Hunting Washington Forum
Other Activities => Fishing => Topic started by: MIKEXRAY on March 15, 2008, 10:00:44 AM
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I've been fishing at various cascade lakes for kokanee and have caught a few with the basic set ups I know but am looking for a system that catches fish consistantly. I prefer trolling and am looking to catch bigger fish. I see them on the finder but am not presenting the right set up. Any help would be appreciated.
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When we fish Baker and Shannon, we generally use magets and eggs, and also through chum out. Pop gear with a wedding ring is also another good option with a maggot or worm, or troll a wedding ring with a small flasher. My two cents.
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Wedding rings work good with a piece of corn on the end of it. That is atleast up here on the lake i live on. remember the slower you ccan troll the better. i use the new reflectors that the wedding ring co pany puts out. spin really good in those extra slow speeds. Also try making a long turn atleast every 15-30 minutes while your trolling. i seem to catch most my fish on the turn. right when the troll gets slower the line slacks and my lure drops. BAMM. good hits always.
Do the lakes you fish have any kind of current?
you could also just drift and go deep and pop(jig) some flat swivel sinkers, works well also. If your not sure what im talking about i can take a picture of the weights. theyre about 1.5 to 2 inches long shaped like a skinny long football and have some kind of mylar reflector taped on them. i like the all white ones with a red reflector or the all red. Really gets the fish excited. And like i said i like corn..........some people use eggs or trout bait were i live also on the end of there rigs...........
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You will catch a ton more kokanee if you really pay close attention to your speed and depth. Use either leaded line or downriggers and adjust as needed were the fish are spotting on the fish/depth finder. Keep your speed under 1 hp if possible. Some people like to troll between 1 HP - 1.5 HP. I find I catch more fish the slower I troll. I troll in a figure eight pattern and as stated above most fish are caught on the turn. I am not saying you can't catch allot of fish with out this method, just that I have caught more fish this way. I use a wedding ring or Double whammy with either a piece of night crawler on the tail hook or corn/maggots. I would also recommend raplacing your hooks on your lures to Gamagatsu hooks. The hooks that come on most lures are not sharp enough for the soft mouth of Kokanee. After you hookup, DO NOT SET THE HOOK HARD, you will rip the lip right out. Kokanee tend to spin when they reach the surface and can pull the hooks right out of their mouths. When they spin give a touch of slack and they will stop. Most Kokanne are lost right at the boat. Do not try to lift them out of the water by the line. Use a net and you will bring in a ton more fish.
Can you tell I have lost allot of kokanee, LOL.
http://www.protroll.com/books/?id=3&p_id=2
BTW, nothing smokes up better then kokanee
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Thanks for all the help so far, after reading the replies it is obvious I was trolling to fast. Thanks for the link ALCHASE that was some good info to go along with your advice. I read all kinds of info, but figured I should get some specific local advice. Thanks again and if anyone wants to add something new ,I can use all the help I get.
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a rubber snubber is a good thing to add too to prevent ripping the hooks through their lips. nothing else to add, it's been covered pretty well.
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All right, i fish merwin, yale and lake cushman alot, and i have since i was just a tot...
We have switched to the flash lites... They are the lake trolls with the mylar wings with the reflective wings and wedding ring spinners, so we can use lighter weight to get your offering down... We also get white corn and drain the water out, add anise oil to the corn and then add distilled water to keep the corn from drying out... The anise works believe me. We did an expierment with worms and white corn. for the last 3 years at lake cushman and the corn out fishes the worm 4 to 1. Some days we will not get a fish on the worms.
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WDFW Hates Me, I have not fished Cushman in a few years. I got frustrated with the water level issues. Have they been keeping the level up lately? When the water was low we use to go to the north end and pick the pop-gear off the stumps that were out of the water, LOL.
I have done well out of Riffe. And a few out of Alder (when the water is up).
I may have to go back up to Cushman soon if I can figure out their water release times again.
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Riffe can be fantastic. A lot of what you will catch there are actually Silver's, not Kokanee, but they eat really good with all the freshwater shrimp in the lake. I've caught Silver's by the dam over 20", but they are like torpedoes. Some very nice Cutts in Riffe also in the shallows. Last time out in the boat on Riffe I had great luck on Silver's, Kokes and Rainbows with a 2 1/2" Rainbow Rapala.
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I caught a 22'' Koke out of Alder last summer. Beautiful fish! As I was holding the fish in my left hand the trailing Gamagatsu decided to go straight through my finger and finger nail on my right hand from the bottom up. Every time the fish would wiggle or move it would just dig deeper. I had just mounted a set of needle nose pliers beneath my seat the weekend before, but everytime I tried to reach the pliers the fish would start to wiggle again. My son was sitting in the bow with his eyes bugging out when he looked at the hook and blood going everywhere. It amazes me how much a little thing can bleed. I was sure he was going to puke. I got him to climb over to me and cut the leader between the hooks so I could drop the fish. I then cut the barb off with the pliers so I could pull the hook all the way through my finger nail. Later I heard him telling my wife "he was amazed that I did not even make a noise except to quietly ask him to come cut the leader". I did not have the heart to tell him I was on the verge of passing out, LOL. After all that pain it caused all I had was a tiny black hole you could hardly see in my finger nail.
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Rimrock lake holds it's fair share of kokanee's. we usually troll slow 2-3 miles an hour or slower by using driftsoaks, or buck/bucks with holes in them. depth very's on fish bite. brighter the light deeper the fish. can't go wrong with a small rig of flashers followed by a wedding ring, or rimrock special they call'em around here. You'll want to tip your set up w/a mill worm, maggots work, but mill worms are the killer bait there i think. like dude above says don't set the hook, or most of the time fish off instead of fish on.
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Riffe can be fantastic. A lot of what you will catch there are actually Silver's, not Kokanee, but they eat really good with all the freshwater shrimp in the lake. I've caught Silver's by the dam over 20", but they are like torpedoes. Some very nice Cutts in Riffe also in the shallows. Last time out in the boat on Riffe I had great luck on Silver's, Kokes and Rainbows with a 2 1/2" Rainbow Rapala.
I have got lots of Kokanee there with shrimp, Also learned that if you get a sucker fish cut it up and use it. Got a 6# one doing that.
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:o Alchase, your story made me squirm! Maybe you need duller hooks?
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I had not thought about what would have happened with dull hooks. That thing would have been stuck under the fingernail and I would have had to pull it out the way it went in, barb tearing the whole way. OUCH that would be painful.
I have heard a couple people have good luck with Rapalas in Riffe. I have never tried that.
I am definately going to have to go up to Rimrock and give it a try. Last time I was there we got blown of the lake from wind.
