Another Newbie

[Burlee]

Yep, I grew up in Georgia fishin for Pan fish and bass. Then didn't fish for many years, but the big humpy run last year gave me the bug, so I'm learning all over again to fish for these Western type fish.
Couldn't really figure out why you folks are so excited about this little silver fish, I mean we would use these little guys for catfish bait in GA. But then I ate some,so OK, now I kinda get it.
I noticed that they are kinda hard to keep on the hook all the way to the boat. Any tips? other than getting a net with a really long handle?

I recently bought an older Lund 1700. I put a Hummingbird 788ci on it, but no downriggers (yet). 50 hp Merc tiller and a bow mounted electric motor, but no troller (yet). It seems good and stable for a couple of big boys to move around in. I think it will work. It sometimes stays in Chelan, WA with my son, and I fish local lakes with a 9 ft. pram with a small electric. That worked today, with the fish on Lake Samish co-operating nicely.

 

[kokaneekid]

Yep, I grew up in Georgia fishin for Pan fish and bass.

We love to convert golden trout fisherman into kokanee fisherman. Welcome to the forum I'm sure you'll have lots of questions and you can find all the answers right here. Use a two hook set up or if you are long lining use a rubber snubber. Take it easy when reeling them in, Don't Set The Hook and you'll end up with more in your boat.

Fish On kokaneekid

 

[halojm]

Welcome to the board. But what do mean by little silver fish.
Obviously never been to the gorge or that lake in Oregon where they grow big. Anyway, still glad your here and look forward to your first post after catching one of those little silver things that weights 5 to 6 pounds.
cheers

 

[Burlee]

I would love to catch a Koke in the 4 - 5 pound range. Locally it seems that 10 inches is pretty average.
On my first effort, I did have a couple of 12 inchers...but not today.
I'll try a 2 hook setup next time.
Thanks.

 

[skookum9]

Typically these fish do run smallish. They are the smallest of all of our pacific salmon species. But they are also the finest eating of any of them as well. The only fish I know of that compares is the brook trout but you are rarely allowed as many of them so these koke's really make a lot of sense. I'm probably the wrong guy to ask about snubbers because I hate them. They have cost me far more fish than they have ever retained. Most people here will tell you they work great and that you should use them. All I can say is try them and see how they work for you. I got fed up with them because of how ineffective they made me and so I threw them out of my gear so I wouldn't make that mistake again. I learned two things that seemed to really help me land more koke's and these apply to both the trolling and the jigging which I prefer. The first rule I learned is that when they break surface, throw your rod tip toward them and let them have all the slack you can until they go back into the water. This is the only real good chance of landing a fish that goes arial. The second rule I learned, which turned out to be even more important than the first, is to let the fish set the hook and stop trying to do it myself. There is a correct tension when setting the hook on koke's and it is a learned tension. When I learned to stop setting the hook I went from counting myself lucky to land 20 percent of my fish to averaging landing somewhere between 80 and 90 percent. It made a huge difference in my success rate. Good luck out there and I hope you do find a place to catch some bigger koke's, at least in the 14 to 15 inch class.

 

[Burlee]

Thanks for the tips. I think jigging would be more fun, but how do you locate the fish? Chumming is allowed on a few lakes here, but not many.

And I did read an article yesterday about a couple of lakes in central WA that have kokes in the 14 - 15 inch range. I'll have to check them out.

I also discovered by accident, that if I leave the trolling motor running after fish-on, that I have a better catch rate.

 

[fishin86]

try lake merwin in washington. Just started fishing last year had a great time, nice fish also. I am new to this site also. Good luck!

 

[fishin86]

also new

Try lake merwin in Washington, I started fishing the lake last year. The lake has nice kokes. Good luck! I am new to this site also. Hi everyone.

 

[skookum9]

A lot of people locate the fish with a sonar/fish finder and then put their boat on top of them and try to vertical jig. I enjoy searching for the one's that are jumping on the surface and then trying to put my jig right on top of them. Fortunately, chumming is not legal in most waters. Perhaps Washington still has some waters that they don't care about but in Oregon it is not legal on any water. There are much better ways than chumming. Good luck out there.