1st 'Berry Koke of the year

[trueblue2]

Decided to make an early trip to Strawberry to see if we could entice some kokanee to play in spite of the full moon. Beautiful morning and day. Arrival temp at 7:00 was 39 F. Water temp at SC was 46F and rose to 50F by noon. Strawberry bay side was 2 degrees warmer. Started with pink spinner squids and silver and pink 5 1/2 flasher. Got a hit almost immediately while we were putting in other rods and missed it. Lots of fish on sonar at 15 to 30'. Another hit and lost a really nice koke right at the side of the boat. 0 for 2 in favor of the kokes. Another hit and this time a slot cut ... back it goes. Another hit and a 17" koke in the net. About 10:00a and activity slowed considerably. A couple more slot cuts and we headed to the Strawberry Bay side. Lots and lots of fish out in the middle, but the bite seemed to be over there too. Got a couple of cuts on a 6" Ol' Fred's Fish Flash in chartruese/green and a "perfect pearl" spinner. Didn't get up near the ladders to check out where the koke schools were last year. Good new is that there seemed to be fish everywhere. Bad news is the bite didn't last very long.

Here's some pictures. Can it get much more beautiful than this?

Trueblue aka Ol Fred
[signature]