Fishing Forum

Greetings,

My wife gave me a strange look when I wanted to go to Palies this morning, oh well I can at least type about fishing. My son and I made it to Mackay at 8:00 AM on Saturday. Fishing was really slow as I set up, however, as soon as I started to jig fish started to come in. I had kokes on the Vexilar all morning best action was from 9:00-11:00 am. I was in 28 feet of water off the boat ramp, and the best action was between 15-23 feet of water. The ice was anywhere from 8-10 inches thick. We iced 25-30 kokes and one small trout. All fish were in the 10' inch range, and the best method was small pink jigs tipped with a meally; head bitten off. It is my opinion you must jig, and then dead pole it to bring them in; I repeated this process about every 10 seconds. I saw other fishing parties not doing very well. I will mention it seemed to get even better when I invited a fisherman from IF that was near me to come over and join in the frenzy. He must have iced 10-15 in the two hours he joined me. The fishing slowed way down after 12:00; fish were still on the Vex, but were rarely hitting.

I fished Ashton last night for two hours near the dam. Iced 12 planter bows, and missed about thirty other strikes. Any bait combination seemed to worked tipped on green or pink jigs fishing three feet off the bottom in 18 feet of water. I did have a big glow jig set up for a brown, but no hits. Ice was five to six inches.

Have a Merry Christmas

OvidCreek
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Nice report OC, sounds like you really spanked the kokes. Were you using any attractor, like a kastmaster, to help draw them in? WH2
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Thanks for the report.
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wiperhunter2,

I use attractors as a standard habit, with leaders of 12'-18' inches. With the Vexilar turnded up you can sometimes even see fish go for the flasher then turn to the bait; rarely but noticible.

Ovid Creek
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Thanks for the info OC, I've always thought the attractor helped bring them in. When they are there already, all you need is a bright colored jig like a pink Rat Finkie but I usually set mine up with an attractor also. WH2
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I also believe in a flasher for the Kokes. I have been using a pink swedish pimple for the last couple of years and it seems to be doing the job. I then put a pink ice fly on the leader.

Windriver
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I've always used a small silver kastmaster but a pink flasher sounds like a good idea, I'll give at a try my next time out. I'm not sure what the deal is with kokanee and the color pink but it is a color that has always worked for me. Chartreuse and orange have also worked but I have a hard time switching, if I've got something pink. WH2
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