Ririe Kokes 2-28-09

I have ice fished there 3 of the last 10 days and was one short of the limit one time. I released at least 15 small (7") and 15 12 inch ones. I did alot of experimenting with jigging when they were hanging around. First two trips they were 25 to 40' deep. On 2-28-09 they were mostly from 50' to the 70' bottom and so many that one even got snaged. The bigger ones usually came from the bottom of the school. Jigging worked the best and had a limit in an less than hour if I didn't throw any back. Now I need to try for them in the summer. What scents work best when trolling? Can they be caught vertical jigging?

The fishing can be just as fast and furious when trolling in the morning as it can be ice fishing. I've done good using about any standard koke gear tipped with some shoe peg corn and then I squirt a little lunker lotion on the whole thing. I saw some little cans of pre scented shoepeg corn at Sportsmans Warehouse that are died pink for Kokanee. I'll have to give those a try this year. As for jigging for them from your boat we tried it a couple of times last year and didn't have any luck. Good luck, the fish only get bigger as the summer goes on.