[font "Calibri"]Ended up bring home three limits of 2 3/4-4 1/4 lbs salmon with a couple bonus rainbows for our troubles. The rainbow fishing was off the chain up north, I'm taking almost non-stop action at Big Bend. Caught one bow that I'm guessing was pushing the 7 lbs mark, talk about putting the wood to my noodle salmon rods. Not what we were after but still way fun tugs. Relocated at Squaw and found plenty of nice willing kokes, that's where we fished most this trip. Best trolling lure for the bows was a pearl white epic spinner and the best Koke lure was a pearl white RMT billed squid both behind a RMT dodger in 62’-74’ of water. But any Koke fisher knows that can change day by day, moment by moment. [/font]
[font "Calibri"] [/font]
[font "Calibri"]One new thing that I’ve never done prior to this trip was vertical jigging the Kokes. I’ve seen way too many jacka$$ snaggers with their 2oz oversized trebled hooked Buzz-Bombs and 4’ jig strokes that always turned my stomach making me never think about this method. Well, all I can say is there’s a time and place for jigging and we found it this weekend and no we weren’t use big gear. Having an I-Pilot and line counter reels made this an easy way to pick up the kokes and keep playing once the bite slowed during the afternoon hours. Only jigging rods I had was my 5’ mac rods that was a touch stiff, I think after this trip I’ll be looking for something a bit lighter. [/font]
[font "Calibri"] [/font]
[font "Calibri"]All in all we had a great trip. Good food, good drinks and most importantly good fishing. If you’re thinking about Flaming Gorge kokanee you better hurry. Season is almost over and the fish are starting to turn and get a little soft. Tight lines all.[/font]
[signature]
Nice report and pic Trevor, thanks for sharing it with us. That one koke has a major hook jaw but where is the pic of that huge bow? Sounds like a great trip for some big fish.
[signature]
[font "Calibri"]That fish was most defiantly picture worthy but after having two bonus rainbows already resting comfortable on ice we opted to release the rest boat side to reduce the stress from coming from the depths. The tugs we received were all we required.[cool][/font]
[signature]
Bummer on not getting a pic of that big bow but I totally understand. The last bow I caught up there had nice pink meat, I'm guessing those you caught were pink as well?
[signature]
[font "Calibri"]The bows are in the blue bag. Nice and pink. [
][/font]
[signature]
Thank you for the inspiration, I am headed there this weekend and trying jigging for the first time.
I prefer to troll'em up but it never hurts to have an extra technique in the technique box.
Catch any solid red ones?
[signature]
[font "Calibri"]Yep it defiantly never hurts to have a back-up plan when things get a little slow. I had been on the phone with one of the pro staff for Mack Lures and he was the one that dropped the bug in my ear about jigging being good right now. I’m glad he divulged and I’m glad I listened. Just looking at the condition of the fish when brought up jigging it looked like (at least for us) the fish were bigger and not even close to being as stressed versus trolling. I very seldom will release kokes when trolling because they just get so beat up but the fish we caught jigging looked to be in very good shape for a safe release. [/font]
[font "Calibri"][/font]
[font "Calibri"]No full blown reds yet, at least from my boat. Some of the bigger fish were really hooking out and getting the washed out gray color with just a hint of pink instead of the bright silver but most still looked good. Where we were noticing the big change was in the firmness of their meat. I’m sure the bigger fish are still going to be more than worthy of the smoker but you’ll need to be a little more selective of what goes on the grill or pan. [/font]
[signature]
Nice post WiperMac!
The Kokes in the Linwood area were starting to turn as well and those hooked jaws are cool looking. Although, the ones we caught were much smaller than the guys we get up north and fewer and farther between. I have never been this time of year and enjoyed it and probably will go back in august next year...
Big Mack fishing was slow for us.....
.
[signature]
So what do you jig for Kokes with? I've seen the buzz bombs (big stuff). How do you set up?
[signature]
I would also like to know how you are rigging up to jig for the kokes. I wonder if your technique would work at Strawberry?
[signature]
[#0000ff]You might also PM Ryno on the board. He is the DWR biologist at Flaming Gorge and he has been doing well jigging the kokes the past couple of years. The ones in the pic below are 1/4 oz. and 1/2 oz.
[inline "CASTING SPOONS.jpg"]
Flat lead "casting spoons" like the ones in the picture have been working well. The pearl glitter with either a red eye or a yellow eye have been good. Since these are lead you can put a little bend in them to make them flutter on the drop and zig zag on the lift. They also troll well.
[/#0000ff]
[signature]
[quote WiperMac][font "Calibri"]Ended up bring home three limits of 2 3/4-4 1/4 lbs salmon with a couple bonus rainbows for our troubles. The rainbow fishing was off the chain up north, I'm taking almost non-stop action at Big Bend. Caught one bow that I'm guessing was pushing the 7 lbs mark, talk about putting the wood to my noodle salmon rods. Not what we were after but still way fun tugs. Relocated at Squaw and found plenty of nice willing kokes, that's where we fished most this trip. Best trolling lure for the bows was a pearl white epic spinner and the best Koke lure was a pearl white RMT billed squid both behind a RMT dodger in 62’-74’ of water. But any Koke fisher knows that can change day by day, moment by moment. [/font]
[font "Calibri"] [/font]
[font "Calibri"]One new thing that I’ve never done prior to this trip was vertical jigging the Kokes. I’ve seen way too many jacka$$ snaggers with their 2oz oversized trebled hooked Buzz-Bombs and 4’ jig strokes that always turned my stomach making me never think about this method. Well, all I can say is there’s a time and place for jigging and we found it this weekend and no we weren’t use big gear. Having an I-Pilot and line counter reels made this an easy way to pick up the kokes and keep playing once the bite slowed during the afternoon hours. Only jigging rods I had was my 5’ mac rods that was a touch stiff, I think after this trip I’ll be looking for something a bit lighter. [/font]
[font "Calibri"] [/font]
[font "Calibri"]All in all we had a great trip. Good food, good drinks and most importantly good fishing. If you’re thinking about Flaming Gorge kokanee you better hurry. Season is almost over and the fish are starting to turn and get a little soft. Tight lines all.[/font][/quote]
I was close to you Mon-Wed
Monday the white squid with a pink spinner blade worked. Tue and Wed it did not. Pink was the best for us. all three days.
monday we got are 9 kokes in 2 hrs.
any thing under 3 lbs we put back. I have got a lot of kokes out of that place this year.
[signature]