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I have heard that when targeting kokanee through the ice you have to just wait till a school passes by. What do you do to keep the school there if they do pass by? Has anyone tried flashers or something to attract the kokes or to keep them hanging around? Would flashers or sling blades attached to a mechanized jigging machine work to keep them around? I am imagining in my head trying to duplicate what goes on when trolling when you use a sling blade and a squid behind it. Obviously jigging would be tough since the squid could get caught in the sling blade but what about something next to your hook that is doing the attracting?
There is a youtube video of a programmable jigging machine that is similar to what I am curious about, only I am wondering about the kokanee aspect of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ_yO3V-3uc
Just curious wondering or what-ifs I guess.
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Well thats pretty interesting. I'm not really interested in carrying yet another battery and box out onto the ice because of the extra weight but I do believe I will try the flasher/dodger idea, to see if it will help hold the fish or better yet, draw the kokes to where I'm fishing. It seems if the kokes come by, the catching is pretty easy until they leave but getting them to come in on a consistent bases is another matter all together.
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Well, that might work, but I had always been under the impression that the blade didn't hold the fish around, but helped induce a strike as you pulled through the school of fish... My understanding is Kokes hit more as a show of aggression and don't really feed on other fish, but are mostly invertebrate feeders... It would be interesting to try and find out if you can keep them around...
I heard that since the kokes like the zooplankton or however you spell that, that you could use lights at night to attract them to come around... Well I did try that, but the night I tried it, I never had a school of koke come by at all... Did catch a few trout down deep under the light... but it wasn't worth carrying the bigger battery and so I haven't done it again... I think in my opinion you have to face the lottery to see if the fish will come by while your there and then find a spot they like to swing through frequently... Last year the best spot ended up being in the middle of the lake, it seemed like there were more passes there than when I was in a corner or against the edges.... Good question I look forward to seeing what others think or have learned on the subject... Later J
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I have a couple wiper motors sitting around from other projects so I might give it a try and see what happens. If its a bust then lesson learned. I will most likely use a variable voltage supply and just change the speed of the motor to see if the school hangs around longer or disappears. Probably the best bet is to set a "control" and time how long the school lasts before, then after introducing the sling blade. Worth a shot to me to see if it works.
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Well let us know if you get it setup and you have success.
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When I fished for Kokes in Idaho and we would catch our limits (6) a day (limit is 15 this year, fish are smaller than normal) almost every time we went out. Guys would try the methods you mentioned when they were not around or tried to keep the schools in and none of that stuff worked!! I have seen all types of gadgets from Idaho to Montana.
When they came thru you could get your six in 5 mins. And then they would move on. We would yell the depth and have a couple of "guest" holes for guys to come over and try to get some.
You have to know the areas where they move thru and the depth. A graph is a must. Sometimes they would come thru 1' under the ice but most of the time a consistent depth would be 15'-35'.
It takes time to learn the right technique to be consistent when the bite is tough. Guys try to fish multiple poles and would be running around and missing all the hits. All you need is one pole used correctly.
Local knowledge is a must. All areas are different as far as rigs and techniques. What I used in Idaho did not work as well in Montana.
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Now that's the way for all to do well after Kokes is to work together, I love that idea of drilling the extra holes and welcoming your neighbors over when the fish come through. I'm sure all would do better if we did that. What lures did you do well with? I used to use kastmasters and krocodiles but the last few years they haven't produced for me so I was actually doing okay with my squid that I troll in the summer. Anyway thanks for you're comments and if anyone is heading for porcupine we should try this. I may be up there Saturday and or Monday depending on Bear Lake and Cisco. If you're going let me know we'll set up a circuit and see if we have time to get to the next set of holes before the fish move on. Later J
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[quote JayWeymouth]When I fished for Kokes in Idaho and we would catch our limits (6) a day (limit is 15 this year, fish are smaller than normal) almost every time we went out. Guys would try the methods you mentioned when they were not around or tried to keep the schools in and none of that stuff worked!! I have seen all types of gadgets from Idaho to Montana.
When they came thru you could get your six in 5 mins. And then they would move on. We would yell the depth and have a couple of "guest" holes for guys to come over and try to get some.
You have to know the areas where they move thru and the depth. A graph is a must. Sometimes they would come thru 1' under the ice but most of the time a consistent depth would be 15'-35'.
It takes time to learn the right technique to be consistent when the bite is tough. Guys try to fish multiple poles and would be running around and missing all the hits. All you need is one pole used correctly.
Local knowledge is a must. All areas are different as far as rigs and techniques. What I used in Idaho did not work as well in Montana.[/quote]
This is pretty much how it's done. When we fished for kokes at Mackay and Ririe we would do one rod a piece in bigger groups if you limited quick we had no issue inviting people over to fish the holes until the school move.
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I have patterned a school at Causey and have been able to consistently ice a few. I have noticed that the school moves through the area regardless of what is being presented. This Sunday they came through 4 or 5 times over the course of 3 hours before I didn't see them again. I think it is more about finding out where they frequent and being in the area, but I would love to know if there is a way to keep them around.
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Thanks for the good bit of information. A group networked together may help get an idea of where the schools came from and where they are going. I did so some looking around and some people are using sling blades with a small dropper to catch them. I will have to try that. Looking forward to icing some kokes!!
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I did very well with a orange Swedish pimple, no bait and a Do-jigger spoon, orange and silver was probably my best lure.
Also, I would change-up and use an in-line pimple(hooks removed) to prevent tangles but you could leave them on and worry about snagging the edge of the hole when you are pulling a Koke in. I would add a 10" dropper with a 1/16 oz. jig with a pink tube or orange tube.
I liked the spoon the best because I could land 5-6 Kokes to other guys landing one because when I pulled one in I would just grab the top of the treble and snap the Koke off and then right back down the hole. The guys using small hooks would have to grab the fish and work the hook out.
In Montana the Do-jogger spoon was the go to lure(all colors). The most consistent Koke taker though was an in-line pimple and a pink rat finkee. The Kokes would very seldom touch a pimple or tube.
Most of the time a school would be active for only a few minutes. The longest school one time stayed for an hour!
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Sounds like we found similar results and techniques using different lures. But the basic pattern is sure the same. Last year the schools would pass so fast I had to use a heavier spoon for getting the fish off and back to depth fast enough to get a second fish. Not many doubles for me last year, they never stayed under me long at all. Where other years we would get five or six from a pass. So do you use a depth meter reel or count out your line some other way to get down to the correct depth. I pull arm spans of line and count it as 6 ft per span, but it's not very quick. Thanks for your input. J
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Using my graph I can see my lure at the exact depth the fish are.
If I am not by my graph,"guest" hole, I have some of my rods set up every 10' with a different color mono. 0-10/blue; 10-20/green; 20-30/red; and 30-40/yellow all tied with a uni-knot.
I have stripped rod-length(2') strips off also.
I do have Diawa LC also that worked well.
Where do you ice fish for Kokes around here? I just moved here from Mich. to Idaho Falls to Heber 2 yrs. ago, so I am just getting to know the areas.
Fished Starvation this AM for the first time and kept 30, 9-10" perch out of probably 100-150 dinks.
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Great ideas for line length figuring. Some good koke waters around you are probably Strawberry, and I don't remember I think it was Causey and I think there is one more in that area. For further north there is Porcupine in Cache Valley and then there is Flamming Gorge for the best in state Koke.
Sounds like you did very well at starvation. Fun day. Later J
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[quote JayWeymouth]I did very well with a orange Swedish pimple, no bait and a Do-jigger spoon, orange and silver was probably my best lure.
Also, I would change-up and use an in-line pimple(hooks removed) to prevent tangles but you could leave them on and worry about snagging the edge of the hole when you are pulling a Koke in. I would add a 10" dropper with a 1/16 oz. jig with a pink tube or orange tube.
I liked the spoon the best because I could land 5-6 Kokes to other guys landing one because when I pulled one in I would just grab the top of the treble and snap the Koke off and then right back down the hole. The guys using small hooks would have to grab the fish and work the hook out.
In Montana the Do-jogger spoon was the go to lure(all colors). The most consistent Koke taker though was an in-line pimple and a pink rat finkee. The Kokes would very seldom touch a pimple or tube.
Most of the time a school would be active for only a few minutes. The longest school one time stayed for an hour![/quote]
Ill have to try the in-line setup out and see if our catch rate goes up. We almost exclusively use pimples with the hook switch to a single hook from the supplied treble in white and pearl tipped with a meal worm for kokes. Been a lot of days at Mackay with 6-8 guys jigging that setup we've kept the school around long enough to limit everyone one out.
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I have thought about using the tie on bobber stops placed every 10 ft or so because my sonar will seem to lose where the jig is located after a while. (Lowrance mark 4 for the ice fishing) Sometimes if I am at 50 ft and a school passes at 20-30 it would be nice to know how far I have reeled up to get to the school. Seems different colored line would work better so you don't have to be on the lookout for a little string tied to the line.
I hope the Sportsmans warehouse carries do-jigger spoons and ratfinkee ice jigs so I can try that out.
Have you seen people use those auto hook set contraptions like jaw jackers for kokanee?
Seems like most of the time yo have to actively jig for them so those may not work out unless they hit a dead stick setup.
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Bobber stops don't work very well because they will ice up and move and they get caught up on the line and guides. The "jaw-jackers" which you were referring to, did not do a very good job hooking Kokes. They did do a so-so job on trout. All the guys that I seen use them were not very impressed. You are right, dead-sticking does not draw very many hits, unless the school is right there. Active jigging is more consistent.
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Just a couple suggestions:
You might just see how much line is retrieved by doing one full crank on your reel handle - most reels do at least a couple feet or more - so this make calculating how many reel handle turns are needed to do to come up say 10 feet = 5 full cranks.
Bobber stops that seem to work best for me a just doing a half hitch with a rubberband and then cut off the loop leaving just the knot on the line - you can easily slide it on the line for adjustment and it reels into your reel easily.
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