Pardee Lake Derby action 9-5-09

[HiTechKoke]

Kokanee season is finally winding down for the HiTechKoke clan but not until we participated in yet another derby for the love of Kokanee. The setting this time was Kokanee Power Pardee Lake Derby (home of the dinker natural spawning Kokes) this year with average fish from 10 to 11 inches and trophy fish at 12 inches....with one exception anyway.

The day started out at 2AM from the Bay area to Pardee Lake to wait for the gate to open and wait for a boat inspection. I had my HiTechKoke first mate crew of Rachel and Jenna in tow and they were ready for action....

The morning starts with a pseudo sunrise shot just before all the action started...

and then the fish started biting and the kids were having fun with scenes like this most of the morning...

the kids were happy to reel in these fish as there was plenty of action for them to re-corn and let out lines and net fish like these:

The fishing gods answered our prayers and lady luck was on our side when all of a sudden I was in a battle with a big fish I thought would be too big for a Kokanee.... a few minutes later Rachel netted me this monster Koke ... by Pardee standards anyway... that was 15.6 inches, definitely part of the missing population we all thought was going to be at Pardee this year but the dinkers have dominated.

 

[HiTechKoke]

When all was said and done that fish won the derby for me as part of my 3 fish weigh in and Rachel's fish in the previous photo managed to squeeze out first in the juniors. We couldn't have asked for a better day!

In perspective that lucky fish was out of his league when you compare him to all the others in the cooler where the average was a 6 to 8 oz fish and this one ended up weighing just over a pound. A few cooler photos just for fun and perspective... yes we are crazy to be fishing for 10 to 11 inch fish!

Those little Kokes are this years fish and the females were ripe with caviar...

Fish were all caught at 95 to 125 feet and we fished the river arm mouth to above twin coves. We used 10 different combos that caught fish in the end with Apexes, UL and RMT Assassin Spinners, Radical Glo Tubes and Hoochie spinners with all kinds of scents and corn. There was no dominant setup for us and we rotated a lot of gear which kept us busy in the off bite times.

Kevin

 

[TopFuelKokanee]

Way to go HiTech! Hope you didn't use up all your derby luck. Need to keep some of that mojo for the Diamond Lake and Shasta Lake derbys coming up!

 

[Bduck]

Good going HT and Clan. Pardee is one of my favorite lakes to fish. It got crazy at times pulling up to the gate and waiting for it to open with all of the other boaters coming in. But there wasn't any inspections when I use to go. The last time I went was about 95', the entrance fee was about $16.00. What is fee up to now HT?

 

[Full_Monte]

Way to go, Kevin. You work at this and you deserve to win.thumbsup

 

[SilverBullets]

Congratulations to the HiTechTeam!!worthy12thumbsup

 

[HiTechKoke]

Tks for the comments from everyone.

Bduck - On Derby day we get in free which is a nice bonus but I think the fee is $15 and $4 for the fishing permit.

 

[Bduck]

Tks for the comments from everyone.

Bduck - On Derby day we get in free which is a nice bonus but I think the fee is $15 and $4 for the fishing permit.

Thanks HTK. At least the entrance fee stayed the same over the years. But the fishing permit is new to me. Its worth it for a good quality fishing lake. As I remember there was no skiing or swimming allowed. We need more lakes that can cater to the fisherman throughout the US to keep skiers & swimmers out. I know they have to have there fun too but not on every lake we have.

 

[Old School]

HTK,

Thanx for the great report and congrats on the derby victory. I hope we see more of those biggins next year. You've helped a lot of us this year and put together some cool videos. Many thanx.
till next year.

Old School

 

[HiTechKoke]

Tks. Old School... .I still have a video or two to put together. Had a decent trip at Berryessa this last weekend but need to put together the story and pictures. The season is closing down rapidly.

Kevin

 

[Kokanee Killer]

not crazy

great job ht.glad to see you had an awesome season as usual... hey i thought people out west thought i was crazy chasing kokes that are not too too large either but kokanee are a cool fish no matter what size, looks like your pardee fish are just starting to color up too,, ours here are abuot the same too. i wonder why the gorge kokes color up way way faster than ours east,and yours in cal but colorado and the gorge are in between us and our fish are slower to color up?? different strains ,temp etc what do you think??

 

[HiTechKoke]

Tks.. when you go to Pardee it's really about supporting the fishery since there are no monster Kokes but it's a great place to take the family and no lake lice!

As for variables as to when they change and under what conditions it seems mother nature has the best untapped plan for them. Every time we try and predict anything we get thrown a loop.. it seems the predictions are the lower elevation lakes turn faster but that doesn't pan out either and each lake has its personality each year it seems. I couldn't even guess what really triggers early or late but you would think water temp, food supply, lake level, amt of sunlight etc etc plays a factor of some sort.

Kevin