Loosing fish at the boat

[Wickid Kokanee]

Hello all new to the forum Me and my buddy were at Dworshak today and put 40 in the boat long lining. But must have lost at least 80 with in 15 to 20 feet of the boat. This is the second year I have fished it and I do not remember loosing that many. So my question is has anyone else have this problem and what can be done to help cut it down. Also the fish seem to be rolling more after being hooked than they have in the past. Any help would be great.

 

[dragonfly]

WK there is a much greater loss factor long lining than with downriggers mainly to do with the excess weight you are dragging and the fish uses this as leverage to fight against. 2 of us fished greenpeter sat and got our limits using downriggers and chamberlains. had 5 drive buys 2 of which I contribute to not having the 2 new chamberlains dialed in, and only 4 get off and that was on a single hook spoon every thing else was dbl hook, but I agree they seam to be spinners this year if you are not using dbl hooks I would switch to that and maybe putting a snubber on but it needs to be between the lure leader and where it hooks to the troll to be most effective to take up the shock. the further up the less effective it will be because the fish will still be jerking on the trolls and or weight. another thing is make sure the body of your lures slide on the line separate from the hooks that way when they start shaking they will not be using the body as leverage to tear it out of there mouth. sounds like you guys have it dialed in. the fish we were getting were in the 55' to 90' range and averaged 11 1/2'' 12'' and we got 1 big female at not quite 14''. dfly

 

[Iverfish]

Try using a snubber...
I got some stretchy monofilament at a bead store. It is .8MM in diameter. It is virtually invisible, and very tough stuff. I tie a loop in each end of a 10" piece and put it between the troll and the lure leader. If you use a dodger, just put it behind.

If the fish are skittish, sometimes long lining it is the only way to get'em...

 

[SuperD]

My 2cents. Do everything you can to keep them from breaking the surface. That usually means sticking the tip of your rod in the water when they start getting thrashy on top too far away from the boat. The other natural instinct as a beginning koke fisherman is to pull the rod with your upper body when the fish starts getting close to the boat. Keep your arms extended and just go slow. I think you will significantly cut down your SDR's if you observe those 2 tips.

 

[DLM]

All great advice here.

One thing I am always amazed at is the speed in which some bring in their fish, almost like they have a time limit to get them to the boat. In our boat we bring them in slooooooow and gentle with a light drag and as SuperD says we keep them from performing their aerial acrobatics. Light drag, slow retrieve and the right rod all help keep from ripping the hook out. By the time they reach the boat they are worn out and usually surrender peacefully. Ya, it takes a while longer to bring them in, but we have a very high landing rate.

 

[mrmike]

The information offered covers everything I can think of. If I could add I would just maybe go to a larger hook size like one size up. I have no idea the size of the fish your catching but I believe the snubber will help you a lot also. I personnel use the powder coated gomo and sickle hooks in size 4# my last outing at Odell I think we lost 4 fish all day. Good luck

 

[fishslayer13]

Dworshak kokes are the worst Ive ever delt with for being soft mouthed. Now that they are heavier than ever before they take a little bit of different tactics to put more in the boat. The photo below shows the snubber to use, they are braid. The latex rubber tubing ones "Bottom out" with these kokes. The braids have more resistance.
Light rod and good snubbers do help. My keep rate went up last year when I went to # 4 Matzuro sickle hooks. They seem to find the top part of the mouth more than the Gama I was using. The next thing that works some time is to add a # 12 treble hook to trail behind the # 4. Dont bait it. Keep your bait on the #4 leader hook. The 12 treble will sometime go down in the mouth and catch the tongue and upper roof of the mouth, avoiding the soft lips.. But for this set up to work they must be hammering your set up. If not then they will only get caught by the #12 in the lips.
Next try stopping your trolling motor or even back down on them. If they start the wind mill thing that they do, then stop reeling, sometime that helps. I have no cure but some things to try and some things to think about.

 

[mrmike]

ain't these fish fun!! I had extremely hard time with fish ripping loose at Wickiup Res because of there size. I went to a double snubber to stop them from just having there lips on my hooks. great advise finally someone realizing snubbers are important it just isn't a noodle rod/ you need its the hole package. I thought I was just loosing fish until I notice they were ripping off. Once I went to double snubbers they stuck like I was using super glue.

 

[Reelnfish]

I just got back from Wickiup, what a great kokanee lake! Averaged about 7 aday, the largest was 20". I lost more than I landed. I tried different retrieves, drag settings, it didnt seem to make any difference. I haven't tried using snubbers, I don't see anything soft about their mouths. I use a Kufa kokanee rod. Any suggestions?

 

[ctkid]

first off, how do you even come close to 40 kokanees? 10 is a good day here and 5 are lost at the boat.

 

[SuperD]

Reelnfish, a longer net. LOL!

 

[Mharri333]

Like DFLY, I switched to the Chamberlain releases and it kept us from losing as many fish. It takes a bit to get them dialed in but once you do they work great. They allow you to load the rod so it takes the slack out right away. It also keep you from draggin around little fish unknowingly. Now, I don't catch small fish but I have read stories about people that do. Seems like a terrible thing to have happen. laugh hyst I also got one of the extendable handle nets. That gives me a LOT more reach so I can get out to them when they have thier panic attack after seeing the boat. The extended net is a HUGE plus.

 

[kootne]

Hi, new to this site and only a mediocre fisherman at best. My wife and I have been trolling for kokanees and getting some, losing some (Koocanusa reservoir) What we use is small cowbells with 1+ oz. weight, snubber, wedding ring and a pink maggot. Out of flusteration I also came up with the 2 snubber idea. I think it helps. But what I think help even more is when they hit we just let them have it for a while. The logic is this; if they're hooked good, they'll stay hooked and when they get tired the percentage moves way over in the fisherman's favor. With the big sinker a lot of times I can't tell if the fish is still hooked til it's close to the boat so by letting them just fight the pole without reeling in for a while they get tired and I can watch the rod and know they are still hooked. If they don't hook the line is still out there for the next one to bite. These are not big fish (9") I believe they are the ones that will spawn next year. But we get lots of bites and got 22 in the boat last time out. Maybe 40-50% success. Without 2 snubbers and letting them tire it's about 10%.
just my opinion,
kootne

 

[Wickid Kokanee]

Hey thanks or all the input sorry i haven"t responded before this but have been away.