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Feeling guilty that I’ve read so many of the forum reports and contributed few of my own, I feel inspired to leave something. This is less of a fishing report and more just random thoughts about my Kokanee fishing experience, at Strawberry this summer.
I was turned on to Kokanee fishing a few years back and it kind of has become the highlight of my summer outdoor experience. They are a blast to catch because of their fight and aerobatics. They smoke up so fine.
I’ve had 5 or 6 mornings out targeting Kokes this year. The earliest trip was about June 9th and the latest trip July 8th. I’m shooting for another trip this weekend. Our average fishing stop/start times are about 630am to 11:30am. Father’s day weekend, we were still getting bites after noon.
TACKLE: We fish the pink squids and dodgers tipped with pink maggots. If you do a lot of Kokanee fishing, ya better know how to tie those double hook rigs! You can save some money buying squids, hooks, and beads making and repairing your own. We sometimes use scent but I’m not sure it’s needed. My favorite acquisition this year is the Tackle Buddy. It one of those long, rubber, tubular rig holders. It’s so much more convenient than a box or tray. Ill post a pic of it.
We have 2 downriggers. We used to troll a line on each downrigger and 2 lead cores but we’ve started stacking a second pole on each rig, We’ve mostly eliminated any lead core. It’s nice not having any long lead core lines out there when you find yourself in the thick crowds
Although I’ve had success on SC in the past, this year we stayed exclusively on the Strawberry side. We pretty much stick to the same areas as the masses, trolling from east from the marina towards the narrows then north towards bear gulch (I think that’s what its called).
LOOSING FISH: Father Day weekend we hooked 18 fish but only landed 8. Five of those 18 we lost right at the net. We’ve lost Kokanee but that was a particularly bad day. We made a real conscious effort to loosen our drags. When we get fish on, the drag is loosened and we’ve been letting the fish run. The next weekend we land 11 of 11! I was out with dad and brother last week and we were 8 of 9! DRAG is everything!.
THE CREW: Typically my boat is loaded with my wife and 8 year old son and daughter (yup twins). We mostly team fish. Nobody has “their” pole, rather we just take turns reeling in whichever has fish on. I do most all the handling of live fish, getting them off the hooks and stuff. When the fishing is hot, dad keeps pretty dang busy.
The ICE CHEST: I’ve heard it referenced often anglers throwing their Koke on ice. I started doing it. What a great tool it is. I’m not sure how much it plays a factor in the freshness/taste quality but it is usefully in other ways. First off, it’s a little easier dumping the fish into cooler over a live well. They hit that ice and stop flipping around so much. When you have double “fish on” which happens often with Kokes, It’s easier to dump fish in the ice, lid closed, hook safe, kids safe, and move onto helping with the next rod. Koke have that real soft meat that tears apart if the fish is too warm. Having the fish on ice until your home makes the filet process easier. My wife bought 100X 10lb ice bags on Amazon that I think end up costing about 20 cents each. We fill them from our freezer ice machine. This saves us a few buck each trip.
SMOKING: I use a dry brine of brown sugar, kosher salt, and pepper overnight. My smoker is a Weber Smokey Mountain. I was using the Traeger Salmon rub with Applewood and a small chunk of hickory. It is real good however I’ve started using the Hi Mountain Salmon rub and eliminated the hickory chunk from my smoke. It’s best served on a Ritz cracker with cream cheese. Try stirring a finely chopped jalapeno into your cream cheese…..YUM
I read in another post, it recommended we resize our pics. I'm not sure how mine will display, sorry in advance if they don't view properly.
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I have experienced the opposite this year and had better luck on lead core than using my downriggers, this was at the gorge but the kokanee shouldn't be that different.
As for using a cooler instead of a livewell, I was taught years ago that I should put my fish straight into ice cold water to preserve them, because bringing a fish up from water that is 50ish degrees to a warm livewell was one of the worst things I could do for their flesh. I have a 94 quart Igloo marine cooler that gets two 20 pound bags for a long weekend on the water and it works perfectly. My boat has a built-in cooler and 2 fish lockers but I prefer to just use the Igloo for fish and use the other spaces for dry storage.
Our best investment in the last year was the commercial vacuum sealer we picked up at Cabela's, the fillets come out of the freezer just as fresh as when I cut them off the fish, I highly recommend that everyone should have one.
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Hey fish hntr, we are using the Ziplock freezer bags, with hand pump, but they are expensive. I think the wife said were paying like $1.00 a bag They work OK but we are talking about upgrading.
My first experienced freezing smoked salmon was when they defrosted, they turned kind of mushy. I began wrapping them in a single paper towel. not sure what the deal is or if there is better technique.
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Thanks so much for sharing some very helpful info. It takes a lot of time and effort to dial in on the right way. Especially on jokes the ice chest is the right way for keeping the quality of the fish. Are they going deeper now? I'll watch for your boat next time.
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Tip:
Bleed your fish before putting them in the cooler and you will get an even better end product.
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Looks like a great time, Xberto. I love the koke fishing myself.
I do have a question. It looks like you were camping. Is there a spot up there where I could fit a big camp trailer, my boat and truck rig, and my wife's truck? I probably should just drive up there and look. Maybe I'll need a double wide space.
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There are campsites to accommodate a truck trailer and boat. I think squeezing a car in there would be pushing it without paying for a double site. On one occasion when we also had the car, we parked it out near the shack, just outside the pay area.
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Thanks for one of the best posts I've seen in a long time. That was very informative and helpful. That pic of the tackle buddy has got me wanting to do the same thing.
Mike
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Thanks for the post. I just started my quest this year for the kokes after accidentally catching one last year.
All I have is a canoe with outriggers to keep me from tipping on the big lakes.
I now have 2 mini troll down riggers, pole holders, basic fish finder and the small electric 30 thrust trolling motor. I can fish for 5 or 6 hours going on a faster speed if I bring 2 batteries. My biggest obstacle is getting out to where all the schools are. I do not have the speedometer either to know my troll speed but have now figured out the technique of stacking.
On soldier creek by badger I can easily get to the opening of the narrows but did not do so well there in June. Skunk on kokes but landed some nice cutts. Then late June over by the pumps in the deep area at Bryant's I found a school and caught the 1 only fish all year and it was a nice 19 inch and was enough to get me out 2 more times without catching mostly because I can't find the schools. I still catch the cutts and bows.
Would anyone be willing to pm to me some Koke school locations close to where I could launch my canoe and get to some schools that are not miles away? Thanks
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Thanks Mike but honestly a lot of that stuff is just what I learned from this forum and regurgitated into my own post [  ] Three years ago I couldn't catch a Koke if I was starving. As a family, we still haven't limited out. But were happy to have been close a couple of times.
Anyhow, we did get out today. It was slow for us.
On the water at 6:45. We were worried because there was a lot of wind in the valley and going up Provo. Up at the Berry however, it was calm. We trolled 4 lines on the down riggers and one lead core. We hooked 6 and landed 4 by about 9AM. Also landed a small Cut. I think the kids caught a pokemon or two. From about 9 to 11:30 we didn't have any action
Had lunch at the Dairy Keen in Heber on the way home. My family likes that place.
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I was out there Friday as well trolling around with my little inflatable raft that I modified for downrigging. Just trolled around Strawberry Bay ended up boating 3, lost 1 and had 2 other bites. I used your cooler on ice tip and seems to be good thanks for that. This was my 2nd time ever fishing for kokanee but first time I was able to boat them. First time was out a the same place 4th of July weekend and didn't have a net (never really needed them). Was able to hook 2 but when they got close to try and grab them onto the boat they did their acrobatics and threwe the hook out. So this time I made sure I had a net. I actually ended up making a stop at the Heber wal mart since I forgot to get one til I was on the way there. Good thing it was 24 hours!
The conditions like you said were perfect hardly any wind til about 1pm that's when I decided to call it a day. For those of you who have manual downriggers I highly recommend investing in some shuttlehawk! Those things are awesome except for the release that come with them. I was fishing by myself with 2 downriggers out and they made my life a whole lot easier not having to fight the fish and pull the weight up! Then when your done with the fish it takes your lure down again.. Awesome little gadget for downrigging.
Edit-forgot to add what I was using.. used the standard pink dodger with pink hoochie but I also had one setup with a white hoochie and was able to get 1 fish off that and the 1 hookup that was lost. Both were tipped with pink gulp maggots and also used some Mike's kokanee shimp scent which I put on the hoochie and dodger. I was trolling around 25-40 ft down and speedsee 1-1.5 mph.
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Appreciate your good Strawberry trolling report...I've fished the Gorge a number of years for the Kokes, and have fished Strawberry on ice for a lot of years, but this has been the first year for me trying for Kokes at the Berry...We've caught a lot of nice cutts, but the only Koke was one I let my grandson reel in 3 weeks ago....I'm trolling the Strawberry side, but definitely not into where the Kokes are hiding out...but I'm not giving up.....Question....do you (or anyone) fish the Full Moon phase, like this coming week?? Think it will be worth the effort? I've had very noticeable Bad Luck when bank fishing, ice fishing, and trolling during that 4 day stretch of Luna Fulla....Will you still be going out??? Any different strategies? tks, Joe...
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[quote Jmorfish]Appreciate your good Strawberry trolling report...I've fished the Gorge a number of years for the Kokes, and have fished Strawberry on ice for a lot of years, but this has been the first year for me trying for Kokes at the Berry...We've caught a lot of nice cutts, but the only Koke was one I let my grandson reel in 3 weeks ago....I'm trolling the Strawberry side, but definitely not into where the Kokes are hiding out...but I'm not giving up.....Question....do you (or anyone) fish the Full Moon phase, like this coming week?? Think it will be worth the effort? I've had very noticeable Bad Luck when bank fishing, ice fishing, and trolling during that 4 day stretch of Luna Fulla....Will you still be going out??? Any different strategies? tks, Joe...[/quote]
Due to previous experiences I personally avoid scheduling my fishing trips whenever there is a full moon cycle, there are plenty of other weekends I can go and have better results.
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I have only one downrigger. I have 4 trolling poles set up with lead core, but haven't caught many kokanee on them. How do you set up using lead core for kokanee's. I've heard that lead core drops 6-8' per color, but I still have a hard time catching them. I've also tried using a snubber, but still didn't have much success. They always hit the downrigger for me.
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Roger that...I keep thinking maybe it's just a fluke, and that there really will be a bite on, like some people say, but I really have not had good fishing experiences during our Full Moon phases....and I've tried way too many times...I (silly me) tried again today at Willard from 5 to 8 p.m....3 of us with 3 lines trolling...0 hits...wind was super bad, maybe that had an effect also, but results were zero hits, zero fish...so we are postponing our Gorge trip 'til next week, and planning on the moon and wind to settle down...[fishin]
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I am no lead core expert; however, here are my thoughts. This time of year, you might catch some kokes very early in the a.m. - maybe for the first 30 to 60 minutes?? The kokanee go deeper as the a.m. progresses. Currently, I am catching the kokes between 40 & 50 feet deep. I am not sure you will ever get that deep with lead core line.
Earlier in the year, when the kokes are located at the surface down and to 25 feet deep, you should be able to easily catch them with lead core.
Last Saturday, Adam Eakle was catching kokes with monofilament on his reels. I believe he was attaching a 3 to 4 oz banana weight to his lines. I am not sure how deep you can get with this type of setup. Might be worth a try.
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[quote OCF]I am no lead core expert; however, here are my thoughts. This time of year, you might catch some kokes very early in the a.m. - maybe for the first 30 to 60 minutes?? The kokanee go deeper as the a.m. progresses. Currently, I am catching the kokes between 40 & 50 feet deep. I am not sure you will ever get that deep with lead core line.
Earlier in the year, when the kokes are located at the surface down and to 25 feet deep, you should be able to easily catch them with lead core.
Last Saturday, Adam Eakle was catching kokes with monofilament on his reels. I believe he was attaching a 3 to 4 oz banana weight to his lines. I am not sure how deep you can get with this type of setup. Might be worth a try.[/quote]
Back before I learned that lead core was 8-10 feet per color instead of the 5 feet per color I was thinking at the time, I lost a couple lures in 60 feet of water with 7 colors out. So you can get down pretty deep with lead core, but I would be dropping the downriggers if past 60-70 feet. The advantage to lead core with 50 feet of mono behind it is you aren't spooking them with a large weighted ball.
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I don't believe the lead ball spooks them, I believe more ofter than not the ball causes a frequency in the water column that actually attracks them.
Some of my best fish are caught when my lure is less than10' behind the ball.
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[quote SBennett]I don't believe the lead ball spooks them, I believe more ofter than not the ball causes a frequency in the water column that actually attracks them.
Some of my best fish are caught when my lure is less than10' behind the ball.[/quote]
I was referring more to when they are still in the upper water column/shallow and visibility is higher, at least that has been my experience.
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[quote SBennett]I don't believe the lead ball spooks them, I believe more ofter than not the ball causes a frequency in the water column that actually attracks them.
Some of my best fish are caught when my lure is less than10' behind the ball.[/quote]
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This is all true for this time of year
but I would say the wire causes the frequency
Flowing from your boat down your downrigger cable is an invisible electrical current.
If the voltage is just right it will attract kokanee to your lures.
A few notes about "downrigger hum." If your downrigger uses wire cable (as most do), you may have heard that wire cable "humming." The hum is caused by the tension on the wire cable from the downrigger ball as it moves through the water. That humming can be used to your advantage. First and foremost, that humming does not seem to bother the fish. Second, that humming generally starts at 1.2 MPH
with my camera I can here the dodgers make a noise.
but in the spring when the water temp. is the same at the top as it is at the bottom
then you need a longer set back.
I have had cameras down on the ball and on planer boards and I can see what is going on.
Using downriggers is by far the most efficient way to target a specific depth
you can catch a lot more kokanee with downriggers
I don't think you can feel the fight of a koke with a lead core line
like you can with light poles and you wont miss as many.
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