Losing Kokanee Too Much

[ThatKokaneeKid]

I've Been kokanee fishing for a few years now, and it never seemed to bother me before. But recently, living in Bellingham, i have been fishing lake samish (putting out nice kokes) and been having some trouble keeping the fish on my line. I Usually run a double hook rig close together with a small piece of night crawler and a few corn kernels on the hooks. No wedding ring, but i recently added a wedding ring and used only one piece of corn, and i am still losing over 70% of the bites/ hookups i get. I even tried DUAL triple hooks, and the fish simply bite it quick, feel the metal and let go before hooking up. Whats the best hook rig to hook these soft mouthed little guys?

 

[SuperD]

Give us the rest of the specs on your set up, rod size, length and weight(stiffness). What test of line? Do you run your drag at almost no tension or cranked down? Are you fishing with downriggers, lead core or heavy weight? We need to know all the facts. ;-)

 

[ThatKokaneeKid]

2-8lb test ultra light action rod. 7' 6''. Dodger no snubber with the hooks 18-20 inches behind. Downrigger. 8lb test mainline 4lb leader. Drag is loose enough so that any pulling the koke does the can take it. Stilll miss on average 75%% of bites and lose about the same near the boat or on the way up.

 

[SuperD]

Yeah, that's a bad average with that described set up. The only local lakes I have that kind of problem with are ones where the kokes are very small and the mouthes literally rip out. If you are keeping your rod up and contant pressure, I don't know what to tell you.

 

[SilverBullets]

Welcome to KFF! Loseing a few kokes on the way in is just part of kokanee fishing but there are a few tricks to up your success rate. Check out this past thread... http://www.kokaneefishingforum.com/fishing-forums/showthread.php?t=1347 I know for me having a snug setting on the release clip and letting the fish hook themself rather than having them release it helps, and not being in too big of a hurry to pick the rod up out of the holder when the rod tip starts bouncing. I think keeping the boat in gear helps too. I've had way better success while useing a short set-back...most of the reeling is bringing the fish up as opposed to useing a long set-back where the fish have more time to get to the surface and fly out of the water. It sounds like you got the right gear...how about a long handled net?

 

[ThatKokaneeKid]

Yea i have had good days, i went 5 for 5 a few week ago in 30 minutes. I think it might be the pressure, theres 20 boats EACH and EVERY morning, so i think a lot of the aggressive fish are being caught, and they less-aggressive light biters are whats left. Earlier in the year i was doing ALOT better which makes me think its the fish, and not me. haha. Yea actually i bought a long handled net today, would definetly help some. But well see, wait for a day when there really on the bite and slamming it, and see if i do better. If so, its the fish, if not, im in trouble. Lol thanks guys.

 

[Ken Jones]

Try tying your101chromefish101 own setup. Use Number 4 Steelhead hooks. Tye bottom hook about inch and a half from hook above it. Bait only your bottom hook. Keep tip of your pole as low as possible while retrevlng your fish. I put tip of my pole under water while reeling in the fish. Maybe this will help bringing more into the net.

 

[Fishin-RN]

Yes I was curious about your hooksize too. Maybe switch to smaller size? You can try offsetting the tip of the hook from the shaft too. some of mine are as much as 35-40 deg offset. set the hooks back further from the lure sometimes works really well, especially for hoochies.
Another thing that got me thinking was last time I was out I marinated my corn and after a few days I was getting just as many bites but the corn was falling off after a single bite. Pro cure corn magic really firms it up some, keeps it on the hook. Good luck!

 

[skookum9]

As a jigger, the best thing I ever did to up my percentage was to learn to quit setting the hook on them. This took me from less than 20% boated to about 80% boated. Since you are trolling, you are probably not setting your hooks so this would probably do you no good.

The one thing I would like to see and know how it worked for you is to change your leader length. You mentioned that you are using dodgers so perhaps you are fishing with hoochies and find that your leader length needs to stay a constant. If not, then I would play around with leader length on the days when you are having hooking/landing troubles. When I used to troll for trout, I learned that I could control their bite by the distance between the flasher and the lure or bait. If the leader were too short this could cause "short strikes" or busted leaders. If the leader was too long, the fish would come up and mouth and eat the bait without ever being detected. And this desired leader length could change almost daily under the right conditions. If I were you, I'd at least try playing around with the leader length and see if that changed anything. If you do try this, I would appreciate hearing what your results are. Good luck and I hope your odds pick up.

 

[southside]

Welcome aboard!!

Make sure that your hooks are needle sharp. I sharpen mine often and it does make a hugh diffrence.

Peace, Tom

 

[sisca]

Nice thread

Good job guys.....

 

[ThatKokaneeKid]

Headin out early tomorrow morning to see if the fish will bite a little better and stay on for once. Ill let you guys know if all the info works for me.

 

[den63]

I run my leader 12 to 13 inch at 1.1 to 1.2 mph if i need more action i shorten
my leater.

 

[DLM]

This spring I switched over to sickle hooks because I liked the shape and the super sharpness. Since then, my landing rate has dropped significantly. I have now went back to slipshot/dropshot hooks and that seems to have cured the problem. I think the shape of the sickle hook made it a little harder for the fish to get his full mouth around it. All I know is the dropshot hooks work better for me, size 4.

 

[mrmike]

There is some great advise here. Two years ago I noticed I was loosing more fish then average.but the fish were running a little bigger. I went the other way and purchased sickle hooks larger and my problem was solved. I use 8# Maxa ultra green and 6 # leader double hook up close together, with a glow in the dark small bead in between hooks. I haven't notice the kokanee to be that line shy like a trout. were I need to drop to 4# line. I just think your hooks may be too small. I know its against the normal but my success rate I'm quite happy with. I've changed over to sickle hooks also, but can't notice that much difference I do like the bigger area for bait like corn etc I've like the Goma Hooks coated worked O.K. too .hope this helps.

 

[ThatKokaneeKid]

I went to samish like I said and did much better. I think the last 2 weeks the fish were just a little shy and biting light. Yesterday they were hitting much harder, and me and my buddy landed 10 of 14 takes between 5am and 630am. I guess sometimes its just up to the fish to take it harder!

 

[redmanjr1]

I lost a lot of fish this last weekend but my success went way up after I did two things...1st, I checked my hooks and all were not very sharp. After sharpening the fish started staying on the end of my line. 2nd, grew a little more patience and let the rod sit for a few seconds longer to let them set their own hook. That also seemed to help. All good advice here though. There can be a multitude of factors keeping fish out of the boat and it all seems to hinge on individual setups. Excellent thread.

Bob

 

[SuperDaveMT]

The only thing I can add to the already provided advice is consider running your flashers off the ball and don't use a flasher/dodger on your line. I find that the kokes are amazing at changing direction so fast that they create slack in the line between themselves and the dodger/flasher when it is on the line. Sometimes you gotta have the extra flash to get hits, but when you don't, it's worth a try.

 

[Metal Manipulator]

You are right in sayin that Kokanee can change direction. I recently had two Kokanee take my eight feet set back and run around the downrigger cable before I even new they were on. Smiles on my face as I landed both of them by bringing up the down rigger and netting them. Arn't they so much fun.

 

[redmanjr1]

You are right in sayin that Kokanee can change direction. I recently had two Kokanee take my eight feet set back and run around the downrigger cable before I even new they were on. Smiles on my face as I landed both of them by bringing up the down rigger and netting them. Arn't they so much fun.

That is too funny!! Yeah...some of the tangles I've recently had lead me to believe that they do it on purpose as one last act of defiance.

Bob