Epic Day At Ririe

[VNCowboy]

We catch them all year in the willow Creek and and the bay on Blacktail. We troll into willow Creek and make a circle there and out the big bay and back to willow Creek.


Running the downriggrs at at 14 to 25"feet

[fishon][fishon]
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[wiperhunter2]

Wow, that's amazing. I've never been able to catch the kokes that shallow in the Summer when the water temps get around 70 degrees, they always seem to be deeper than 25 ft, good to know others are able to catching at that depth. Thanks for the info.
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[VNCowboy]

You have put on when catch them. I lost a few by putting them in the livewell as it basically it par boiled them. When I cleaned they turned to mush.

We catch trolling pop gear and anchored a and throwing ours into the bank and retrieving the lure jus off the bottom and poed them into striking the lure.

[fishon][fishon]
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[wiperhunter2]

OK, good to know. I never put kokes in my live well, I always put them on ice in my cooler as soon as I get them in the boat. I use to put them on ice too and after losing a few fish, from them being too mushy, I gave that up and went to the ice, I haven't lost one since.
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[fallsfish]

Caught 15 on Tuesday with the largest at 16 inches. Been using ice chest since the water temp hit 65. Fish stay nice and firm and are easier to clean. Six of the fifteen were hook-jawed but no red color, males of the northern stock batch. As the Fish & Game said they are spawning a month later, at least it appears that way.

Great day on the water and still big schools around the Juniper area. 70 to 75 fow with dark pink billed hoochie. Slow troll around 0.8-1.2 mph worked the best.
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[MMDon]

We keep a bleed bucket with water in the boat. Rip out a gill raker with a pair of needle nose lead pliers and into the bucket for 2 minutes. They then go into a plastic bag and onto the ice being sure to not have the fish floating in water. We dry filet them on a scraped board so the fish never touch water again after being bled. This gives the meat the best texture you can get.
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[wiperhunter2]

Wow, that's great, amazing they are still not red, I did not realise there was a variety that spawned a month later. Here is a pic of the ones we caught this week at Strawberry, it will be my last trip for them this year[].
Wow, were you fishing that deep, 70 to 75 FOW, if so, I can't say I have ever caught kokes that deep. Do you usually troll that slow for kokes or was that because they were so deep[:/]?
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[wiperhunter2]

I've heard of a few folks that use that method, guess I should give it a try at least once but I don't think they taste bad just putting them on ice but then, I always smoke my kokanee, so maybe that is the difference. Started bottling them this year after smoking them and they have turned out great that way too and no bones. Do you freeze your kokes after you catch them or do you smoke them?
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[VNCowboy]

We freeze them and let them thaw. Then we put in the overnight. Then we dry them off and let them peccle for 15 minutes and cut in half and go in the put in the pellet stove to smoke for several hours


[fishon][bobsuspicious]bb[bobsuspicious]
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[MMDon]

We can about 75% of them and eat the rest prepared a myriad of ways. I freeze everything that is going to be canned as well as most of the rest. No smoked fish but I do get to eat a lot of my buddies smoked fish. My wife doesn't like the smell of smoked fish anywhere around the house. LOL
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[wiperhunter2]

I still have some kokes in my freezer that were vacuum packed, I'll have to give that a shot but do you have to thaw them out before canning them or can you just put the frozen fish in the jars and start the canning process?
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[MMDon]

We thaw them in the seal a meal bags using cold water. They thaw pretty quickly.
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[wiperhunter2]

Ok, thanks for the info.
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