocarbon. This is my setup that has caught Kokanee ranging from 8" to 22" and 4 lb. fish. however when fishing "Billy" the Kokes have ranged from 8" to 13". Billy also holds a significant population of Bull trout that when getting to a certain size feed on the kokanee. In fact the lake is managed to promote the population of Bull Trout and is the only place I know of in the northwest where retaining bull trout is permitted but is limited to one fish per day that is 24" or greater. It appears that bull trout are also susceptible to lures intended for kokanee. This year we have boated a few 12 to 20" bulls but also 1 6 lb, 2 8 1/2 lb and yesterday a 19 1/4 lb giant. What a fun battle my fishing partner had and I had the privilege to net and then release!

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[texan]

You don't see a big Bull trout or Dolly Varden that big anywhere in the Lower 48. At least I haven't. I also lived in Oregon and fished that lake where you caught the big one. They do have nice fish there. Great catch and your right the pic doesn't do the fish justice. I am curious about the estimated length. I have a 9lb rainbow on the wall and it was 26 inches. Thanks for sharing.

Texan

[oldranger]

You don't see a big Bull trout or Dolly Varden that big anywhere in the Lower 48. At least I haven't. I also lived in Oregon and fished that lake where you caught the big one. They do have nice fish there. Great catch and your right the pic doesn't do the fish justice. I am curious about the estimated length. I have a 9lb rainbow on the wall and it was 26 inches. Thanks for sharing.

Texan

that was a nice rainbow. I've caught 25 inchers but guess they were about 5 lbs. My biggest steelhead was 28" and weighed 8 lbs.

The state record in oregon is 23 lbs, also out of Billy. I tried but couldn't get a good meansurement but it didn't seem to be much over 30" but looking straight down on the fish it seemed to be at least 8' wide and much deeper. A few years ago I caught a 33" lake trout that seemed fat but it weighed just 14 lbs. This fish seemed much bigger just looking at it.

[oldranger]

Local TV stations just posted a bull trout that was caught, weighed and released that was reported to be in excess of 25 lbs as that was the max of the scale! It was measured to be just 33" long so my estimate of our fish being less than 30" is probably correct.

[texan]

Local TV stations just posted a bull trout that was caught, weighed and released that was reported to be in excess of 25 lbs as that was the max of the scale! It was measured to be just 33" long so my estimate of our fish being less than 30" is probably correct.

I just read an article about the record bull trout caught at Lake Billy Chinook you talked about on yahoo. The angler caught the fish on April 8. He was fishing for kokanee and a big fish hit. The said it measure 33.5 inches in length and the girth was a huge at 26 inches. The scale they had max out at 25 lbs like you said and he released the fish unharmed. They estimated it to be 30lbs or more. Please webpage link below.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/angler-reels ... 16934.html

Texan