Is a snubber always used for Kokes, and is it necessary in all cases. Where would you place it and color of snubber of any consequence?
Coupe of scenarios, Light line on down rigger, Lead core, maybe with a in line weight.
Or what is the recommend best way to troll for kokes, setup wise.
Thanks
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[quote Uintaman]Is a snubber always used for Kokes, and is it necessary in all cases. Where would you place it and color of snubber of any consequence?
Coupe of scenarios, Light line on down rigger, Lead core, maybe with a in line weight.
Or what is the recommend best way to troll for kokes, setup wise.
Thanks[/quote]
I DETEST rubber snubbers. I gave them a try for a season them promptly threw them all out. You want action in the rod, and there are a whole ton of options out there for Kokanee rods. Same for reels. Kokanee fishing is becoming a big deal and mfgs are taking notice with a new line of reels targeted just to them.
As for lead line... no way. Downriggers are the key. You want as absolutely little weight on your line / lure as possible. Also with lead line you are still guessing how deep your lure is. Downriggers are much more precise.
I still feel I have alot left to learn about Koke fishing, but we now catch quite a few almost every trip out so I know we are doing more things right than doing things wrong. I told my wife we've spent over $1000 learning to catch those silver bullets... she said she doubted that number so I ran some quick math on a napkin and she went "woah!".
Still a heck of alot cheaper than an alaska trip though ^.^
-DallanC
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I've used a rubber snubber with trout before. I usually place it between the popgear or dodger and the worm harness. Works pretty good.
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I've never seen the point in snubbers. I've used them and I found I prefer to simply lighten the drag, use mono, etc.
As for targeting kokes, what equipment do you have available? Do you have downriggers? If so, they are, as Dallan said, ideal for targeting precise depths.
My favorite rig is trolling light line to a barrel swivel, then 6-10' of lighter leader to a small, brightly-colored spoon, fished below a downrigger. Lately the rage is RMT dodgers and squids. Dallan is a great resource for details there, though I now question his sanity for telling his wife how much he spends on fishing. [crazy]
If you don't have a downrigger, use what you have. If that's leadcore, use it. But first rig up and find a shoreline with a consistent, sloping depth and figure out how many colors it takes to tick bottom at different speeds/depths. You have to know--no guessing. Otherwise you're just washing lures.
Then, it's a matter of going out and putting in the time. If you're not catching them, change something. Use two poles with different colors, different baits, different depths. Change until you find a pattern and you can start dialing in on what they want.
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[quote Gumbo]...Dallan is a great resource for details there, though I now question his sanity for telling his wife how much he spends on fishing. [crazy] [/quote]
Hahaha.
Actually my wife LOVES to fish and is totally hooked on Koke fishing as well. I suggested new poles and reels the other day and she said "well lets run out to cabelas and see what they have".
As long as she gets to catch her fair share she doesnt care.
-DallanC
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[quote DallanC]
Hahaha.
Actually my wife LOVES to fish and is totally hooked on Koke fishing as well. I suggested new poles and reels the other day and she said "well lets run out to cabelas and see what they have".
As long as she gets to catch her fair share she doesnt care.
-DallanC[/quote]
Good to see that your wife loves it as much as you do. Mine enjoys it but gets a little hyper if I overspend.[crazy]
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"well lets run out to cabelas and see what they have".
Wow, awesome...I'd keep that one!!! What an awesome thing it would be to share fishing as a hobby. Maybe I'll find one like that[
], but they are rare.
Shawn M
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[quote DallanC]Actually my wife LOVES to fish and is totally hooked on Koke fishing as well. I suggested new poles and reels the other day and she said "well lets run out to cabelas and see what they have".
As long as she gets to catch her fair share she doesnt care.
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You're a lucky man!
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my wife enjoyed it a little bit here and there then I introduced her to float tubes and now mamatrout has a set up like you can't believe.[laugh] She chose it herself and kept telling me what she wanted on it.
[inline "mamatroutstrickedoutFC4 - 400.jpg"]
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Go purchase "Precision Trolling", it will give you all the information you need about longline trolling, leadcore, snapweights, etc.
Rubber snubbers were brought down south by a bunch of guides in AK. No one here really uses them right, because they are really a COMMERCIAL fishing gear adaptation. The way they really work is this:
You tie off heavy line to the snubber, in AK that means 100 lb test. You make that line about 10 ft long and then tie it off to a large flashy spoon, usually a 4-7 inch spoon with a hook on it. A commercial down rigger line has a series of small catches in them and you clip the snubber directly to the down rigger cable, and drop the hole shoot and match with your down rigger ball. With a properly set up boom and cable system you can put between 50-100 snubbers/spoon lures to each side of your boat. When a fish hits the spoon and gets hooked the snubber just stretches like an over sized rubber band and wears the fish out. Much like the bend in your rod cushions the blow to your line.
You can rig them up for kokes down here the same way, and have friends who do it in CA. But the lakes there have banned the use of the snubbers because they are too successful. The key here is that you never play the fish on a rod, It really is not very sporting, but is a good way to catch a bunch of meat.
As a side note, the rubber is supposed to also cut down on electrical charge that is created by the acidity of water reacting to the lead and steel of your down rigger cable/ball.
If you want further info on how to rig a rubber snubber, or what I used to call the "pirate's line" I will send some photos. Just PM me.
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Ok - maybe I'm missing something. Picture might help - if you have one.
So there's no Rod? No line up to the boat? Your clipped directly to the downrigger ball's line with no release, just a snubber?
How do you know when there's a fish on?
Or do they just haul them up every now and then and see what they've been dragging around? I've heard of stacking lines on a downrigger, and I've done that (lead to a hell of a tangled mess!!!).
I'll sometimes put a pop-rig on the ball, other times inline, or both or neither even. But there's no hooks on the ball's pop gear, just flash and attraction (hopefully).
I've wondered about the whole electric charge thingy after reading about black-boxes. Figure I must be doing something to repel all the fish from my hooks!!!
My understanding is the snubber basically cushions the initial blow of a strike, and the rod suddenly bouncing up from the release - especially as Koke's have tender mouths. Also heard there's some notion that snubber's can mess with a lure or a dodger's action.
But maybe that's better than rippin' lips!
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Well that's the thing, a commercial down rigger line with it's catches makes the snubber stationary on the downrigger cable. When a fish pulls on the cable the commercial guys have a bell in their cabin that signals a fish is pulling on the cable.
To adapt it to a non commercial format, you snap the snubber directly to the hook on the cannon ball. Then you drop the ball atleast 2 feet deeper then length of line on your snubber/spinner. Very similiar to how you have run pop gear in the past. (as a note rather than pop gear on your ball try doing a 12" silver dodger. The pop gear looks like a bunch of bait fish in the water. The 12" dodger will look like a predatory fish in pursute of your bait. Fish are very competitive for forage and will often chase the bait down to prevent another from getting what they consider a free meal) So this is like stacking lines on your downrigger. If you don't have enough gap, you get a tangled mess [
].
The way you know you have a fish on the snubber, is your rod starts bobbing like a fish has hit the rod, but the rod never pulls out of the line clip. Therefore, the thing is hooked on the snubber. You pull your rod out of the line clip and reel it in, then you procede to reel up your downrigger cable. Note, if you have an automatic pull on you down rigger, DO NOT use this. As the fish is getting hauled up with the down rigger ball you will still have to "play" the fish by stopping the ball. If you don't do that a really heavy fish can mess up the gears in your down rigger and the counter will get screwed up. I have seen really large king salmon jump out of the water with the ball slpashing along behind them!!
See the attached image for how to clip the rubber snubber to your down riggers ball.
Also, if you need help seeing how to stack lines on your downrigger PM me. I would love to go fishing with you and show you how to do it. I have had as many as 3 lines on one down rigger, but usually 2 is the optimal number.
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Oh forgot to repond on the Black Boxes. The damn things really work!! I watched a fellow guide go out every day of the summer and catch king salmon. All Kings in AK have spawned by the 1st week in July. Any Kings you catch after that are called "feeder kings." Meaning they are in the coastal waters in pursuit of bait fish and feeding to fatten up for the spawn the next spring. They are smaller than the spawners from the spring and early summer. Largest will be about 20 lbs, but will average more like 12-15 lbs. They are an inceidental catch and we would usually have one person on the boat buy a king stamp so we could keep the occasional king we brought in. No sense everyone spending the extra $50 for an incidental catch. Then Mark Papazian rigged up this black box on his boat and brought in 2-3 Kings a day for the entire summer!!
Made the rest of us look like morons, because our clients wanted Kings too. But that's just the way it goes sometimes. Getting a Black Box from Cabelas would have taken 4 weeks for the shipping, and well by then the summer was pretty much over anyway.
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Thanks for the info. Seems there's more options with DRers than I'd realized. Probably have to do some more experimenting. Always more to learn.
Might have to try throwing a dodger on the ball instead of a pop-stringer. But how far back would you set that? If you want it "chasing" your bait, I'd suppose you'd want to have it behind your lure.
Maybe someday I'll find a used affordable black box. The new one's price tags make me cringe the same way a nice downrigger does. Good thing I found some (beatup) functional electrics.
One problem I have - I put new cable on one, but now the counter is off. And I can't seem to find a "reset" button. Maybe I have to screw it off, and spin it back to zero...
Just forces me to practice my math... now 44+25 is....ROCK BOTTOM!!! [shocked]
Got plans to hit the Pig on Saturday morning. Got a kind invite to come learn the ropes from a BFTer. Coworkers probably gonna be tangling from bank too. See if we can't find some silver stallions!
Guess they shutdown for the spawn on Sunday. So - last chance for a while.
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If it's a cannon slide it off the gears, spin it back and realign the gears then find a new way to practice the math.[
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Wow, I don't see anyone else commenting on your wife's tube, but it sure looks interesting to me. [
] I'm going to look into it. any other info besides mamatrout to google?
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You will find info posted on the float tube forum. I have posted pictures in several threads. I will also send some to you via pm.
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