Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3615 July 7-21 2017 | Page 9

FRESHWATER
VOL.36 • ISS. 15
9
July 7 - 21, 2017
Thoughts On ‘Kokes
^
Why kokanee? Why
Not! Kokanee fight hard
and eat great. They will slam
a variety of colorful offerings.
Just when you think you’ve
got a kokanee bite dialed in,
everything changes. Lures that
the fickle fish had been hitting
with enthusiasm 30 minutes
before go untouched and it’s
up to you to change things
up and make the salmon bite
again. It’s a man against fish
chess game and it’s darn fun!
^
This
quartet
of chrome
bright kokanee
were caught
on tackle from
Mack’s Lure.
The Mack’s
Double D
dodgers shown
here have a traditional dodger action, but with four separate attachment
points this dodger can be used somewhat like an underwater planer,
steering your line away from the boat and other rigs.
^
Snelled spinners are
winners when it comes
to hooking both kokanee and
trout. This rainbow pounced on
a Mack’s Lure Wedding Ring
Spinner equipped with a Smile
Blade.
^
These kokanee were
harvested using Paulina
Peak dodgers paired with Paulina
Peak Micro Hoochies. Paulina
Peak Tackle, headquartered in
Reno, Nv., has gained a following
quickly across northern and
central California and is garnering
rave reviews from both guides
and anglers.
presents
Kokanee Notes For
Sockeye Success!
W
line. For the uninitiated, leadcore
e are approaching the apex
is just what its name implies. It is a
of the Norcal kokanee sea-
son. Over my years at the Fish Sniffer woven line with a pliable lead core.
Every 10 feet of the line
Magazine, more than a
sports a different color. At
few readers have asked
kokanee trolling speeds
me about how to go about
leadcore will pull a lure
catching kokanee. These
down about 5 feet per
anglers have heard the buzz
color, so that by counting
about how hard landlocked
colors an angler will have a
sockeyes fight, how much
pretty good idea how deep
fun they are to target and
their offering is working.
how awesome kokanee are
For depths up to about
coming off the grill or out
45
feet leadcore is pretty
of the frying pan…In this
effective,
yet the downside
week’s how to column,
is
that
the
line is heavy and
we are going to explore
requires
correspondingly
the great sport of kokanee
by Cal Kellogg heavy tackle. This combi-
fishing!
nation of heavy line and
To catch kokanee, the first thing
stout
tackle
generally overpowers the
you need is a boat capable of trolling
fight
of
even
the feistiest kokanee.
at speeds from 1 to 2 miles per hour
A
more
effective
and more sporting
and a quality sonar unit. You can catch
option
is
the
use
of
downriggers.
In
trout and bass from the bank, but ko-
their
simplest
form
a
downrigger
is a
kanee are open water fish that require
spool
filled
with
cable
attached
to
a
cool temperatures in order to survive.
short
arm
with
a
pulling
connected
to
As a result, bank anglers have virtu-
its
tip.
The
cable
travels
off
the
spool,
ally no chance of hooking kokanee,
except on the rare occasion when they through the pulley and a heavy 6 to 10
pound weight is snapped to the end of
get one accidentally while casting a
the cable.
spoon or spinner when the surface
A downrigger release, a device
temperature is cold.
reminiscent
of a clothespin, trails off
Since kokanee prefer a temperature
the
weight.
To
use the downrigger,
of 50 to 59 degrees they spend most
you
free
spool
a lure out a few yards
of the late spring, summer and early
behind
the
boat
and then snap the line
fall holding in water from 30 to 100 or
from
your
rod
into
the release. After
more feet deep. In order to hook these
that
the
downrigger
weight is lowered
deep holding fish, you’ve got to get
to
the
desired
depth.
When a deep
you lures down to them. There are two
holding
kokanee
takes
the lure, the
widely accepted means of accomplish-
line
pulls
out
of
the
release
and you
ing this goal.
are
left
to
fight
the
fish
on
your
rod
The first is employing a leadcore
FISH SNIFFER
HOW – TO
CONTINUED ON PAGE 15