Social Distancing in Central Oregon

[Wandering Daisy]

I see you are fishing from a boat. Can you catch many from the shore?

[rlown]

Trolling is best..

https://www.mackslure.com/blog/kokanee- ... 01-basics/

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/everythi ... ee-salmon/

It would appear Mike has it down!

[oldranger]

I see you are fishing from a boat. Can you catch many from the shore?

DaisyI think there are a couple of places where people fish for kokanee near shore. As a rule they are open water fish. The lake I fished is a relatively shallow reservoir and I use my sonar/depth finder to crisscross the channel that is often 1/2 mile from shore. Catching Kokanee consistently is a high tech affair. The fish finder helps to know how deep to fish, down riggers enable you to put your lures at the right depth, and I even have a gps controlled bow mount electric trolling motor that keeps me on course and enables me to adjust my speed to .1 mph. One lake I fish a speed of .9 to 1.1 works best. The lake I fished the other day best speeds are between 1.4 and 1.6 mph. Kokanee feed on really tiny life almost filter feeders. But the way you catch them is to piss them off! I use 4" long dodgers that attract the fish and cause the lure (either a small spinner or small hoochie or combination of both. Pink and orange are most commonly effective colors. For some reason to really get them to bite I put a piece of white shoepeg corn (soaked in tuna oil and garlic) on each of the tandem hooks on the hoochie or spinner. Despite the fact that I have dodgers of all colors and shapes I haven't used any other than gold or silver for the last 3 years. When I get a chance I will post pics of some of the gear I use. Kokanee are introduce landlocked Sockeye and from my point of view the best eating fish on the pacific coast area. They also fight better than any comparable sized rainbow, often putting on an incredible aerial display. It is really amazing that though the got hooked 25 feet below the surface they would fly out of the water before I could grab the rod.

If I am fishing a lake where it is also possible to catch a rainbow--the rainbow is considered a trash fish!

Oh sometimes you can really catch a lot in one place by jigging off the boat sometimes straight down and some times casting out and doing a jigging motion as the jig drops.