How to Catch Kokanee

In the early morning to midday kokanee seem to have a preference for greens and chartreuse. Later, when good light is on the water, the best colors are bright red, pink, and hot orange. Silver chrome has also become a very popular color. Many fishermen will add fishscale or other holographic tape to their lures or dodgers. This material picks up sunlight and literally explodes into a rainbow of colors. If you are marking kokanee and not getting hit, changing colors, lure styles or scents can often make the difference. Some lures are made in "Glow in the Dark" colors. These prove exceptional in early morning and low light conditions such as deep depths.

The Pro-Troll Kokanee Killer and the Wee Tad Plug have two rigging advantages for kokanee. On both of these, the lure will slide up your leader and the kokanee will not be able to use the lure for leverage to tear the hooks out of its soft mouth. Avoid using lures where the leader ties directly to the lure and the hooks are attached directly to the lure's body. Kokanee are tremendous head shakers and love to roll up on your lure and line. A lure that stays in a kokanee's mouth will provide a tremendous amount of leverage for tearing hooks out. Most anglers will tell you they lose at least 50% of the big kokanee they hook. Rigid hooks mounted in lures are frequently the problem. Free floating double rigged hooks behind kokanee lures seem to have an advantage. #2 to #4 red or gold Gamakatsu octopus style hooks or equivalents work very well. Approximately 1/4 inch distance between the bend of the top hook and the eye of the trailing hook is best.

When you get kokanee on top of the water prior to netting they usually go crazy. They will start to roll up on your line. When a kokanee is exhausted and lying on top on its side it is perfectly OK to skim him across the surface of the water into your net. However, when a kokanee is on top and going wild, quickly lower your rod tip and get the fish to go under and start swimming again. If you attempt to horse a kokanee when it's on the surface going ballistic you will almost always tear the hook out, even with the two hook rig.

Some lakes seem very color oriented. Greens and chartreuse may work well from first light until around 11:00 AM. when the sun is well up on the water. At this time if the bite slows down try the hot orange, bright reds, bright pink or pearl pink lures. Some lakes do not exhibit color patterns with light changes and more daily experimentation is required. Sometimes a color change can trigger action just because its different than what the fish have been seeing. In recent years a number of fishermen have had good luck fishing mid day with copper and pink or gold and pink lures. Vance Staplin likes copper under these conditions. He also drops the lures further back from his downrigger. Instead of his normal drop back of 10 to 15 feet he will go 30 feet or more when the sun is high.