Hard water kokanee at Strawberry?

[jboy]

Has anyone had success targeting kokanee at strawberry? Would like to give it a try if anyone has any suggestions.

thanks

[icehole69]

In the past few years I have had alot of success in the old damn area of soldier/berry. you have to use a very bright but very small spoon tipped with a waxie, the trick is using some pretty good electronics to locate them, (that and having some sleds to get you to that area.) once you found them, Jig it pretty rapidly and with some long strokes in-between, like you are a wounded fish. They eat mostly micro scopic plankton, but what you are trying to do is get a reaction or aggression strike.

Good luck.....
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[Jedburton]

I have been trying for years to figure that out. Let me know what you find out. I would love to get into them through the ice,
jed
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[Fish-Dog]

Kokes seem to be hard to find through the ice at strawberry. I guess it's because there is a lot of area for the schools to roam in. I have had my best luck on the soldier creek side north and a little east of the marina. I have also caught a few south and east of the old dam as mentioned earlier and north of mudcreek.

Kokes like a lot of flashing, use silver spoons as attractors, with a pink or orange ratfinkee dropper tipped with a wax worm. I'm not to sure that the wax worm does a lot of good but it seems to help a little when only a few swim through. If you have a large school under you, forget rebaiting with the wax worm and just get the jig back in the water.

A typical hit by on a ratfinkee is fairly aggresive however it only lasts about a second or two. After you jig, the hit will be about 2 seconds later, then they spit it out. sometimes however they hook themselves.

Some times you have to wait two or three hours for the school to come through and then it's hot for 3, 4 or 5 minutes then it's dead again for a while.

Causey, Porcupine, Moon Lake and Flaming Gorge in that order have been better for me for kokanee than strawberry.

Welcome to Kokanee fishing.
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[PACKFAN]

I fish Porcupine alot when the lake is froze, because you can keep 12 Kokanee there. Some days it's hot and other days you would think there isn't a fish in there. A trick we use is to remove the hooks from a large flashing lure and and simply use it on a rod as an attractor and then rig up with your Kokanee rig in a different hole, as far as I know this is legal as long as there are no hooks on the attractor. Good luck on the Hard Water this winter.[cool]
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[wiperhunter2]

That is an interesting method of attracting kokanee. Do you jig the attractor until you start marking fish with your fish finder? After the first of the year you will be able to have a hook on your attractor also[cool].
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[PACKFAN]

I'm sorry I guess I wasn't very clear on that. But you have to jig the one without a hook to attract the Kokanee, I like to rip it 2-3 feet up and down several times and then let it set for a bit and watch your graph. It doesn't always work but it seems to help some on slow days to get them started.
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[wiperhunter2]

I understood about jigging the attractor but will the kokanee stay in the area if the attractor is just dead sticked?
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[PACKFAN]

The best way we have found to keep the Kokanee in the area and feeding is to fish in a group. That way you keep more poles in the water when the frenzy turns on. I have had fish come in and bang the attractor pole while it is just setting there, but I wouldn't just rely on that. When the fish are in and get turned on to the bite we have brought schools from 80 ft. up to the surface and on several occasions have had them come out of the hole following a hooked fish. We had several trips to Causey last winter where they really turned on and 8 of us limited out with 4 fish in 15 to 20 minutes. Porcupine has been slow for me the last couple of seasons. I would like to fish Anderson Ranch in Idaho if it freezes this winter. The limit there is 25 with 50 in possesion. The wife and I had a ball there over the 4th of July this past summer. I will be on Porcupine when and if it freezes, you can't miss me my plates on my truck say PACKFAN, feel free to join us anytime, this goes for any BFTR's. We will be making our annual 3 day Pelican Lake trip some time in January if anybody is interested in joining us let me know. We always have a blast on that outing, this year I think we will see if we can find some of those perch in Starvation on our return. You all have a great day.[]
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[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for the help Pete, I sent you a PM.
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