Going to try and catch a kokanee or two this weekend. Been years since I have fished for them. Don't have downrigger on my boat at this time. Would 1 oz. be heavy enough to get down to the fish at this time of year. I hate using dodgers and weights but that all I can afford at this time Thanks Grizz
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Seems like you'd be better off with lead core line. 3-4 colors of lead core often work as well or better than our downriggers when we are kokanee fishing, at least in the morning when they are closer to the surface. mike
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in the summer time (mid july-aug), I use 4-5 colors of leadcore with a willow leaf popgear, a wedding ring, midge wobbler, or triple teaser. I put a 3/4 oz egg sinker on in front of my pop gear as well. I figure that has me fishing 30-40 feet down.
Don't forget ur snubber [cool]
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Out at Anderson Lake in Jun-Aug I see on my fish finder schools of fish that I assume to be Kokane at 80-100ft deep. Am I mistaken, is this another type fish?? I play heck trying to reach'em[:/]
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No, try 3 or 4 oz's
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Hey thanks, I'll give it a try. Seems heavy do I need to slow way down to troll speed 5-6 MPH??
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whoah, do you mean that you troll 5-6 mph or faster? I don't have a gps to tell my speed, and haven't really paid that much attention to how fast I am going. I usually troll just a little faster than my 4.5 merc will push my 18' aluminum, at the least amount of throttle (as most literature says really as slow as possible is what you want). I would assume I am going 1-2 mph. I usually do pretty good trolling, but after easily getting my 12 fish limit in 1-2 hours ice fishing last season, I am thinking trolling is going to seem a little sloooooowwwww on the action.
Would I be having faster action trolling if I picked up the speed a little bit? I know they can hit my kastmaster on a pretty hard fast jig ice fishing.
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We troll 1.8 to 2.2 and vary the speed. We don't troll any slower than 1.8 and always catch fish. When we troll for Walleyes and botton bounce we go slow .5. Hope this helps. By the way we troll 90% of the time and catch fish 90% of the time.
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Rockjumpr,
I too was interested in those "ghosts" at such deep depths in Anderson Ranch Res. My wife and I were fishing for kokanee and they had continued to drop deeper. We were fishing at 37' but I decided I had to drop the ball to the 100' depth to see if I could figure out what was there. About 5 minutes later I graphed another and boom, my downrigger released. Finally pulled it up to discover---a kokanee!! Must have thought he was a chinook! Lucky Peak is another story. I graphed huge schools of sizeable fish at 121-127' last summer in one location in the narrows, tight into a vertical cliff. I trolled through those fish several times and couldn't manage to hook anything. Still has me puzzled. Mike
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Yes than can be that deep.
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60% of the time, it works every time right [
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Goto Sportsman's and buy some divers. They are about $3-$8 and come in 10'-20'-30'-40' diving depths. They look like an airplane and come in multiple colors. No weights are needed with them. I troll between 1.4 and 2.2 mph depending on water temp, lure and fish species. 1.8 mph is a good number. 20' deep is good depth to start at this time of year. Here is a picture of a diver very similar to the one at Sportsman's. By the way, these things FLY backwards.
[inline diver.jpg]
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Idaho Griz-we use trolling weights sometimes at lucky peak= I use 1 1/2 oz and my buddy uses a 3 oz--both seem to work but sometimes he gets more fish if they are deeper--make sure it easily turns or your line will twist--i put a bead chain on mine--not as good as downriggers but it gets the job done--good fishin>))):>
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that's great! thanks mac!
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Thanks for that tip...divers and down riggers are all new to me...I'l start with the divers and see how they work.
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My dad and I spent last summer and spring learning how to troll. Last spring we fished Ririe a number of times for Kokanee, if we got there before the sun came over the rock wall we didn't need any thing on our rigs, the fish seemed to be right near the top. After the sun came out we would put some lead on. I don't have any idea how deep we were going but we caught some fish. Then we discovered jet divers, they work really good although when you do catch a fish its hard to enjoy the fight, same way with putting a bunch of lead on your line. Then we upgraded to a Mini troll downrigger ($60) this works really good once you get the releases figured out. If you have a little cash I would highly recommend with getting a cheap downrigger and save yourself a lot of guess work. We also got a Humingbird portable fish finder ($110) worth every penny, and we used it ice fishing with great results. The best discovery I made about trolling last year is the new trolling Rapalas. They come in different depths and they work great for trout, you can really feel the fish bite and fight with those. Good luck. By the way what lake are you going to try?
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Thanks guys, great info. Back in 1974 the year I got out of college, I spent the summer fishing Anderson Ranch. That year was the first time I had ever used a downrigger, we had used the lead line until then. I would go up on thursday night, dad would come up on Friday night, we always took home fish. They were always small but by down sizing the tackle it was a lot of fun. Then in the 80's and 90's I have a chance to fish flaming gorge a few time, talk about fun [
] After that I haven't fished kokanee for years. then this year I start hearing about 17 and 18 inch k's in Lucky Peak, got the old heart going, hope I can figure these fish out. Your info made this old mind remember thing I used when I was a kid Thanks Grizz PS Hope to see you on the water!!
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Up at Ririe the last couple years I've used one or two 1/2 oz bullet weights just above a swivel on my mainline then hooked a micro pop gear set up onto the swivel. From that I've put a snubber then a wedding ring w/ corn. That usually works fairly well. However, I've also just taken the pontoon boat out, put the rod in the holder with a panther martin on the line and rowed myself a few laps between the dam and the boat ramp. It was really pretty relaxing. But then I didn't have any wind either.
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While attending the U. of Idaho, my friends and I would take an annual trip to Hope, Idaho to fish for kamploops in Pend Oreille. The guides, to get down to the depths where these giant trout could often be found, would take a carb. or some other piece of heavy metal out of a junker car, drill a hole in it, and place it on a special spring-loaded device that would release the weight when a big trout would hit the plug. The weight would drop to the bottom and you had nothing between you and a big kamploops or 10 pound bull trout but line. Then somebody invented the downrigger and simplified all our lives!
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No I'm saying 5-6MPH is too fast and I can't get slow enough... I need to but one of those big bags you drag behind or something to slow me down so I can get deeper for the Kokes. I think slower is better, as slow as you can go that will keep action on your gear/lure
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