It was just 17 degrees when Kirt Middleton and I reached the launch at Spring Canyon on Lake Roosevelt Friday. We were there to meet Austin Moser and Ryan Dial to see if we could catch a kokanee this early in the season. Austin had heard of some being caught, and that’s all I needed to hear to be excited about giving Lake Roosevelt a try. There was a brisk breeze blowing and the lake appeared to be steaming as we trolled down from the launch toward the dam. We were fishing a variety of Kokabow blades with spinners, squidders and the new KokaBug. All were tipped with white shoe peg corn, some stained pink. The trout loved what we were offering them, and we caught a bunch. We also released a bunch of wild rainbow. Most of the rainbow were in the 16-inch class. They were hitting the lures that were weighted with 3/8th ounce sinkers and run well over a hundred feet behind the boat on side planers. Ryan Dial did land a kokanee in the afternoon—a 13-incher. Hopefully there will more, and bigger kokanee caught as we get further into the winter season up here.