STAKE LAKE
fishing reports
Stake Lake has been a good rainbow fishery. In 2024 the lake was stocked with kokanee that have reached a catchable size by fall of 2025.
JULY 21, 2026
It was another beauty of a day. After my morning coffee, I decided to put chores on the back burner and load up my little 10' Harbercraft. I decided to go and give Stake Lake a try for some kokanee. It was stocked in 2024, 2025 and 2026 and I was hoping that maybe some of the kokanee were getting to be of good size.
I arrived around 9:00 and there were two other boats out on the water. Stake is a fairly shallow lake with a max depth of about 30 feet so I decided not to use my downriggers. Instead I put on swing tail dodgers because they are fairly heavy and I figured I could get them down to 15ish feet with out adding weight. I paired one with a pink wiggle hoochie with a frosted white 3D printed bill and the other with a 3D printed pink flatfish with a green scale back decal. The gear can be seen in the gallery.
I let out about 85 feet of line and trolled slow, about 1mph. I trolled this slow to let the line get deeper and not because I thought the speed would work better, but this speed seemed to work just fine! I had lots of interest but for the first hour the fish seemed hard to keep on the hook. I lost several, had many bites, and caught and released one rainbow.
I am not sure why I couldn't land them early in the day, because I managed to land five of the next six fish I had on, in quick succession. It was a pretty fast limit of kokanee today! Both the wiggle hoochie and the 3D printed flatfish worked well with the edge going to the flatfish. The kokanee were all between 11 to 13 inches. I was hoping for bigger but they will still be good eaters. The swing tail dodgers were perfect to get the gear down without adding weights.
On my way back to the boat launch I came across several marks in 17 feet of water, right in front of the fishing dock. I decided to fish a little longer with my chironomid jigging gear. This was a good idea- the rainbows were smashing the black and red ribbed chironomid! I only fished for a few minutes in this spot and I had a few good hits, and caught and released two rainbows. It was close enough to the fishing dock that I could have easily caught them on a fly rod off the dock!
the Strategy
Rod one: A chrome swing tail dodger with 14 inches to a pink wiggle hoochie with a frosted white 3D printed bill
Rod two: A gold swing tail dodger with 14 inches to a 3D printed pink flat fish with a green scale decal
THE CATCH
The kokanee were readily taking the lures today!
kokanee: 5
rainbows: 3
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
January 5, 2026
I was considering taking a run out to Stump Lake today but I'm almost certain the ice would not be good enough to walk on- or even existent- in the middle, where the kokanee are most likely to be. Instead, I decided to go to Stake where I knew I could get out on the ice. I caught two kokanee out of Stake Lake in the fall, but it was fairly slow; I hoped today would be different.
I arrived at around 8:30 a.m. and was the only angler at the lake. I had to drag the sled about half a mile to get to the deepest section of the lake, which is not very deep at around 30 feet. I got all set up and started marking the odd fish at around 25 feet. I sent my gear down right away and chased a couple of marks on the fish finder. The fish swam off so I propped up my rod and started to get my underwater camera set up. As I was setting it up my rod fell flat. I thought I had bumped it but when I went to prop it back up there was a kokanee pulling on it! My first kokanee of the day was on the ice and I was just getting started!
I thought I was in for a quick limit but I thought wrong. For the next two hours the kokanee were coming in at 25 feet every 5 to 10 minutes, just one or two at a time. I managed to get a little interest with a couple of light bites and I lost one about 5 feet from the hole. From 10:30 a.m.to 12:30 p.m. I saw very few fish come through and the ones that did were not interested in the meal worm. But fishing picked up just after 12:30 p.m.! The fish kept coming in and were on the finder and the camera more often then not. I changed out the meal worm to a pink tungsten Chirono-Bug (as seen in photos) and they couldn't seem to leave it alone! By 1:30 p.m. I caught four more kokanee and shook two small 7-inchers off at the hole.
A fairly aggressive jig seemed to bring them in and a slower jig would trigger the bite. My exact location can be seen in the photo gallery. The fish were similar of size to the ones I got through the ice at McConnell at 12.5 inches to 13.5 inches. There was 4 inches of clear ice and 5 inches of white ice out in the middle.
the Strategy
The setup: A 3.5 inch chrome with pink and chartreuse glow flasher with 12 inches of leader to a Chrome's pink Chirono-bug
The bait: Meal worms worked okay, but the bait-less jig worked better .
THE CATCH
I had to put in some time for the limit, but at the end of the day it happened quick!
kokanee: 5
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
ICE UPDATE
DECEMber 4, 2025
I took a run up to McConnell and Stake lakes today. Both lakes are completely covered with ice. The ice was about 3.5 inches thick near shore but further out the ice looked sketchy. I opted to try some fishing off of the dock at Stake Lake. I caught a couple of small rainbows and one fat spawning kokanee. I saw no other kokanee on the underwater camera which was not surprising because the water was only about 8 feet deep. There was one tent out on Stake Lake but I would not trust the ice quite yet.
ICE UPDATE
NOVEMber 26, 2025
I took a quick run up to McConnell and Stake lakes today. Both lakes are completely covered with a thin layer of ice. I poked a hole in the ice near shore and it was only about one inch thick. With the weather expected to stay mostly below freezing at McConnell for the next 10 days it shouldn't be long before ice fishing for kokanee is possible!
