Ben Fougere
Active Member
We have an exciting year planned. Here's what we have been up to:
I used a longer leader last year. I averaged 20 inches with the smile blade and hoochie. I believe the smile blade helped draw the kokanee in. I will be doing length tests this year with our GoFish Cam to see if kokanee behavior changes with leader lengths.Ben, notice you have a good distance from your dodger/sling blade to your hoochie whereas our bros to the south use quite a short lead (8-12”). What length do you use and do you feel the smile blade in front of the hoochie gives extra action, which allows the longer lead? Been a couple years but I live not too far from Monte lk, loaded w/ Tripolid kokes, And hope to hit it a bunch this spring (if the ice ever comes off!!!).
Cheers!
Ukee
Good Vid. I hear conflicting stories. I think it can be very water body specific with the added variables of timing/depth and fish size.
Just like salmon fishing, I go with a shorter leader on a hootchie that has no action. And a longer leader if using a spoon, spinner, wedding band, apex that has its own action. But not really a drastic difference, 12-24" either way. I don't use gang trolls at all, preferring the spoon as a flasher/dodger method.
Oftentimes, when they're biting, their biting and leader length doesn't seem to matter. I once put on a 4" coho killer and tried to get below the schools to maybe pick up a larger trout/bull, the kokes were biting it (and getting hookcd) without bait, before I could even gt it down. The hook, I thought would have been too big for the 12" kokanee to fit its mouth. It wasn't.
That said, I typically downsize my gear compared to what I see the guys using stateside. But I haven't had much of a chance to fish for kokes where the sizes get larger like Monte, Stump, Deka etc.
Sure looks like you guys have it dialed in. And kudos to you for keeping the kids involved.
Thank you for sharing the video. Put a big smile on my face seeing you and your whole family enjoying fishing and the outdoors together. Your sons will remember these times forever.
Looking forward to learning how catch Kokanee I've done it but only by accident (!)
Looks like a great time i've never tried Kok fishing mostly rainbow at ice off , heading to a local lake soon for kokanee
i like your trolling set up, techniques i saw were jigging shrimp and spoons.
How long are your leaders looks to be 10-20" from flasher.