With those scores, I wasn't about to turn down the offer and we were all set to meet at Markley Cove Resort the following day at 6:00 am. Joining us on the trip was my grandfather Don Phillips from Lafayette.

We launched Dunham's 19 foot Design Concepts at 6:00 am and made the 10 minute run out to the main body. The set-up for the day was a mix of Apexes and Dunham's homemade spinners all tipped with white corn and pulled behind chrome Sep's Dodgers. The rods were all ultralight 7 foot downrigger rods with Abu Garcia reels and 8 pound test line.

Our first stop was on the east shore just north of the Ranch House. Chuck put his two rods down at 25 and 40 feet. I put my rod down 10 feet, and was preparing to add another clip to the downrigger line for Don's rod when Chuck suddenly yelled, "fish on."

He quickly grabbed the rod and brought in a stout 16 inch rainbow. As we were preparing to release the trout, the rod I had put down only 10 feet under the boat suddenly popped off the downrigger. I grabbed that rod and brought in another big rainbow. "I told you the bite was red hot first thing in the morning," said Dunham. "Sometimes it's a challenge to get all four rods down before you hook another fish."

We finally got all four rods down and started working our way out to the old river channel between the east shore and Goat Island. Chuck's rod was the first to go off again and this time the fish was pulling drag off the reel for close to 10 seconds.

"Looks like we're into a kokanee," he said. Chuck worked the fish towards the boat and we netted our first salmon of the day, a 16 inch kokanee with a tremendous girth and shiny chrome scales.

This time it was Don's turn when the rod at 50 feet went off on our side of the boat. Once again line was peeling off the reel and we were into another fat kokanee just under 16 inches. Unfortunately, the bite went cold and we didn't get a bite for the next hour.

It was close to 10:00 am when two rods suddenly popped off the downriggers simultaneously. Chuck and I grabbed the rods and both of us sat in amazement as line seemed to peel off the reels for close to 10 seconds. Less than a minute into the fight, my fish shook loose and just as I was setting the rod down, the third rod went off and I was into another big kokanee.

Chuck finally brought his fish into the boat and I landed my first kokanee of the day. Just as I was commenting on how we almost had all four rods go off at once, the fourth rod took a sharp dip and a big kokanee suddenly broke water 50 feet behind the boat. The battle was short lived as the fish was gone before any of us could pull the rod out of the rod holder.

We ended up landing one more kokanee, then made a run to the mouth of the Narrows where the trout bite was basically wide open, but no kokanee were to be found. One last stop out in front of the dam where we once again started hooking rainbows, but couldn't seem to find any kokanee.

Our day ended around 1:00 pm with five fat kokanee in the cooler and we must have released close to 20 rainbow trout. Most of the rainbows at Berryessa are covered with unsightly copepods and while they're fine to eat, they sure don't look very appetizing and most anglers are releasing them.

Not only does Berryessa have impressive numbers of trout and kokanee salmon, but anglers are also bagging king salmon up to 24 inches. The kokanee were planted as fingerlings only two years ago and king salmon have been in the lake for several years now. Look for steady action on all three species to last well into August.