Kokanee and King Salmon fishing 101's..pics Included

Heres a shitload of pics of some of the tackle and gear i use to catch Kokanee and King slamon with..Keep in mind that Kings and Kokanee are two different kinds of salmon with 2 different behavior and eating habits. You can catch kings on the same tackle and setups you use for kokes, but are still different. Kings WILL eat any baitfish they can fit in their mouth including baby kings and kokanee. Kokanee on the other hand will ONLY eat plankton! They bite lures out of aggression! And thats pretty the much goal when koke fishing is 2 piss them off! Your rod should be an Ultra Light in action and the flimsier or limber the better as this helps to fight and land these soft mouth fish. MainLine should be 6-10lb. mono max and the reel should hold at least 150yds of line. I use 6-8lb. flouro for leader but mono will work fine. The reason i like mono for mainline is because its clear and it stretches which helps gets more bites and helps to land more fish. Salmon have very good vision and the lighter you go, the more bites you'll get.




Dodgers are very important and a must have when koke fishing. Theres a lot of colors and styles on the market which can be confusing and hard to choose from. Ill make it easy for you. Keep your dodger style and selecting simple by either choosing rocky mountain/shasta tackle styles or seps/vance's style dodgers, or both. Theres a few more brands out there that do work but these two styles are the most popular for a good reason. iF YOU NOTICE THE SHASTA/ROCKYm. STYLE DODGERS ARE SLINDER IN STYLE COMPARED TO SEPS/VANCES STYLES. These style dodgers work better at faster trolling speeds and wont flip or turnover when trolled faster like seps/vances dodgers will. Seps/Vances dodgers although have a much wider wobble when trolled compared to the other style. These are great for slower speeds. Both styles will work great, it just depends on what the fish want more on that given day. Sometimes it takes a wider, harder wobble to get them to bite. The lil sidekick dodgers have their moments but i mostly and only use these dodgers early in the season when the fish are up top near the surface and dont need a lot of flash or vibe. Or when the fish are spooky and want less. Matching your dodger colors to your lure of choice helps the fish find your lure better and is helpful but not completly necessary. Ive caught plenty of fish mix matching different colors and sometimes im just lazy to change or mtach and sometimes the fish just dont care. If you can try to buy dodgers in different colors and patterns. Pink and any UV pattern is a good start but plain silver/nickel and gold/ copper colors are a good standby as well. NOTICE THE BITE MARKS ON THE WATERMELON DODGER!





Basic lures and tackle. Theres tons of name brands and lures out there for kokanee and this can be confusing when trying to decide what to buy. I could go on for days on what works when and why one lure will work better on some days other than some others. To help narrow this down for you, buy a few hoocies/bugs and buy a few apex's or spinners. The reason Im suggesting to buy both is because well, they both or all work. When koke fishing, more is better. I cant stress how much these fish will change moods or what they want to hit in a given day. Thats why its good to have a lil bit of everything if you can. Maybe there biting on bugs in the morning then stop...You put on a spinner and they bite again. This is because your giving them want they want and its momentarly working. If your gonna buy anything, Buy it if it has UV on it. UV coated lures really help get the fish's attention. Glows also work really well, especially when fishing early before sunrise or deep down where theres not much light. NOTE: Lures that make or create thier own action such as apex's, spinners, and j-plugs you must use a longer leader when using a dodger with these style lures. Reason being you dont want the dodger throwing off the lures own created action. I keep my spinners anywhere from 14-20ins. away from the dodger, and my apex's/j-plugs no shorter than 24ins. Bugs and hoocies on the other hand, you want them to be short. And sometimes the shorter the better. Pretty much, 8ins. and shorter is where you want to be when using lures that dont make thier own action. Checking up on current reports on any lake your gonna fish will help you to determine what lure and color is being used and what is catching the fish.











Other tips and tricks: Using a scent on your dodger and lure could make the difference of catching fish and going home skunk. And this is especially true for adding a piece of White Shoepeg Corn to the hook(s) of your lure of choice. No one is really sure why, but when koke fishing you have to have your lures tipped with that corn. If you dont have the corn then a good alternative would be berkley maggots or small pieces of worms instead but smeared with some kind of scent. The scent helps hide away amino acids that are in your skin and that could be transfer onto your lures. Salmon could smell these amino acids and thats why its a good idea to use some kind of scent. Trust me, using a scent will never hurt. Plus, it may just be whats needed to get them finickly fish to bite.



Lastly and finally the intial setup. Not everyone is capable of using a downrigger on their kayak so im gonna show you some proven fish catching setups that work for me. Depending on the time of the year and where the fish are staging at, its very important to get your offering to the fish. Early in the season when the kokes are up high and near the surface, it may be wise to have a long setback. Reason being is because you may spook those fish when you pass over them. If the kokes are up in the upper 20ft to surface range, then all you may need is just the dodger and lure with no weight set 150-200ft behind you. This is where light lines will help you cause they get your offerings down deeper. If your still not deep enough or not getting bit then try a 3-way swivel rig with a lil weight attached. Chossing the right weight honestly depends on what size your weight is, how much line you have out and how fast your paddling or peddling. This is the most challenging part of fishing for kokes and kings when fishing off of your yak. It will take trial and error to kinda figure out how deep your getting using this rig/method. I normally use a 1oz ball weight when using this rig and I pretty much double the amount of line out for the depth im trying to reach. For example, if I wanna get down 20ft using a 1oz weight then ill let out 40ft of line. And Im usually right in that target depth. Now there is another invention that currently has caught my interest and its The LongLiner by AnglerInnovations. It pretty much works the same as the 3-way rig but it has a great advantage. With the LongLiner you could actually create your setback and set the device anywhere on your line allowing you to have a 40ft. plus setback if you wish. It takes some getting use to but it could really help you get to those fussy fish where a longer set back is needed. When using any of the above mention rigs, it is crucial to have a moving start when letting out your line. The reason being is because you dont want your dodger and lure to fall on itself and get all tangled up. The last thing you want is to be trolling around for an hour all tangled up wondering why you havnt gotten a strike yet.



Note: The leader lenghts shown above are only showing you an example of how its suppose to be rig. if using the 3-way rig, use a min. of 20in. of line from the dodger to the eye of the swivel. Hope this all helps. Please fill free to add if you like. Theres so much more that i can say to help you catch more fish but theres just aint enough room on here to explain. Just look forward to some major pre-tourny hookups at Berry where i will extensively show you how to fish for these lil bastards! Until then, fish on and fish hard. Ricci

Thanks Ricci. Nice job!

Thanks for compiling all this knowledge bro!  Looks like there's a lot of room for frustration with these damn salmons  This is a great start for me  and Im lookin forward to gettin up to berry soon to try it all out. Great post   

Thank you for the great post Ricci.

Awesome post Ricci! 

You sure got a lot of koke gear. 

Thanks Ricci.

That is a lot of great information, thanks for posting that. Now its time to buy more gear and get out and fish more. See you out on the water sometime soon!

Roger

Cool thanx for the info bro. I look forward to Trying to catch one of these alleged "bastards"  Hopefully we can get some pretourney fishing in soon. lets piss um off! Leme know when its good!

Thanks for the great info and pix Ricci. I need to start saving my pennies and plan a trip to FW.

Great write up on kokanee and salmon fishing Ricci. Thanks for sharing.

Jedmo

Thanks! Great info.

Right on  Thanks a bunch for showing us how it's done!

ernest

  thanx for trying to:help:a brutha out!

This is a great candidate for a "sticky" post! 

Thanks Ricci! I think I will have to get out there this weekend and give it another shot for removing the smell of skunk on my kayak. With all the tips lately hopefully I can figure out how to outsmart those damn Berry fish!