By Chris Mayes

In addition to his monster mackinaw , Mayes also rounded up these tasty Bucks Lake kokanee . Photo by CHRIS MAYES , Fish Sniffer Staff .

Chris Mayes and his buddy Brett landed these impressive mackinaw while kayak fishing Bucks Lake this summer .

Photo by CHRIS MAYES , Fish Sniffer Staff .

Fishing in my local area is in a transitional period right now ( in other words : not worth the time ), but I was itching to get some water time in .

My buddy Bret and I made plans earlier in the week to give Bucks Lake a whirl . This would be our second trip of the year to Bucks . Given that I ’ d already scored my Devil Fish here a month before in the form of a 34.25 inch mackinaw , my main goal on this trip was to nab some kokanee for the grill and have some light-tackle fun with the macks or whatever else wanted to bite .

I left Chester around 0415 and met Bret at our launch spot at 0530 . Soon enough , we were pushing off the shore right before the sun crept over the hills .

The weather forecast called for 8-13mph winds with gusts to 20 . We hoped the morning would provide a few hours of calmness . The lake looked ominous as soon as we launched , with those weird “ random gusts of wind from every direction ” rippling the surface . But we were here , and we were fine with playing with whatever cards we were dealt .

Within 100 yards of the launch , I marked a school of kokanee on the depth finder . Dropped my jig on them , had some bites , but no hookups .

After that , Bret and I parted ways , with me in search of ‘ koke schools and Bret looking for his Devil Fish . With eyes glued to my depth finder screen , I angled towards a favorite rock pile of mine that has produced mackinaw in past trips . As soon as I hit the transition from gentle 70 foot bottom to the 55 foot deep boulder cluster , I spied a nice mark hovering 5 feet off the rocks .

Thinking this was a smaller mack ( Bucks is loaded with 12-18 inch macks ), I dropped the exact same rig that I ’ d used last month right onto his nose . I watched the mark move up another five feet and as soon as my falling jig and the mark intercepted , my line went slack . Swing , set , fish on !

At first he came up kinda easy for about 15 feet , then all of a sudden he woke up and tore off on a screaming run all the way back to the bottom . Oh boy , here we go again !

Buried ! Here ’ s a shot of Mayes ’ s Fenwick after driving the hooks of a jig into a big mackinaw . Photo by CHRIS MAYES , Fish Sniffer Staff .

After the initial screaming run , the fish settled into the same

groove as my previous large mack . He bulldogged straight beneath the kayak , occasionally coming up 10-15 feet before plowing his way back into his comfort zone below 40 feet . Once again , the hookup came on 6 pound fluoro on a light-action rod , so all I could really do was hang on and wait for him to tire out .

Forty minutes in , and the fish started headshaking . Although they were the same big , violent headshakes as my previous mack , I wasn ’ t quite as terrified by them this time around , probably because I was already expecting them .

The violent headshakes were still unnerving , but I welcomed them because it meant the fish was growing tired . A few minutes later , I was able to work him above 40 feet , got color at 10 feet , and pulled off a smooth lip-gripper-landing with the jigging spoon hooked on the very tip of his lower jaw . My second 30 plus inch mack !

I radioed Bret to find where he was , since he ’ d disappeared from my view . He was on shore working with a fish for release . With the lip grippers in place , I placed my fish in the water and slowly trolled him towards Bret ’ s landing to keep oxygen running through his gills .

Once I reached Bret , an old college buddy of mine showed up in his 12 foot aluminum to say hi . It was good to see him , and it was also a great opportunity for a few photos of our back-to-back macks !

After the photos , it didn ’ t take long to work my fish back to health and I watch him lumber back towards the depths .

The wind started kicking up borderline-whitecaps at this point , and we were thinking this would spell the end of our day . But every time the wind would sustain itself from one direction just long enough to create chop , it ’ d peter out and start blowing from a different direction . It felt like the wind blew from every direction possible for at least 20-30 minutes at a time , but it was never enough to kick us off the lake . So we stuck it out and picked up a few more macks in the 16-18 inch class .

Around 1300 , I finally stuck my first kokanee after dropping jigs on several schools and missing the bites . No wonder I was missing them : they ’ re running small this year , a far cry from the 12-13 inchers we were catching at the same time last year .

The afternoon bite was pretty slow . Bret and I spent most of it scouring the open water for ‘ koke schools . We came across several schools , but due to their small size , they were difficult to hook with jigs . But it was tough to complain .

Bret took off around 1530 or so , but I stuck it out for a bit longer , intent on bringing home some kokanee . It paid off !

I found a large school in open water , hanging at 40 feet , that for some reason decided to stick around in one spot for a few minutes . I used this opportunity to increase my bag to 4 ‘ kokes before the school departed .

Bucks Lake is poised to open soon . Bucks is a bit of a mystery for a lot of folks . We ’ ve received multiple requests to run this Chris Mayes Bucks Lake feature again that first graced the pages of the Fish Sniffer two years ago . Since we are kicking off a new kayak fishing column in the print edition of the Fish Sniffer this week , this seems like a great time to run kayak fishing guru , Chris Mayes ’ s article once again . We look forward to publishing more Chris Mayes articles in the near future . -Cal Kellogg .