Trolling for kokanee with a buddy

[minnred]

I've mostly fished by myself, trolling in my boat, except when the wife wants to go along and do some still fishing for perch and crappie. I love fishing for kokanee and even more, love to eat the critters Normally, when I hook up trolling, I'll kick the motor out of gear and fight the fish. I've had a couple of requests for friends to go along, and I have a question about when fishing for kokanee, who are notorious for having a soft mouth. trolling with 2 or more poles, do most just keep trolling while the fish is being fought, even though doing so, may lose some because of the soft mouth issue ? Or do you ask that the extra pole be reeled in ? Thoughts ?

 

[flashback]

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!

 

[Outlw36]

They should be reeeling in and standing by with the net.

 

[minnred]

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!

A bird in hand ?? No, no, no, the kokanee is a fish with soft lips

 

[Sprig]

I’ve been trolling for kokes here in California for 30 years. You’re right kokes have a very soft mouth. You should always stop the boat and carefully slowly reel in the Koke. Never keep the boat moving while reeling in a Koke. If you are fishing 2 people and have 2 rods out the the person who isn’t hooked up should reel in to avoid getting the lines tangled.

 

[sam am I]

I guess it might depend on your lake/s and the amount/size of fish sounds,

We (and even F&G) nickname Kokanee "Bluebacks" in these parts, I guess I have fished for Bluebacks over 50+ yrs now, avg. size range is usually 8-14" for a three yr old spawner in our waters these days..........99% of the time I fish for Blueback's is w other ppl in the boat and if there is just two of us, we sometimes use two poles each and never do we reel in the other poles and rarely do we even put the boat in neutral(that would be a nightmare) to reel in fish on or not...........

BTW, we usually use lectric downriggers to get down to them, but sometime when the fish are stacked, we'll use weights too.

And yes, soft mouthed is an under statement and we lose a few, but geeesh the fish are hitting the rods and coming in the boat usually so quickly sometimes, it's like Tuna fishing, after perhaps 5 fish, I usually say screw the net and just start winging them in the boat, we really don't have time to be stopping/reeling in the other rods w/o a fish.

More then likely if you wait just a bit longer, it'll have a fish on it, sometimes two or even three ppl will be reeling in fish at the same time......Even had two fish on one rod more then a few times.

Even if fishing is slow, we never reel the other lines in, no real reason too, if ya keep the boat straight and moving at a whopping 1,2 knots, you'll never really get tangled w each other.

Get the fish in the boat, unhooked(half the time they just flip off and slime/s**t the deck up) then into the well, re-bait and down it goes for the next fish...........My downrigger's have custom made electronics built-in that allow for pre-set stop depths both above and below they'll auto-stop at, the riggers will even warm up a tad working sometimes, up and down, up/down, up/down so much........Gets a little repetitious, not my fav type of fishing.

 

[minnred]

I guess it might depend on your lake/s and the amount/size of fish sounds,

We (and even F&G) nickname Kokanee "Bluebacks" in these parts, I guess I have fished for Bluebacks over 50+ yrs now, avg. size range is usually 8-14" for a three yr old spawner in our waters these days..........99% of the time I fish for Blueback's is w other ppl in the boat and if there is just two of us, we sometimes use two poles each and never do we reel in the other poles and rarely do we even put the boat in neutral(that would be a nightmare) to reel in fish on or not...........

BTW, we usually use lectric downriggers to get down to them, but sometime when the fish are stacked, we'll use weights too.

And yes, soft mouthed is an under statement and we lose a few, but geeesh the fish are hitting the rods and coming in the boat usually so quickly sometimes, it's like Tuna fishing, after perhaps 5 fish, I usually say screw the net and just start winging them in the boat, we really don't have time to be stopping/reeling in the other rods w/o a fish.

More then likely if you wait just a bit longer, it'll have a fish on it, sometimes two or even three ppl will be reeling in fish at the same time......Even had two fish on one rod more then a few times.

Even if fishing is slow, we never reel the other lines in, no real reason too, if ya keep the boat straight and moving at a whopping 1,2 knots, you'll never really get tangled w each other.

Get the fish in the boat, unhooked(half the time they just flip off and slime/s**t the deck up) then into the well, re-bait and down it goes for the next fish...........My downrigger's have custom made electronics built-in that allow for pre-set stop depths both above and below they'll auto-stop at, the riggers will even warm up a tad working sometimes, up and down, up/down, up/down so much........Gets a little repetitious, not my fav type of fishing.

I appreciate your interesting input !

 

[sam am I]

I appreciate your interesting input !

 

[PrairieH2OBOY43]

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!

Is this the kind of bird in hand…..Kokanee bluebacks..