As Kokanee Season Slows...

[DeltaDude]

I am looking to get some more trout fishing in since the kokanee season is slow, I understand this is a kokanee forum, but if you guys have any recommendation for some good setups for trout I'd love to hear it, or if you have pictures even better!

Now days there are so many options, but not always a clear way to go about things.

I've heard kwikfish are good, I've only fished a firetiger one with no other gear on it. Got a good hit but it spit it out. I heard that people fish these behind a laketroll/flasher setup. And tip them with 1/4 of a nightcrawler.

I have some rapala lures, firetiger / blue&silver jointed J-9 scatters, caught a nice one on this one, but not much action on it. - Again tipped with 1/4 night crawler

I've never fished spoons, not sure how to, to be completely honest, not sure if I need to fish with scent, bait, or just the spoon itself. Or what size of spoon to use.

Any lure recommendations you guys can throw my way? Do you fish with lake trolls in front of these lures, if so any specific ones you recommend that don't have too much drag?

 

[Bduck]

This is as good of a place to talk about other fishing. Kokanee fishing doesn't limit ones other pursued adventures. Those lures mentioned are a staple to ones tackle, in which adding to the arsenal is continuous. Depending the lake, how the public uses it more often than others, you might have that sweet honey hole that keeps drawing you back into its own vortex. Each lake will have its own staple that other species thrive on such as Bear L which is shared with Utah/Idaho. Cisco & sculpin are bait fish allowing fish to thrive. Finding the right color pattern that mimics the colors of these bait fish will also add to your arsenal. I like using rapalas, flatfish or quickfish, and Lyman's here in J9 or 3in or larger. The time of the year varies as well on color presentation. On other lakes I'll use these lures too but smaller. I like taking a plastic pumpkin color grub adding glow beads and a #1 or #2 gold spinner blade, this is a go getter trolling trout for me locally. Sometimes I might put a dodger on but I got away from the flasher setup years ago. A lure in the tackle box that's been unproductive doesn't mean you have to get rid of. By taking marker pens you can change up or add to the existing paint scheme that will work on site or just do a complete new paint scheme with it that will fill the need for the catch. Water temp of coarse goes with the time of the season for the depths you will be fishing.

 

[SuperDaveMT]

I catch a lot of nice trout here when I'm bottom bouncing for walleye with a slo-death rig (a spinner rig with a pre-twisted hook that causes the worm to rotate) so I usually add a set up like that on a long line behind a keel singer when I'm trolling for trout. I also do well with a J-7 husky jerk rapala in gold with an orange belly, Berkley flicker shad in gold, green and fire tiger, and some locally produced spoons with a brown trout finish. 1.7 - 2.2 mph seems to be the speed I catch most of my trout. Casting, I have been killing the trout with a rapala flat rap fished with a hard twitching action.

 

[DeltaDude]

This is as good of a place to talk about other fishing. Kokanee fishing doesn't limit ones other pursued adventures. Those lures mentioned are a staple to ones tackle, in which adding to the arsenal is continuous. Depending the lake, how the public uses it more often than others, you might have that sweet honey hole that keeps drawing you back into its own vortex. Each lake will have its own staple that other species thrive on such as Bear L which is shared with Utah/Idaho. Cisco & sculpin are bait fish allowing fish to thrive. Finding the right color pattern that mimics the colors of these bait fish will also add to your arsenal. I like using rapalas, flatfish or quickfish, and Lyman's here in J9 or 3in or larger. The time of the year varies as well on color presentation. On other lakes I'll use these lures too but smaller. I like taking a plastic pumpkin color grub adding glow beads and a #1 or #2 gold spinner blade, this is a go getter trolling trout for me locally. Sometimes I might put a dodger on but I got away from the flasher setup years ago. A lure in the tackle box that's been unproductive doesn't mean you have to get rid of. By taking marker pens you can change up or add to the existing paint scheme that will work on site or just do a complete new paint scheme with it that will fill the need for the catch. Water temp of coarse goes with the time of the season for the depths you will be fishing.

I generally am fishing Lucky Peak in Idaho. As far as I know we don't really have bait fish other than your newborns.

I try to stay close to cliffs / rocky areas when trolling, and try to stay around 1.6 - 2.3 mph for trout. Right now it is quite easy to tell where the dropoffs are in the reservoir since the water is so low, so trolling along these is where I would think the fish are at. However, I seem to come home at most with 1 or 2 trout.

I tend to avoid the middle of the reservoir, however if you have fished Lucky Peak, it isn't exactly a wide open reservoir. It is pretty narrow, here is a map of it for reference https://www.google.com/maps/place/4...1,-115.9982193,13.25z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

I really haven't used downriggers for trout successfully yet, they seem to stay in the top 20ft of the surface, so not sure if I need to, specially since the water is starting to cool down and fish are coming up.

As Dave mentioned, he is using rapala in gold with an orange belly, I have heard good things about lures of this color, so here are a few lures I am picking up.

I really enjoy being out on the water, but I seem to be able to catch more fish by just going down to the river. If you guys have any pictures of your setup and how you fish it, it'd go a long ways to help.


I am thinking of using a flasher setup with 40" leader in front of the kwikfish and tipping the lure with 1/4 of a nightcrawler. I have tried using it plain so far, and only had 1 strike.

I have tried trolling some mepps spinners nothing on them, and got nothing.

 

[Bduck]

These are just some of what I have that has brought fish to the boat. The sizes vary in my arsenal along with non-jointed. Mostly fish on downrigger with a setback of 40-60ft. The more of these I run(2-4 rigs) I put the setback closer to 40ft and vary the depths. Turns will cause crossing lines. This time of year most lakes are at low levels, however this year in particular most of the west has been in a low level situation with the ongoing drought. The lack of water in some lakes has changed the way the fish forage around with the warmer pools.

 

[DeltaDude]

Hey Bduck, how deep do you usually go on the downrigger? Do you tip anything on those like a maggot or worm?

I only seem to have the larger sizes, they are scatterraps though J-9

My most difficult thing is figuring out when to long line, when to use a downrigger, specially if I am not marking fish 'most fish i catch i dont mark on the fish finder'

I have a firetiger quikfish and a rainbow flatfish the rainbow/orange i picked up yesterday.

Any tips on how to determine the depth you are fishing at and with what color? I dont want to be fishing at say 40ft and find out that the fish can't see the orange lure because of the light spectrum.

 

[SuperD]

DD, just my 2 cents but fish, and in particular, active fish tend to go where the food is. Water temperatures usually dictate that. Bugs and minnows generally like warmer water. That means fish come out of their comfort zone briefly to strap on the feed bag. In the Fall, that would make me fish shallow in deep water column or shallow water. When temps get either very hot or very cold, you will go deeper in the water column.

 

[DeltaDude]

DD, just my 2 cents but fish, and in particular, active fish tend to go where the food is. Water temperatures usually dictate that. Bugs and minnows generally like warmer water. That means fish come out of their comfort zone briefly to strap on the feed bag. In the Fall, that would make me fish shallow in deep water column or shallow water. When temps get either very hot or very cold, you will go deeper in the water column.

Right on, do you generally troll along sandy banks, rocky banks, cliffs/dropoffs, maybe just in the middle of the reservoir?

 

[SuperD]

Yes! LOL! The fish that you are after are predatory. They look to ambush when possible. This means around most kinds of structures and points. If I was fishing a lake for the first time with no knowledge, I'd look for signs of cover and hit all the points and drop offs.

 

[DeltaDude]

Yes! LOL! The fish that you are after are predatory. They look to ambush when possible. This means around most kinds of structures and points. If I was fishing a lake for the first time with no knowledge, I'd look for signs of cover and hit all the points and drop offs.

Right on, appreciate you guys taking the time to continue to advise me on these things. I may ask a lot of questions but I am literally taking notes and experimenting with them

If you guys have additional tips keep them coming! Anyone in Boise who wants to go fishing, always an extra seat on my boat!

 

[Bduck]

You can use a fish finder to locate the thermocline of suspended fish, as Dave has mentioned comfort zone, their temperature range and this would be oxygen enriched. Observe the downrigger weight when fishing this zone. Most lures that was posted has a bill or their shape alone allows them to swim deeper, some deeper than others, than what the weight is so judgment is required on weight placement. As summer heat settles in, the deeper the fish will go to seek their zone. I use to troll a worm behind some pop gear on leadcore line. With those days behind me, I'm all in with downriggers to get the presentation to depth with or without a worm. Now I fish with light gear with less of a drag on the line allowing me to get a feel of what's at the other end. But I don't favor the worm as once did. That doesn't mean I won't use a worm if its available. Only use the maggot when I'm kokanee fishing although trout are tempted with this freebie too. When you go trying out some of your lures, the perch scale design or rainbow color in the size 7 or 3" lure range is a good place to start. Keep changing up after that, I like trying a lure for 15-20min before swapping out with something else. Once you get into the fish, try upping the size a little.

 

[SuperDaveMT]

I decided to try my hand at musky fishing this week-end, trolled everything I had but no luck for the big toothy critters. The lake I was fishing for the first time also has trout and kokanee in it, so I trolled a slo-death rig with a night crawler in the hopes of picking up a big trout while searching for musky. I ended up catching a dozen or so chrome bright kokes (next year's spawners) on that rig trolling between 2.5 and 3.2 mph. I've never fished worms for kokes or trolled that fast, but I guess I'll give it a try next spring if the usual approach isn't working.

 

[SuperD]

Dave, what were you trolling for the Muskies with. big cranks, bait?

 

[SuperDaveMT]

I tried everything I had, big crank baits, medium crank baits, big jointed swim baits in a trout and a kokanee finish, bucktail spinners, and big spoons from 4 ft down to about 20 ft. I marked some big fish, but couldn't get them to bite. The last 4 state record tiger muskies came out of the lake I was fishing, so I'll be back one of these days. I think the last record was caught on a dead smelt drifted under a bobber, so I'll be prepared to try that next time. There was a 6 year gap in musky stocking, so it may be a few years before there are state record size fish again.

 

[clawman]

As water temps drop on Lake Roosevelt in Washington surface trolling gets pretty good. My favorite lure is Owner Cultiva. Colors are probably lake specific but here the blue or rainbow pattern works best. I continue to try different crankbaits but day in and day out the Cultiva outfishes them all.