WH This Weekend

Well, I'm locked and loaded to give my first shot at the kokes at West Hill Pond in CT.

I spent a fortune on tackle! As a result, I anticipate I'll make a few trips this year.

Weather out here in the northeast is rainly, and if it rains tomorrow afternoon, I may wait until Sunday to go up with my wife. But we plan on fishing the late afternoon.

I'm bringing up two leadcore rods to troll. I bought both Kokanee Killers and Wedding Ring Spinners for that. The Kokanee Killers have a weird place to tie the line that looks like it would be better with a swivel. I assume you tie the Kokanee Killers directly to the flourocarb? How light can you go with the flourocarb?

Also, bought some beads to make rigs to troll a hook tipped with shoepeg corn and gulp maggots . . . . is this rig OK? Just beads with a hook?

Finally, bought some hali glow jigs for jigging if I mark a school on my FF. . . . can't believe how small that they are!

Well, any last minute advice with the above questions would be greatly appreciated. . . . .

Well, I caught my first kokes! Both were caught off my kayak. I caught two kokes - each about 14.5". I dropped at least two others and caught 7 brown trout as bycatch.

I got out for trolling with leadcore on West Hill at 4:30 pm and started getting hits immediately. First on the kokanee killer and then on the wedding ring spinner.

Within the first hour, I caught a nice brown and had another fish just a little later that was fighing me differently. I got the fish boatside and thought it was a decent rainbow, but the hues looked different - bright silver with purple-blue hue . . . the head looked different too - it all clicked and I figured out it was a salmon, after this the salmon goes crazy next to the boat and I'm flailing around trying to net it, and I finally got it in! My first koke!

I caught another one during a double header later - I think the koke took the wedding ring as it was sinking and I was fighting a brown. The second one had some really nice jumps!

Both fish were caught on wedding ring spinners, with bright pink getting the most action trolled behind a flasher. The dodger didnt' produce as well, but I did catch the second one on a wedding ring spinner behind a dodger. It was a macks double d and I did like the planing action of it.

Slow trolling was key . . . . kept my speed at or about 1.0 the entire time. Fish caught at 3 colors and 4 colors.

Didn't mark any tight schools - saw a couple of pods, but generally the fish were spread out - got marks constantly though. There are a substantial number of fish in that lake - even saw lots of largemouths and panfish near the shore.

It is about a 2 hour and 15 minute drive from my home on Long Island, so i won't get up there that much, but I'd like to get up there at least two more times before the end of the season.

I can see why you guys like it so much. It was really rewarding to catch those fish and I am hooked as well. Thanks for all the advice on the forums. This is really a tough niche fishery but extremely rewarding to catch.

I will post some pictures tonight.

Awesome captiva!! it took me a few trips to get dialed in before I got my first koke. It seems like they are easy some days other days they seem to disappear.Hope you get a lot more over the summer. At the rate I'm going I may not get a trip in before late July. Just wish all us guys in the East had lots more koke lakes to fish. TM

Congrats on your first Kokanee. West Hill has some nice fish this season. Was there yesterday and had a lot on but couldn't get any in the net. Just one of those days. Green seemed to get the hit yesterday but usually pink is the color. Going to try again Thursday morn. Good luck.

Trout Tracker said:

Congrats on your first Kokanee. West Hill has some nice fish this season. Was there yesterday and had a lot on but couldn't get any in the net. Just one of those days. Green seemed to get the hit yesterday but usually pink is the color. Going to try again Thursday morn. Good luck.

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The kokes certainly go crazy boatside!

I caught my first on a pink wedding ring, my second on green. The pink overall seemed to be getting the most hits.

I still have to post the pics.

I am going up one more time this month I believe.

Today the green mini smiley behind a Williams flasher did the trick. 16 on and 8 into the net before 730am.