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A new and good friend of mine found out I was going to the Gorge on Monday and told me that he knew of a secret location that ALWAYS had Kokanee schooled up there during the winter. During the summer they're not there, and they're not there every single day, he said, but 9/10 times they'll be there. He gave me very specific instructions and I went there. I punched a hole and lowered my line to find out it wasnt more than 8-10' deep. This guy is either crazy, I thought, or else he is sitting at home laughing at me trying to catch Kokanees in 8' of water. Well, I've never caught a Koke before in my life and know nothing about it, so I decided to give it a try. My wife and I fished for about an hour with only one bite, that I didn't get. I thought I'd been had. Just about then my wife caught a nice 16" rainbow. So, I moved over closer to her and dug another hole. Bang! Something hit my line like a bat out of hell and a few seconds later I had our first Kokanee on the ice. The next 30 minutes was crazy fun! They were nailing my line as I let it drop to the bottom, every single time. I missed several and one broke off my line at the hole, but within an hour my wife and I had our limit of 6 fat kokes between 14 and 16.5" We also took home six rainbow of similar size. We, of course, picked out one of the nicest bows and one of the nicest kokes and took them immediately over to my friend! Anyone else had similar experiences fishing through the ice for kokes in shallow water? Befuddled me, but it sure worked. I'll post some pictures soon, just need to figure out how to do it!
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If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to join you sometime this season. Send me a PM.
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A few years ago we had a school of kokes move in at Strawberry when we were in about 15 feet of water. It was the only time that I've ever caught them through the ice up there. Talk about hard hits!!! We almost lost our rods every time we got a strike.
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Contact me on my private e-mail address at jaredjesica@yahoo .com And let's plan a trip I'm actually hoping to get my boat out next weekend.
SOCKEYESLAYER
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Thanks for the report, we are planning one more trip this weekend before the ice is gone. How thick was the ice? Were you fishing above or below Buckboard? Thanks for the info. WH2
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Quite a bit south of Buckboard, 4 or 5 miles maybe? Ice was 8" thick and very noisy. We also wet a hook closer to buckboard earlier that morning and it was near 12". It's obviously been cold up there, the ice is double what it was when I was there a week and a half ago.
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Would you mine sharing what you used to catch the kokanee, type of jigs and bait, thanks. WH2
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I was using a chartruese paddle bug tipped with a meal worm. After I caught the first koke I added a swedish pimple a few inches above the jig. When one broke my line I lost my paddle bug, which was my last one. I tried using a white jig head and small chartreuse tube jig to create a similar look, but it was obvious that they preferred the paddle bug. I was doing a lot of jigging action and it seemed to me that if I stopped moving the jig and got a bite it was always a bow, and if one took it while it was moving, it was always a koke. Most bites happened on the way down, or after I'd jigged it about 3 cranks off the bottom. Best of luck! My friend said it was OK to give out the location, so if anyone wants to know . . .
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kokanee on an ice pole. I think that's were the majority of the kokanee are now in shallow water sure can't wait tell the ice comes off though I love fishing for them in open water 
