Jigging?

[niswanger]

Hey gang,

Heading to Lake Heron in northern NM 2nd week of August. We've never been Kokanee fishing and will only have Kayaks with fish/depth finder. I suppose we need to resort to jigging and was wondering if anyone has any pointers on jigging? Lures? Found these but I suppose we really need to know what is working at that time and what section of the Lake is best: http://www.kokaneetackle.com/p-320-p-line-kokanee-jig.aspx

Thanks,
Roy

 

[SilverBullets]

The p-line and gibbs jigs work well here in Oregon. I've jigged from a 9' inflateable pontoon with good success. Bring a anchor and try jigging just off the bottom where you mark fish on the finder. The 1/2oz jigs work well when stationary even down to the 80-100' depth. Also, try targeting suspended kokes while doing a slow drift. Use 3/4oz jigs and lower the jig down to the depth you see them at on the fishfinder. Either count your pulls (measure from the reel to the first eye on the pole) or get metered line. The tuff-line sp indicator braid is a different color every 10' and makes it easy and fast to get to the right depth. Smear some gel scent on the jigs and if your able to use corn a couple kernals won't hurt. Try jigs in pink, orange, and white for starters...good luck and let us know how it goes!signfishin

 

[Busspass]

I've had good luck in the past with the pink and white Buzz Bombs in 3/4oz. Depending how active you feel like being I've also had great luck by simply paddling around in the kayak and trolling. Get yourself a pole holder and paddle around. You'd be surprised how easy it is. In fact the hard pard is not goin too fast. Good luck.

 

[niswanger]

Great information, thanks. We were initially thinking about downriggers (simple with line/weight/release) but didn't want to make it too complicated. We've never had Kokanee and really want to catch a few to eat. Here's the rig we'll use, along with another normal kayak:

Maybe have one reel in a holder with some weighted line (not sure how weighted line works) and one reel in hand casting and jigging while drifting some? We'll be using medium weight gear (abu garcia 5300 with 6.5' medium action rods and 20lb test braid (a little overkill for Kokanee, but what if a larger lake trout hits).

Thanks for the help.
Roy

 

[Busspass]

Instead of leaded line maybe try a simple 1oz banana weight and then about 3' of line in between the weight and a dodger. Then put your hoochie/wedding ring about 8"-12" behind your dodger. Try to keep your speed at about 1-1.5mph and you should do just fine once you find out what depth they're at. Good luck.

 

[niswanger]

Nice reel, but I'm not digging for grouper any more

Can someone point me to a good diagram or instruction on what banana weights are and how to use them? There's a good description at the bottom of this page but for the last description he doesn't include any diagram etc.: http://www.fishbc.com/adventure/angling/protalk/reid/troll1.phtml

Thanks,
Roy