[fishing bear]

So what is your choice rod and reel for trolling for these silver bullets. And do you use a down-rigger or not.

 

[johnguz76]

If you have a downrigger thats best to target these fish.Use your electronics to find schools then drop you;r lure to desired depth and keep hitting that school.I have the laker style of downrigger on my Crestliner and they work well.
You could also use lead line with 4-5 colors out but make sure there is about 30 feet of mono at the end.
For rods the wife and i both have Lamiglas Fc76 Ul ultralite fiberglass rods and they are mated to a levelwind reel Ambassador C3 filled with 6-8 lb test Trilene.Use flasher with 18in to 24in of leader to you;r lure of choice.Kokanee like bright colors so try different stuff till you fine a combination that works.Tip you;r lure with white shoepeg corn one kernel will do Kokes love this corn.Only use shoepeg white corn.Scents can be used on the lure and corn as well..I use those little salsa cups i get at Taco Time and soak the corn in different scents overnite.Anise seems to be the best scent i have found.
For you;r downrigger use a good ultra lite release.Let you;r rod set the hook for you as these fish have soft mouths and ripping a hookset like a bass will rip it out of its mouth.
Watch the temps of the water if the lake is too cold they wont strike..
I was fournate to have met the guy that owns Rocky Mountain Tackle and his tackle is the only stuff i use anymore.Only place you can find it around here is at Sportsmans Warehouse in Burlington.
You can go to kokanee power website and read a article by Phil Johnson.His tips are great..Hope this helps..Good luck

 

[Hunter P]

What about a Sockeye style rig (bare hook)?

 

[The_Rook]

Another question, I found a small lake near my house that is rumored to have some KOKES in it. Yet it is no motorized boats, how would I target them from my pontoon? Never fished for them before besides, snagging them in Colorado (legal). Thanks for any help!

 

[GURU]

Thanks to some help from guy's on here, I use a 7' UL Kokanee Special baitcaster from Lamiglass, only about 75$, than I paired it with a Shimano Cardiff 201 for 99$ and I absolutely love it, I don't even use my other trout poles when I go out anymore :lol: , and I always use the downriggers, even if the fish are close to the top, I just love the feel with no weight on the line Tup:

 

[ImaginThat]

Being a poor fisherman with a bunch of kids, we use the trout rods they all have decent 6-14lb. 7' graphite rods and I run 1 - 1 1/2 oz. banana weights. to get the depths I mark there lines at 25' intervals and base amount of line out by speed and "the angle of the dangle". Using the fish finder see where they are hanging at tell the kids which mark to let out to and let the slayin begin. I do have small DR's for my boat but find that it is easier and quicker to do it this way, heck I can get a fish in the boat throw another piece of corn on and lower the line and usually get another hit before getting out of the school. Now if I could find a place with good deals on Sep's dodgers, I believe there is a piece of lawn furniture in the middle of the lake that has a couple of mine hangin on it and probably a few others too!

 

[WidgeonmanGH]

As a kid fishing them in smaller lakes in OR. We used leaded line with a 3' leader and a #2 needle fish. Frog or perch was always the go to. Occasionally a tiny piece of corn on the end. (too much and it screws up the action of the lure) personally I think just slimming the corn on there works just as good. Keep it simple and you will enjoy it more! The leaded line on old penn level winds works great.

Now we use downriggers and our trout rods with 8# mono and a #2 needle fish. We don't necessarily target Kokes but our annual Roosevelt trip we occasionally pick one up.

Here was this years.

 

[epidemic]

I'm using the Lami 7' UL with a revo s baitcaster. This rod must be used on the downrigger since the rods action is so light. When I have friends with me I set them up with a banana weight and tell them how many pulls to let out so that they are in the zone, based on the fish finder. Kokes are fun because once you find them and get them dialed in, the fishing is constant. I can usually call out when I will get a bite based on what I see on the fish finder.

 

[jdlunk]

I have found that downriggers are the easiest way to be able to fish the exact depth they are holding in. Also if you rig it right, all your hardware can be on the ball with only the lure on your line. I will be getting the 76UL Lamiglass Baitcaster soon myself. I know you can do it with lead line or bananna weights and all that but in my opinion a downrigger is the way to go. If you are seeing fish 60 feet down just set your rigger to 60 and adjust from there. Also then you are only fighting the fish and not all of the gear.

 

[fishing bear]

I use a MBC 702 UL 7' Lami and a Pflueger President reel. Have not yet bought a fishfinder or downrigger. I mark my line every 10" with a marker and adjust my weight and watch the line angle to get the depth I want to fish the lake that I usually fish is 50' at the deepest point and I have found most of the places that the Koks hang out. They stay around 20 to 40 Ft. deep. Might step up and get a fish finder this year not much room on a 8' Livingston oh well might need a bigger boat.

 

[fishing bear]

To The_Rook I fished for Kokanee with my pontoon for 2 years I had a pole holder mounted right in front of the seat and marked my line every 10' adjust weight and line angle for depth. It can be done I got tired of rowing so I got a 8' Livingston and put a electric trolling motor on it.

 

[GURU]

I use a MBC 702 UL 7' Lami and a Pflueger President reel. Have not yet bought a fishfinder or downrigger. I mark my line every 10" with a marker and adjust my weight and watch the line angle to get the depth I want to fish the lake that I usually fish is 50' at the deepest point and I have found most of the places that the Koks hang out. They stay around 20 to 40 Ft. deep. Might step up and get a fish finder this year not much room on a 8' Livingston oh well might need a bigger boat.

That is the same rod I use the 702UL, if you don't think you have enough room for a fishfinder, just get a fishing buddy depthfinder that clamps on the side of the boat so it is out of the way, I think someone was just selling one on the classifieds. Tup:

 

[fishing bear]

I have heard good and bad things about the Fishin Buddy does anyone have any input on this?

 

[Theking]

You cannot troll with the fishing buddy. It has a cheap plastic mount that snaps at the slightest pressure.

 

[steelyden]

Me and a buddy used his fishingbuddy on my trout boat for almost 10 years before it puked. You definately can troll with them, we never had any problems with breakage, just remove it from it's holder when you speed up to move somewhere. It isn't the most sensitive fish finders out there, but for a cheap portable it wasn't bad, it showed the fish in 2 different icons and had about a 25' radius at 30 feet. It worked pretty good for a portable.

 

[Kokanee Kid]

Maybe you can see the name on the rod? That there is a $30 rod. This year i'd like to get a new reel. And hopefully you see the wire on the left, that's a down rigger. I got to tell ya, a downrigger is the ticket, period. I will never go back to the old way of pulling several oz.of lead. The fight is so much better. Diawa has a new spinmatic-c rod for $40,shimanno has a new kok rod for $70, and the lamiglass has 2 koke rods one is around $60 and the other around $140.

It all comes down to how much ya wana spend.

 

[TRAUT]

... We used leaded line with a 3' leader and a #2 needle fish. ....Keep it simple and you will enjoy it more! The leaded line on old penn level winds works great.

I use an old Penn 9M or 109 and leaded line all the time in bigger lakes and it works as well or better than downriggers without the hassle. ON the smaller lakes it won't fly because you just have too much line out. I normally run around 3 colors out, which is 90' of line, plus at least a 50' mono leader. Sure helps with boat shy fish, but you can't troll around anybody else, or on smaller lakes.

One technique that I use on smaller lakes is to set up a little ahead of where I think the fish are, and then drop my dodger/lure combo to the bottom without any added weight. Then I put the troller in gear and make a pass through the area. The lure then kites up through the entire water column. When it gets too close to the top, stop and let it flutter back down and then take off again. This start/stop method really works well for me.

Also, here's a proven set up , tip it with maggot, Power Maggot, corn or worm -

 

[ImaginThat]

I like inline weight 1oz up to 2oz the little Sep's dodgers and wedding rings with a little green giant on them. Never needed much more weight to troll at the 1-2 knot range. I'm in the camp of going riggerless, to much hassle in a small boat besides I wanna play the fish not have one kid trying to wind up the rigger the other get the net. Ultimatley I would love some small level winds with counters on them, thinking of trying some of those little line counters you clip to your rod sometimes you get blurred on which sharpie mark you let out too wink:

 

[WidgeonmanGH]

My brother in OR also jigs for them using buzz bombs. They find a school and then stick with them with the jigs. I have never tried this and really haven't heard much up this way about doing it that way. But (at least looking at other forums) this method is evidently used quite extensively.

 

[Kokanee Kid]

Here is some of my favorites