Losing too many kokes this year!

[trueblue2]

Is anyone else losing too many kokes this year???
Was at FG two weeks ago. Koke fishing was super hot but lost more kokes than we netted.. Went back Tues, Wed & Thurs this week and did even worse!!! Probably lost 4 or 5 for every one netted. In previous years it was just the opposite, 4 or 5 netted for each one lost.

Same lures, ie squids, spinner squids, zipp squids (with bills), spinners, Kokanee killers, etc. Same hook types, sizes, ie size 2 sickle octopus. Did change rods tho from 7 1/2’ Ugly Sticks to new Lamiglass Red 8 1/2’ Kokanee Rods. Losing the kokes at the boat. Seems like they just open their mouth and let go. Sometimes they get off rising to surface after the strike. Have changed hook sizes and even tried some trebles on the squids. They are really lightly hooked and I Am really puzzled by losing so many. Beginning to think it’s the rods. Is anyone else losing more like this this year? Any thoughts to help me figure this out? Trueblue
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[liketrolling]

It has been the same way for me to this year

I look at it this way, I can fish for kokes longer before I get my Limit

I use size 2 hooks all the time but changed leader to 18" between dodger and squid
even had one that was 24" that seemed to help.

Having a good kokanee rod is a big dill (I made mine 7' 10") cost about $120.
having the drag set right helps. then the way you reel the koke in has a lot to do with it sometime I know what I did wrong.
so the guy that is reeling in the koke needs to be thinking all the time
if we are missing them we start talking to keep them on there toes.
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[kevinL]

I fished at FG the past two weekends and missed a lot as well. A couple of guys at the fish cleaning station mentioned that they had the same problem. Although we had one day where the fish seemed to be hitting much more aggressive and deeper on the lures, resulting on a much better landing rate. But the very next day it was the complete opposite. I think we missed the first 5 or 6 hits we had that day. We started being VERY careful when reeling the fish in. If they were fighting at all we would not reel. As soon as they stopped, we would carefully begin reeling again. It took a lot longer to land them this way, and we still lost a couple but this helped a lot. I also have a new, longer extension net this year that has really reduced the number of fish we’ve lost at the boat. I guess it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one having issues landing kokes this year!
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[Uncle_Arnie]

Funny you mention that - I also noticed this. A few weeks at the Berry I got one all the way up, it opened its mouth and swap away happy.

Two things have played into my bad conversion rates:

1) Its early, bringing in kokanee is a skilled adventure and I have made some dumb mistakes
2) Its early, I have so much line out - its border line ridiculous. Bringing them in from that far out means wearing holes in their lips, and their bone has not developed yet this early in the season.

I also switched to a Lamiglass rods after getting tired of Okuma Rod Tips breaking. The Lamiglass seem to be more stout, but I have a theory they are a less sucessful dashpot and wear holes in the fish faster.

Anyways - my two cents, not worth much these days.
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[trueblue2]

I agree that setting the drag correctly is very important so as to not put too much pressure on the hook set. Also, we learned that not reeling constantly when the fish is fighting is very important. Not sure about leader length. The Zippp Squids vibrate a lot more than a close coupled squid to a dodger so I set them back about 30”. The kokes really seemed to like the more aggressive action of the Zippp Squids. I think we were just too anxious to get the kokes to the net and needed to let them play out more. One the other hand the longer you let them out there the more they get free!!
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[POk3s]

Consider me one of the lucky ones I guess! I’ve had a better landing rate this year than most years I believe. The only real advice I can give is “let them go nuts! The last couple years I’ve also been giving a mini hook set that may be helping. My opinion is that if they come off on the hook set, you would’ve lost em in 10-30 seconds anyway. When the rod comes tight snap your wrist ever so slightly and seat those hooks. When playing the fish I like my drag so loose that some drag is coming out when I reel. Let em freak out, move the rod tip back (or towards the front of the boat) when they let you, reel in the slack. Close to the boat loosen it even more.
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[trueblue2]

Thanks. Good advice! The odd thing about it is my wife and I are very experienced Koke fishermen (?) and haven’t had this problem in past years. It does seem that the kokes in FG are much more vigorous this year. After unsuccessfully making all sorts of adjustments this trip and talking to some FG residents, we thought we would throw this out to the forum. Thanks to all for your comments.
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[EyLayo]

I wonder if the switch in rods is your culprit. Seems like the only variable that has changed. I wonder if the new rods have more flex and give a weaker hookset than you're used to. Did you by chance try the old rods on the same trip and experience the same amount of lost fish? I'll be following along and hope you find the cause. I'm new to kokanee and trying to learn from others experience
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[liketrolling]

My set backs now are close to the boat that helps
having a good long handle net and knowing how to use it when the fish are close
sometimes that is a game inits self they get to close to the boat and they go nuts.

I have a new net this year and it is not the same as my old one in the water

I think I catch more kokanee than most I fish a lot about 3 days a week Strawberry FG and fish Lake I stop when I get are limits I like a boat load of kids so we can take 24 home from Strawberry.
plus watching them reel them in is a lot of fun.


what make fishing for them fun is things change with them.
this is a good post ( Losing too many kokes this year!)

and leader length is more about catching them in the spring if you can't hook them you can't lose them

think this way your lures are working good
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[trueblue2]

I agree liketrolling. Its more fun with a boat load of kids. I started out this week with setbacks about 30 to 40' back, but the kokes were stacked up from 35 to 55' so I shortened the setbacks to 10' or less. When the kokes hit and ran to the surface they were then about 50' back. Soon as they got near the boad they went nuts! I have a long handled net, too, and we really needed it on most nettings. The girls thought it was too heavy extended so they often tried to net the kokes using the shorter handle. This didn't work well because the larger kokes ran all over the place and the girls couldn't reach them. Lost quite a few that way.

i'm thinking the rods might be one of the problems because they are longer and softer that what we are used to. We did try to set the hooks on some, but I think we did more damage than good. Perhaps we just have to get used to the new rods and change our technique accordingly. I did notice that several of the kokes would make hard runs away from the boat and then abruptly turn about and run toward the boat and spit the hooks on the slack. I don't recall them doing that last year???
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[BROWNBAGGN]

Guy's, kokes have very soft mouths in the spring. Even though it's June now, we are a month behind normal years. Run off is just in it's peak ( maybe). Good poles and rubber snubbers will help. This is nothing out of the ordinary.
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[Jedidiah]

Right, I remember a conversation about this a year or so ago, kokanee are exceptionally soft in the mouth so a fast trolling speed will rip them up pretty good and fighting them aggressively will also do damage and give a bigger back channel for the hook to come loose from. Maybe I'm wrong but that's how I read it.
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[fishroof]

I use very cheap$12 6-12 lb 6 1/2 ft rods and a short net and lose very few.The key is get the fish to the net with as little fight as possible,either backreel a spinning rod or thumb a baitcaster.You cant fight a fish with a soft mouth.,the mouth will win to often.To me Kokanee are maybe the easiest fish to catch but the tackle companys make a lot of $$ on them in tackle,rods,nets,many other things.I use full drag always.
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[Jmorfish]

If you have a good net person you will up your catch rate....[]
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[dubob]

[#800000][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I use Ugly Stik, 7', Ultra Lite rods with Abu Garcia [/size][/font][/#800000]
[#800000][size 3][font "Comic Sans MS"]AMBS 5500/6500LC reels with [/font][/size][/#800000][#800000][size 3][font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3][font "Comic Sans MS"]12 lb [/font][/size][/#800000]mono line and very seldom lose kokanee. I have fished with others that use special kokanee rods costing $100 to $400 and never lose as many fish as they do. My drags are set so that I can put maximum bend in my rods and not pull free from the offshore light release clips (white colored). Fish will slip the drag about half the time. And when fishing for kokanee, the rod tip is placed IN THE WATER as soon as I remove the rod from the holder. This keeps the line taught when the fish decides to go airborne because the line is completely submerged which keeps the pressure on the fish. Even with poor net handlers, I don't lose very many fish at the boat. YMMV, but I'm very happy with my equipment and tactics. Tight lines y'all. [cool][/font][/size][/#800000]
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[betterthanwork]

When we were at the Gorge over Memorial Day we were loosing a lot of fish as well but I was attributing it to the 10 year old reeling them in and the 8 year old netting or visa versa. I decided to bend out the hooks on my squid so that they were a little past parallel. This seemed to produce a more meaty hook set and our catch ratio was much better
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[POk3s]

In the name of science I kept detailed notes of today. I landed 27 kokanee and 0 trout. I had 16 fish get off that I could feel, with only one of those getting off at the boat despite me being by myself. The stat I didn’t keep track off were bites I had that never “stuck”. It didn’t seem like a worthwhile statistic in the morning but I know between my 26th and 27th fish I had 7 bites that didn’t stick. I also know that at one point I had 24 kokes boated and only 11 that had got off. So as it got later in the day and they stopped hitting it as aggressively, I definitely struggled to put as many in the net. Started fishing at 6:30 and stopped at 12:30.

With all that said, I’ll give myself a 63% landing percentage.

I know that some folks like to keep the first 3 fish they catch, some keep the first 3 decent fish. I keep the bleeders, especially this early in the year where they release a lot better. I did catch two kokanee that had been caught before.

Surface temp was 60.3 degrees when I left. 54 and change when I started this morning.
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