Kokanee

[coach]

Took the kids to a secluded lake in the heart of the Okanagan yesterday and managed to pick up a few tasty kokanee. We lost as many as we caught - but had a great time in the process. The fish are of decent size for this time of year. We are looking forward to catching a few more as the season progresses. These fish were all caught on hildebrandt lures from the surface down to 35 feet.

http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy154/coach108/IMG_4168.jpg

[Tenacious Billy]

Tasty niblets!!

[springpin]

MMMM Kokanee.....I have a Berkley Tactix as well. Catching fish on that rod is alot of fun.

[d6dan]

Yummy!!. Way to go coach. Congrats to the kids.:-D. I miss fishing for kokanee's. Now I just drink'em.:wink:.

[Duckman]

How were you fishing the Hildebrandt lures-trolling or...?

[coach]

Thanks guys. I tie a bead chain to my mainline, then run about a 6 foot leader back to the hildebrandt. I like to troll one line off the downrigger (about 100 feet back) and set another out with 1-3 ounces of weight - depending on what depth I'm seeing the fish on the sounder. I find the round bouncing betty ball weights great to use, since it's so easy to change them if I need to fish a different depth.

[Salty]

Nice fish.:) haven't fished kokanee for quite a while but I read that rubber snubbers are recommended for gear fishing as they are extremely soft mouthed and its easy to tear the hooks out of their mouths. :( This would definitely be a consideration with a down rigger.

[coach]

Salty, I know a lot of guys use rubber snubbers for exactly that reason - soft mouths on the kokanee. I've never used them myself, but usually there are enough fish around that it's not a huge deal if a few get away. I'd like to hear from guys that have used them.

[GoatGuy]

Took the kids to a secluded lake in the heart of the Okanagan yesterday and managed to pick up a few tasty kokanee.



hehehehehe.

they'll be tasty.

[BCrams]

Tastey fish indeed. You should try a Hot Spot kokanee killer .... tipped with a single shoe peg corn ;) That will slay them.

For fun, locate them on the finder, drop anchor and jig for them with pink buzz bombs tipped with the shoe peg corn!

[pnbrock]

nice catch ,havent caught one in years,i loooovvveee kokanees.

[Chuck]

Tastey fish indeed. You should try a Hot Spot kokanee killer .... tipped with a single shoe peg corn ;) That will slay them.

For fun, locate them on the finder, drop anchor and jig for them with pink buzz bombs tipped with the shoe peg corn!

Yes, yes and of course yes. Those are pretty nice and healthy looking critters imo. They sure can up nicely, if you can get out often and stock up.

[835]

What Is Shoe Peg Corn?

[Salty]

Salty, I know a lot of guys use rubber snubbers for exactly that reason - soft mouths on the kokanee. I've never used them myself, but usually there are enough fish around that it's not a huge deal if a few get away. I'd like to hear from guys that have used them.

I've read on fishing sites that they work very well - I've looked at them in stores they look well made and easy to use. if i was trolling with gear with koks around I'd use them lest I maim small ones. I would suspect small ones that nail a hook the size of their mouth hard with no give because of heavy gear or a downrigger would split their lip in two and might not be able to feed very well for quite a spell, or worse. ..

[Fisher-Dude]

I use a snubber on kokanee gear fishing (between willow leaf and lure), as well as at the top of my leader on my fly rod. Chartreuse/red spots or pink/white smallest Lyman, tipped with a mealy on the fly rod - slays 'em! :wink:

They have soft mouths and I don't like tearing them up without a snubber, as Salty noted. I'd also hope that no one touches a kok they are releasing, as the scales are far too delicate. I've often thought a "catch and bonk" rule on koks would be wise because of the high mortality rates of those released.

[Salty]

You guys are making me yearn for a little kokanee fish'n :mrgreen:

[coach]

As usual, great advice, FD. I'm definitely going to give the snubbers a try, as well as the small lymans. I've tried trolling the hildebrandts off a sinking fly line, but without much success. Now you've got me thinking. I'm pretty sure we are talking about the same secluded lake.:wink:

As for tearing the fishes mouths while trolling off the downrigger, I'm fairly sure 100 feet of mono will stretch enough to avoid this - but anything that puts more in the boat while at the same time preserving the health of the fishery is worth a try.

I agree this is a fishery that is not well suited to catch and release as these are a very delicate fish. Apart from being bonked, the fish in my picture were barely handled, but the scales are coming off. Fortunately, the kokanee in this lake are fairly uniform in size so releasing little ones in hope of catching something bigger is less likely than in other fisheries. On a good day, however, it would be very easy to catch and release lots of fish in a few hours fishing. We are very lucky to have such a quality fishery in our backyard - it's important that we all think about how our fishing techniques and practices affect the fish.

[coach]

We managed to get back to our "secluded" lake again over the Easter weekend. Kids had a great time! This time it was lymans tipped with maggots that did the job.

http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy154/coach108/IMG_4578.jpg

[Jonesy]

Best Kok fishing that i have ever seen is at Nicola lake.....micro leeches do wonders.....record is 18 in an hour.....most amazing hour of my life :)

[coach]

Jonesy - I've fished Nicola a couple times for Kokanee. The numbers were pretty good, but the size was really small. Any suggestions? It is a great lake to fish as there are tons of rainbows to catch, some of them get pretty decent.

[Jonesy]

depth is the big thing with Kok's.....because Nicola has such deep shoals, if you can ride the edge of them, the big guys will come up. Most of the ones i've kept were in the 1 to 2 lb range which are great for pan frying.....biggest was about 3 1/2......just love the fight those little buggers have.....

use a 4wt rod and hang on!!