Anyone fish for Kokanee Salmon?

[TreeTopFlier]

Wow been a busy fall, home improvements, wood cutting and finally some late season Kokanee salmon fishing. The Mrs. and I spent some time out fishing for salmon on Navajo lake in NM. It was awesome! For sometime now I've been relegated to fishing late in the summer which presents a problem. The water gets warmer and the salmon go deep to stay in the cool water. If you Kokanee fish you know that light penetration, lure color, angle of the sun and time of day have a lot to do with how the fish see and respond to your lure. So when the fish are really deep and the plankton are blooming light doesn't really get down deep, even with UV stuff...I have had some really spotty fishing and it seems most folks give up and wait for snagging season.

A couple years ago at the end of a trip, I got frustrated and built my own Kokanee type lure using glow in the dark salmon/stealhead corkys and had some success...fast forward, this year I really got to experiment with different variations and settled on one that caught fish like nothing Ive tried before.

No Joke I had a guy get frustrated watching me...he pulled up his gear in and motored over along side me to find out what the hell I was doing that he wasn't lol.

I made a video for my youtube page, Its a little long Tried to make it entertaining and informative so it has some fishing... some how to... some how I do... some about the simple rigs I made, even a little theory. https://youtu.be/TKCUCFVpNPI .......... If you don't want to hear my babble you can just skip through to the fishing. Thought Id share a great trip with you all

[TreeTopFlier]

Really, no one interested in a Kokanee fishing thread? Figured at least the northwestern folk would chime in. Sorry I'm still excited from my fishing trip, like a little kid.
I guess we will now return to the regularly scheduled programming...

[plant.one]

around here we primarily have Coho & chinook Salmon. and a few pinks here and there.

most folks call the Chinook's King Salmon and they can range in excess of 30 lbs. the largest ive landed was a 32 lb, that yielded a pair of 12 lb filets. i had to cut them in half to get them into gallon ziplock bags. i thought my arm was going to fall off when i got done fighting that one

[TreeTopFlier]

around here we primarily have Coho & chinook Salmon. and a few pinks here and there.

most folks call the Chinook's King Salmon and they can range in excess of 30 lbs. the largest ive landed was a 32 lb, that yielded a pair of 12 lb filets. i had to cut them in half to get them into gallon ziplock bags. i thought my arm was going to fall off when i got done fighting that one

Back home we catch Chinook's in the river and boy let me tell you when those big boys get in the current it is game on! I lost a spring run salmon several years back, probably close to 30lbs. My dad some how got the net between his head and my line and basically lost him out of the net after a pretty good tussle. I sat on the bank trying to re-tie my rig and couldnt because my hands were shaking too bad from adrenaline and being wore out, so I know what you mean. Best fish I never caught.

Kokanee are land locked Sockeye salmon not quite as big as their ocean going brothers but still big enough for nice filets.

[plant.one]

mine was a river catch as well.

boardman river, traverse city, just upstream from the river mouth. so he was fresh out of lake michigan (west grand traverse bay)

[Nic56]

I just watched the video. That looks like a lot of fun. It seems you have that down to a science.

We have no such critters like that down this far south. Although, trout are stocked in the rivers behind the hydro power dams in some areas not far from me. I don't get to fish like I used to. I used to fish for smallmouth bass quite a bit, but it seems there is always something around the house that I have to do.

I told myself that will change next year.

[plant.one]

when we lake fish salmon up here, we run linecounter reels and hope you can stuff 300'+ of line on them. most of ours are spooled with 900'. they're FEISTY out on the big water and you'll get one up to the back of the boat, and they'll see the net, and bam... there goes 250-300' of line - and 20-30 mins of your time - before you can even hope to turn them and start over. they'd spool you before you can say 'oh crap' with an open face. unless it was huge. lol

watching your video, the rig you're using is VERY reminiscent to what we use for walleye up here. very similar blade/bead/hook setup to what you run. we dont run the dodgers on them for walleye of course, and we drape a big ole fat nightcrawler across both hooks. grandpa taught the grandkids all how to tie snell knots (using a cocktail straw) and make crawler harnesses when we were still in elementary school. It was the price of fishing with grandpa - we produced the tackle. I would have killed to have the nailknot tool i have in my kit these days



have you considered trying putting an eye on your spinner blades? a little dark eye might help test your krill theory.



almost all the bigwater stuff we did was with artificial baits - mostly spoons & j plugs but hot-n-tots & the occassional thunderstick have been known to find their way behind the 'rigger balls

havent been out on the big water after them in a few years - not since the bayliner took a crap on us, but we're trying to plan a charter for next summer.

[Cleatus]

I don't fish as often as I should but I drink Kokanee beer, does that count?

[BadKarmaZeroSix]

Afraid i'm not much of a fisherman...my brother on the other hand absolutely LOVES it, so when he graduated from OCS about 4 yrs ago, i set him up with a fishing trip off the coast of Florida...was hoping after only having experience in the midwest, he might get the thrill of a marlin or shark or something.

He caught a carp.

He did have a great time tho. It's just never been my gig. But your video was cool, hope you guys get more free-time to enjoy!

[TreeTopFlier]

I just watched the video. That looks like a lot of fun. It seems you have that down to a science.

We have no such critters like that down this far south. Although, trout are stocked in the rivers behind the hydro power dams in some areas not far from me. I don't get to fish like I used to. I used to fish for smallmouth bass quite a bit, but it seems there is always something around the house that I have to do.

I told myself that will change next year.

Kokes are the goldilocks of the fish world, most times everything has to be just right. Ive learned a trick or two over the years but I still get schooled. They will make you feel like a genius one day and a fool the next lol