Koke newb from West Linn, OR

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West Linn Wader

New member
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
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Hola All,

Kokanee newb here from the Portland area. For me kokanee fishing is a rare occurrence, mainly because I tend to fish closer to home (for steelhead and salmon) but am looking to branch out this year. I love catching the larger fish but when it comes to eating them I am a much bigger fan of kokanee & sockeye, especially smoked.

I do an online lure site called firststrikelures which is mainly spinners and spoons for steelhead and salmon and components (blades, etc). A recent customer inquiry was about whether or not we can do smaller sized blades (00, 0, 1) for kokanee fishing which is something I've been meaning to learn more about, both as a fisherman and as someone who is interested in understanding what types of lures you pro's use, and possibly adding kokanee lures to our online shop down the road. Our differentiator is that the lures and parts we carry are small-batch ultra high-quality stuff, made by a small, local family-run operation. Plating and painting is done in house and when it comes to silver plating I personally have never seen anything else come close. One reason, unlike others that do genuine silver plating, there's no nickel primer involved here so your getting the full reflective potential of genuine silver.

I'm not looking to peddle kokanee lures here...yet ;) When and if that time ever comes I would become a sponsor. Right now I'm just interested in honest feedback. The only thing I've ever used for kokanee is wedding rings and corn! Is there demand for higher quality kokanee lures? If so, I have access to all types of blades in small sizes and all finishes including brass, copper, genuine gold, genuine polished silver, white silver and dozens of solid and translucent paints and would love to get some ideas for future potential prototypes.

Many thanks in advance!

GS/WLW
 
Welcome aboard always interested in new materials glad to help anyway possible.
 
WLW, welcome to our group. Take a peek at our tackle craft forum to see what some of us that are building our own stuff are doing. I'm sure that you have scouted the internet to see what potential competition is already producing. Regarding honest feedback, Kokanee are a heck of a lot easier to catch than salmon or steelhead. That being said, There are a ton of GREAT lures on the market that don't break the bank. In fact, $4.00 spinners is in part what drives some of us to buy our own high quality parts to build a $1.50/ea spinner. A $7 Koke lure makes no sense to me but might have a small market. There is so many tackle suppliers that sell good materials, reasonably, that you'd really need to show your uniqueness to get my business. If you could sell a beautifully painted blade for under $2, I'd probably be interest in small quantities. I'll check out your website to see what you've already got going on. Good Luck!
 
WLW, welcome to our group. Take a peek at our tackle craft forum to see what some of us that are building our own stuff are doing. I'm sure that you have scouted the internet to see what potential competition is already producing. Regarding honest feedback, Kokanee are a heck of a lot easier to catch than salmon or steelhead. That being said, There are a ton of GREAT lures on the market that don't break the bank. In fact, $4.00 spinners is in part what drives some of us to buy our own high quality parts to build a $1.50/ea spinner. A $7 Koke lure makes no sense to me but might have a small market. There is so many tackle suppliers that sell good materials, reasonably, that you'd really need to show your uniqueness to get my business. If you could sell a beautifully painted blade for under $2, I'd probably be interest in small quantities. I'll check out your website to see what you've already got going on. Good Luck!

Thanks for the replies. SuperD - In the steelhead lure space we aren't selling anything unique when it comes to type of lures. We do your typical french blade spinners and spoons. What makes them unique and quite popular here is the quality of paint, the wide variety of color options and the quality of the plating, especially when it comes to genuine silver. That fact that we also sell them for what you'd pay for the average mass-produced steehead spinner or spoon doesn't hurt. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is...are those things as important in the kokanee lure space?

My kokanee fishing experience has mostly involved trolling a wedding ring-type of lure behind some sort of flasher arrangement at various depths. As I recall the flasher setups were chrome and the wedding rings had gold or chrome-colored blades. I assume the reason the flashers and blades are chrome is to utilize light reflection to attract fish. Nickel and chrome do fine to reflect light in shallow and clear water but their ability to do that diminishes very rapidly under deeper water. This is where a finish like genuine silver would be magnitudes better on both a spinner blade and a flasher for that matter. Do any of the tackle suppliers or lure makers you buy from offer genuine silver finishes on this stuff and if not why not?

When it comes to cost, to me a lot depends on how often I lose tackle. Do you guys lose a lot of gear? If I'm losing several lures each outing then cost is important. On the other hand, if I'm utilizing a technique where I rarely lose a lure then I'd be fine paying whatever the cost is to have the absolute best lure I could find.

To answer your question, our blades are beautiful. The picture below is just one example. Those are a few of our "candy" colors on french blades which is translucent paint over a genuine silver plating on a brass blank and they cost around $1.40 per blade. At this time I am looking to expand my offerings and appreciate all your guy's comments w/regard to kokanee.

GS/WLW



candysmall.jpg
 
I loved the "Candy" blades. As a general rule, Colorado and Indiana blades tend to rule the day. And if the Koke fisherman are smart enough to throw the manufactures leader away, we don't lose a lot of tackle. A lot of the season is fishing to suspended fish. However, there are occasions to bounce the bottom.
 
I assume the reason the flashers and blades are chrome is to utilize light reflection to attract fish. Nickel and chrome do fine to reflect light in shallow and clear water but their ability to do that diminishes very rapidly under deeper water. This is where a finish like genuine silver would be magnitudes better on both a spinner blade and a flasher for that matter. Do any of the tackle suppliers or lure makers you buy from offer genuine silver finishes on this stuff and if not why not?
Both silver and gold are available. The brass, copper and gold blades are effective if over cast situations or murky water for a contrast perspective as well as really bright, high sun if too much flash is present. Us Koke fishermen are true tackle whores with multiple, multiple options in every color. Last year's hot lure rarely seems to be the next year's hot lure so the tackle bag gets heavy pretty quick.

My Kokanee dodger bag
storage1u.jpg
 
Wow!

OK..now you got me thinkin' :) Perhaps we also consider dodgers. Could do some really cool painted designs on the larger canvas!

GS
 
WLW guess you need to get on the lakes for yourself and try your stuff.I use a lot of custom stuff from Looney lures. You got a great ideas with solid silver wobbler. Getting suppliers to get away from the Salmon market is hard. I personnel order most of my goodies on line local stores haven't figured it out yet.
 

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