06-13-2014, 04:45 PM
I made a post on March 18,2014, in it I stated that I thought this was going to be great year for the kokanee at Strawberry because so many were being pulled through the ice. I was right, this has been a phenomenal spring at the Berry so far & should only get better.
I had a little insomnia today , so I thought I might as well get up and go fishing. I get up at 3:00 a.m. and I am on the water at 5:30 a.m. For the first 45 minutes, I caught a lot of small cutts and rainbows. Around 6:15 a.m. the kokes started biting and it was very good fishing for the next 3 hours. I boated somewhere between 25 and 30 fish (my counter failed me today). I hooked many more that came off on the way to the boat. Out of the total I caught approximately 15 kokes, and the balance slot cutts and some nice fat rainbows. I kept the 4 kokes (these 4 are the nicest limit of kokes I have kept out of Strawberry over the past 10 years); the biggest on the left was 19-inches (2 lbs 4oz), the other three were over 2 lbs each (well over 8 lbs of fresh salmon).
I am fishing with downriggers. I started out with a depth of 15 feet and the preferred color was pink for the first couple of hours and transitioned to white and a depth of 45 feet as the day went on. Overall the bigger fish were caught at a depth between 35 and 45 feet.
I took a Gopro camera with me and attached it to the downrigger. I have some great footage I hope to attach a small sampling to this post. I think I have learned a few things by watching over 2 hours of underwater video. I am a beginner at this, so the video is very crude.
Let me explain what you are going to see in the video for those that do not fish with downriggers. The wire with the black clip is the downrigger release. Behind it is an orange bead. I generally use cheater hooks when fishing with downriggers. This bead helps me from getting the cheater hook tangled with the main line hook when fishing and reeling lines back in. Unfortunately the business end of the setup is the dodger and the squid/spinner at the end and the furthest away from the camera lens. For the most part the hook is approximately 8 feet behind the camera. Next time out, I am going to shorten this distance & hopefully get some better footage. The whining noise you hear is either my trolling motor or the downrigger wire cutting the water (or both) - I am not sure. I never realized there was so much noise under the water and it does not seem to affect the fish.
At the beginning of the video I am using a RMT dodger that I purchased at the ISE. I think it was a special promotion from the show. I have not seen this dodger in the stores. It is two toned (bahama mama & blue glow??) and a custom squid I made. At the end of the video, I am using a Kokanee Creek dodger (silver streak) and a Radical Glow spinner (UV hot purple). This RG spinner was extremely hot for over an hour. You would hook up within 2 minutes of getting your spinner to depth. Overall, any pink squid worked well first thing.
Not sure what DWR did to their kokanee stocking program, I love the change & this is going to be a banner year. My best kokanee fishing at Strawberry has been the best in July in years past.
I intentionally left the exact location of where I was fishing out. Last time I provided the location, there were hundreds of boats & fished out within days.
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I had a little insomnia today , so I thought I might as well get up and go fishing. I get up at 3:00 a.m. and I am on the water at 5:30 a.m. For the first 45 minutes, I caught a lot of small cutts and rainbows. Around 6:15 a.m. the kokes started biting and it was very good fishing for the next 3 hours. I boated somewhere between 25 and 30 fish (my counter failed me today). I hooked many more that came off on the way to the boat. Out of the total I caught approximately 15 kokes, and the balance slot cutts and some nice fat rainbows. I kept the 4 kokes (these 4 are the nicest limit of kokes I have kept out of Strawberry over the past 10 years); the biggest on the left was 19-inches (2 lbs 4oz), the other three were over 2 lbs each (well over 8 lbs of fresh salmon).
I am fishing with downriggers. I started out with a depth of 15 feet and the preferred color was pink for the first couple of hours and transitioned to white and a depth of 45 feet as the day went on. Overall the bigger fish were caught at a depth between 35 and 45 feet.
I took a Gopro camera with me and attached it to the downrigger. I have some great footage I hope to attach a small sampling to this post. I think I have learned a few things by watching over 2 hours of underwater video. I am a beginner at this, so the video is very crude.
Let me explain what you are going to see in the video for those that do not fish with downriggers. The wire with the black clip is the downrigger release. Behind it is an orange bead. I generally use cheater hooks when fishing with downriggers. This bead helps me from getting the cheater hook tangled with the main line hook when fishing and reeling lines back in. Unfortunately the business end of the setup is the dodger and the squid/spinner at the end and the furthest away from the camera lens. For the most part the hook is approximately 8 feet behind the camera. Next time out, I am going to shorten this distance & hopefully get some better footage. The whining noise you hear is either my trolling motor or the downrigger wire cutting the water (or both) - I am not sure. I never realized there was so much noise under the water and it does not seem to affect the fish.
At the beginning of the video I am using a RMT dodger that I purchased at the ISE. I think it was a special promotion from the show. I have not seen this dodger in the stores. It is two toned (bahama mama & blue glow??) and a custom squid I made. At the end of the video, I am using a Kokanee Creek dodger (silver streak) and a Radical Glow spinner (UV hot purple). This RG spinner was extremely hot for over an hour. You would hook up within 2 minutes of getting your spinner to depth. Overall, any pink squid worked well first thing.
Not sure what DWR did to their kokanee stocking program, I love the change & this is going to be a banner year. My best kokanee fishing at Strawberry has been the best in July in years past.
I intentionally left the exact location of where I was fishing out. Last time I provided the location, there were hundreds of boats & fished out within days.
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