My friend Susie and I went out to catch some perch at Eloika. I hadn't read any definitive reports, but she only had a WA fishing license, so that's where we went. We gave the folks at Jerry's Landing their $3 and trooped out. Fishing was tough in the falling snow and wind. We had few bites. We managed only 3 keeper perch and 3 grass pickerel we let go. The other folks we spoke with were not doing much better...in fact, several had caught no fish. I'll be hard pressed to go to Eloika again this winter unless I hear something better.

Snake/Clearwater River, Idaho Sept 12-13th, 2009

My kid and I went to the Snake River to try and get some more steelhead. I made only one mistake....my cured shrimp were too old! No good....and we paid for that mistake by not catching fish while everyone else WAS. So we ran over to see Stu at the Hell's Gate Marina and picked up a plastic container of "Stu's Red Hots" shrimp. Within 5 minutes, we had a fish in the boat, and got 6-8 more bites before we had to leave. My old shrimp is now in the trash, and I'm a firm believer in Stu's baits. We found that by drifting in the Clearwater instead of anchoring up with the Washington side fleet, we had better luck. Our friends Mike and Curt were also each fishing the Clearwater. Mike was hooking so many steelies that we started cussing him with each pass. But of course, we were changing our tactics to match theirs, started with our new bait....then had to get home. These two guys each averaged 6-8 steelies a day, with a few small chinook jacks thrown into the mix....which were released. Salmon fishing with an Idaho tag is open in the Snake, and Curt reported catching one jack of 5# on a shrimp/bobber combo that he kept. I don't have any report on fish quality for the salmon, but those I saw caught and released were dark.

Lake CDA, Idaho Hot Kokanee Tips

In what could be good news for kokanee fishermen, the chinook fishermen who frequent CDA this winter (Jan 2009) are reporting huge schools of small kokanee both visually on the surface and on their depthfinders. We can only hope that coming year classes of fish will offer better fishing than we have seen in the last 3 years.

I'm keeping this information here despite the recent changes in the quality and quantity of CDA kokanee. Idaho, unlike Washington, tries to maximize the resource utilization. Unfortunately, they had a couple of year classes of kokanee that floundered, and have enacted some relatively SEVERE restrictions for 2009. The limit is now 6 salmon - KOKANEE OR CHINOOK. Some of the chinook fishermen are figuring that the IDFG is now sacrificing the king fishing, too. I'm not so sure....the kings are a fish that only a few guys get good at catching. Most of us only catch a few a year, and that is with a good hard effort.

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...

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

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