Last Update
08/29/11
The
Troller's Scoop
My apologies for
the lack of information here, folks. I haven't been able to get
out fishing often for many reasons, and reports have been slow coming
in for the most part. Here is what I know:
CDA Lake, Id August
2011
We have been fishing
Lake CDA this summer for some decent kokanee fishing. With a limit
of 15 fish each, it's worth trolling the big lake again for kokanee.
We started off fishing the lower end near Spokane Point and Harrison.
Fishing there was good for small fish, but it's a long run from
home, so our next trip was to the north east end, launching out
of Booth Park.
Fishing anywhere
on CDA is an early morning affair, especially on the weekends. After
10 or 11am, the big boat traffic starts up and really blows the
water out of shape. Launching from Booth Park, we fished just about
anywhere and took fish. When it got slower, we headed east down
towards Wolf Lodge Bay. We took limits for all in the boat. Fish
depth, both for us and for David Thomas (thanks for the report)
was about 30 feet deep. We took fish on leaded line at 4 colors
and between 27 and 35 on the downriggers. We used the usual Cowbell
and wedding rings. I am using the wedding rings with the SMILIE
blades on them. They seem to work just as good as the metal blades,
but are a bit cheaper to buy. We baited ours with white corn and
maggots. We decided to forego the net and just lift the fish in
as we lost more trying to net them. Size is small at 9-11 inches.
Good luck, and let us know how you do.
Sekiu, WA Aug 2011
My friends met my
daughter and I for some HUMPY MANIA over in Sekiu the week of Aug
20th. We didn't get into the coho like we wanted to, but we still
each caught a few keepers. Humpies, however, made up for the difference
and filled the freezer with fillets and our canner with jars of
great future meals. We made sure to bleed our humpies immediately
upon catching and then gutted them before throwing them on ice.
We didn't do that one day, and the results were immediately noticed.
Fishing is fast paced
at dawn and then peters out thru the day. We hit the weather well
and found that sunburn was a bigger factor than rain for a change.
We also tried the bottomfishing in Area 4B for seabass and ling
cod up near "Rays Grocery". Last year we killed the fish
there in July. But this year, we didn't get any keeper lings until
the last day, and we never limited on seabass, though we tried.
We used plastics in black, white, orange and green. I also had some
Powerbait minnows that I had bought for dropshotting MACS at Priest
Lake. The fish loved them the best, both in a lime green and in
white. On the last day, my kid landed 2 keeper ling, both 10 pounds,
our only lings of the trip. She wouldn't pick them up without something
to hang on to, however!
Lake
CDA, Idaho Hot Kokanee Tips
My friend Matt is one of the best trollers I have ever met. His
attention to details is what separates the 10% of fish catchers
from the 90% who WANT to catch fish. He has graciously given us
some tips on kokanee fishing that I thought I'd share with you.
And in our regional report lower on this same page, he shares his
secret sauce to catch more kokanee. Thanks, Matt!
The
Key to Catching Kokanee...
The
key to catching kokanee (blue back, silvers etc.) is speed, depth
control and flexibility. For speed control, I use a Luhr Jensen
trolling speedometer. These units are the most accurate and least
expensive ways to control your speed. They cost about $40 at most
sporting goods stores and they last forever. All lures and flashers
work correctly at a specific speed range. Anytime you are out of
that range, you’re just dragging dead metal around the lake. Every
wake, wave set, wind gust or direction change immediately changes
your speed. The quicker you can return your speed to the range your
lure is working, the more time you are spending with your rigging
actually attracting fish. For kokanee, when you are using flashers
and a wedding ring, a speed of 1.0 knots to 1.2 knots seems to be
the range that works the best but don’t be afraid to go as fast
as 1.5 knots or as slow as 0.8 knots if that is what it takes to
generate some strikes. Day to day, hour to hour, what speed the
fish want can change, so you have to be ready to change with them.
If you go for 30 minutes without a strike, change your speed, check
your bait, make sure you’re not dragging weeds and maybe change
colors of wedding ring.
Setting
the hook
Kokanee have very soft mouths. If your hook is sharp there is no
need to set the hook. The speed of the boat is usually enough to
set the hook. Most hooks you buy are actually surprisingly dull.
A sharp hook will dig into your fingernail if you just touch the
nail with the point of the hook. Most store bought hooks won’t do
that and require sharpening. A hook you just finished sharpening
will dull with use so I’m constantly touching up my hooks, sometimes
3 or 4 times a day depending on how many fish hit. I carry a small
box of assorted replacement hooks in my tackle box because hooks
do wear out and need to be replaced. I do not use size 8, 10, 12
etc. hooks on my rigging. I use size 6 and size 4 single hooks,
they seem to catch more kokanee. If trebles are used, I use sizes
8 or 10. I keep some glow hooks in this size in my tackle box and
it only takes a minute or two to change out a hook and leader on
a wedding ring. Monofilament line wears out and degrades in the
sunlight. I replace all my leaders at least 2 or 3 times a season.
If the kokanee are up in the 14” or larger size, I replace my leaders
sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. Kokanee this size have teeth big enough
to fray your leader in the first inch or so above the hook. I run
my fingers over that section of line every couple of fish and as
soon as I feel any roughness to the line, I change it. It’s better
than the frustration of reeling in just a piece of leader after
a hit.
Depth
control
If you do not have a downrigger, there are several ways to control
your depth, but all of them require accurate speed control also.
Note, my first downrigger was an old window sash weight I put a
release on and used clothes line rope with a loop tied in the line
every 5’. I had a bolt that stuck out inside the boat that I hooked
the loop on and by counting how many loops I had out, I knew somewhat
what my depth was. I didn’t have a reel or anything, I just hand
lined the thing up and down. I have 2 reels (a Penn 309 and a Penn
330 GTI) set up with 10 colors of 27 lb. test leaded line. I have
65’ of 14 lb. test FireLine between the leaded line and my ball
bearing swivel that I hook the flasher set up to. Each color of
leaded line is 30’ so you know the amount of line you have out at
any time and the lead core line sinks as a specific rate determined
by speed. Over the years, I have learned that at 1.0 knots of speed,
pulling a 5 bladed Jack Lloyd flasher set, with all the leader out
and enough leaded line out so it just touches the water, the flashers
are running at about 6’ – 8’ deep. For each of the next 3 colors
of leaded line you go down about 5’ per color. With 4 to 6 colors
of lead out, your lure goes down 6’ – 7’ per color. I know that
with 7 colors and leader out, at 1.0 knot I’ll tag bottom between
48’ and 52’ down. With 10 colors out, the lure is running 70’ to
75’ down. If you go slower, there is less drag on the line and the
rigging, so your depth increases, going faster increases the drag
so the depth decreases. Another way to control your depth is to
attach a 2 or 3 ounce lead weight ahead of your flashers. When you
let out your line, you do it by counting pulls. With one thumb on
your line, use the other hand to pull the line from the reel to
the first eyelet on your pole. Each time you do this is a pull.
I’d start with about 30 to 35 pulls and increase it by 5 every 10
minutes or so until you either get a strike or you hit the bottom.
With a bit of trial and error and a good memory (or a notebook),
it doesn’t take too long to figure out how many pulls it takes to
get to a certain depth.
Kokanee
catch rate
Some days, if you get 20% of your strikes into the boat, you are
doing good. Kokanee fishing can be frustrating if you let it get
to you. On a recent Saturday, we had over 90 strikes, about 60 actually
hooked up for a while and we got 23 into the boat. We lost about
20 within 10’ of the boat. That is pretty typical of kokanee fishing.
If you caught them at 2:1, you were doing good. When I get a strike,
if the fish is not immediately “on”, I keep the line out for another
2 minutes or so before I check the bait. A lot of times, a fish
will hit and stay on during that next minute or so. If a fish hits
and is “on” immediately pick up the rod and start reeling. Once
your start reeling, if the fish starts fighting hard, slow down
your reeling. If the fish eases up on the fight, reel a little faster,
but DO NOT EVER quit reeling once you’ve started. Some times it
feels like the fish got off when in actuality it is swimming with
the rig instead of fighting the rig. If you quit reeling, the fish
absolutely, every single time will get off.
Well, that is Matt's advice on kokanee. Head out to Loon or CDA
and give it a try. One thing I have noted he does differently than
a lot of other kokanee fishermen is change the colors of his wedding
ring setups. I tend to always pull the same old fluorescent red
color around, but Matt keeps every color from red to green to pink
to orange in his box and tries them all if necessary.
Matt's
Corn Scent Recipe
I take about a half of a teaspoon of red trout powerbait and put
it in the blender with about ¾ cup of hot water. Add about 1 tablespoon
of red food coloring and if you have it, some blue-back roe. Puree
the mixture until it is all liquid, then pour that over a can of
white corn that you have transferred into a Tupperware container.
Stir it, then put the lid on and let it sit in the refrigerator
overnight. The next morning, dump it into a colander and rinse it
very well, pour this onto a paper towel and carefully roll it around
some to remove the excess water. Put it back into the Tupperware
and keep it cold. This mix seems to last about 2 weeks in the refrigerator
and it was the only thing we could catch fish on this weekend. I
had very good luck with it last year (358 blue back) and I’m hoping
it keeps working this year.
Matt
Thanks to Matt for this recipe. If you have any reports or hot tips,
send them in!
The Troller
This page is constantly changing! If you have any suggestions
or would like to contribute accurate regional reports, we
would welcome your input. E-mail us Here!
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