Colored Corn for Kokanee: Memorial Weekend Report

[moknots]

Been using pink corn dyed with Procure Kokanee Wizard dye/cure the last couple of years but this past weekend I decided to try some of Procure Bad Azz Dyes. The results surpast my expecations. Here's the corn.

http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3269&stc=1&d=1180474498

I was sure impressed with the color intensity. But what really impressed me was the results. Friday evening we got to Crescent Lake maybe 45 minutes prior to sunset. Figured on just launching the boat so we wouldn't have to mess around with the morning crowd we anticipated at the boat ramp. But once the boat was launched it was too nice an evening not to make sure all the gear was working...... Started with the same lure that killed last weekend -- orange hoochie with pink corn. With some overcast sky dusk was decending early, inspiring chartruse corn on the second line. That rod quickly produced about 6 fish without even a strike on the pink corn. Switched the first rod to the corn of the evening and finished out our limit with a couple of doubles! Coincidence? Maybe. I am going with the "bright color for low light" theory. Elapsed fishing time -- 70 minutes for two limits. Got back to the cabin in the dark, but it was worth it, with these 14-16" fish.

http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3267&stc=1&d=1180474498

Next morning we were back at it, with the same gear. First 5 fish came in a 15 minute flurry. Then it went dead. For an hour. Then an hour and a half. Out of despiration, we decided to employ Lucy, my wifes kokanee eating Lab. We told her she better start pointing kokanee, if she ever wanted another smoked kokanee skin.

http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3270&stc=1&d=1180474498
That didn't work, and neither did the orange corn, the pink corn, or the green corn we got the first 5 on. Time to try blue. I figured the bite was just over -- all rods around us were dead. But within 10 minutes we were back in business. We got 8 (throwing back anything under 13") in the next hour to get another 5 we liked and we were done, all on blue corn. Coincidence? Probably. But we doubled twice, on a dead bite. Mmmmm... I am going with the "bright sky, dark bait" theory. Man it's good to be a fisherman, who else gets to have so many made up theories that anyone can argue, but noone can be sure about! Got back to the ramp and were promptly informed by another fisherman that the fishing was really slow -- noone catching much. We smiled. Here's the second day's limit (photo taken back at Odell, just before heading out for some Odell bonus fish).
http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3271&stc=1&d=1180474498

After catching another dozen at Odell my wife anounced that she'd had enough. Sunday was WINDY, a great day for smoking fish and pondering colored corn and colorblind fish. Monday I fished for an hour before breakfast for Mr. Mac. Nice weekend. Who's got scoop on colored corn? Theories? Experiences to share?
http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3272&stc=1&d=1180474498

[FallRiverGuy]

Great report! I am glad to see you really got into them. I doubt the colored corn was a coincidence. When you find the right combination the fish will bite. In addition to the eight different scents I now have to add color. Thanks for sharing your great find.

And, good job on the pig fish.

[jzell]

Not Moknots....

Mo-variables.

The theory of FWG is match the lure with the dodger.....now maybe one must match the corn color as well. Make your head spin just thinkin bout it.

Good report Mo,

John

[fish-on-bend]

How big was that mack? Great report. Brian---- you are going to have to get a bigger corn cooler. Maybe a bigger boat to put it on too, eh?

[moknots]

Don't know how big the mack was. Years of fishing in Central Oregon and I have never even tried for one before. I should quit while I am ahead -- one hour for one fish. No scale or tape measure on the boat, or a landing net big enough for that matter, but it was obviously over 30" so I figured why not bring it aboard. Got a nice battle wound on the thumb of the hand I landed him with. One of the guides at Odell has been trying to convince me that macs are great eating if correctly prepared, so I figured I better see if he was right. He was!

My new best friend at Shelter Cove, on the mossy side of 75, told me just to tell people it was 38 pounds when he saw the photo. His glasses looked a little foggy though. Back at the cabin it measured 31.5". What do you figure? Maybe 15-16 pounds?

How big was that mack? Great report. Brian---- you are going to have to get a bigger corn cooler. Maybe a bigger boat to put it on too, eh?

[fish-on-bend]

Check out my gallery. There is a pic of a 15 , 16.5 and an 18. Use those as reference and you tell me. Being a bit of a mackhead, I would appreciate a PM on what you caught it on.

[wanafish]

Great report. Looks like you've got some good ideas. I caught a 32" mack last year at Odell jigging for kokes that weighed 13 lbs. Alot of fun on an ultralight! Thanks again for the great post an pics, keep up the good work1

[bendbigjaketaker]

nice bunch of kokes... I jigged off of the boy scout camp last Friday and was using a white KMars lure and got 6 nice ones but took me just about 6 hours. but I was using no korn. I was the only guy out there jigging all the trollers were hooking up bigtime.

Have a good one..



Been using pink corn dyed with Procure Kokanee Wizard dye/cure the last couple of years but this past weekend I decided to try some of Procure Bad Azz Dyes. The results surpast my expecations. Here's the corn.

http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3269&stc=1&d=1180474498

I was sure impressed with the color intensity. But what really impressed me was the results. Friday evening we got to Crescent Lake maybe 45 minutes prior to sunset. Figured on just launching the boat so we wouldn't have to mess around with the morning crowd we anticipated at the boat ramp. But once the boat was launched it was too nice an evening not to make sure all the gear was working...... Started with the same lure that killed last weekend -- orange hoochie with pink corn. With some overcast sky dusk was decending early, inspiring chartruse corn on the second line. That rod quickly produced about 6 fish without even a strike on the pink corn. Switched the first rod to the corn of the evening and finished out our limit with a couple of doubles! Coincidence? Maybe. I am going with the "bright color for low light" theory. Elapsed fishing time -- 70 minutes for two limits. Got back to the cabin in the dark, but it was worth it, with these 14-16" fish.

http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3267&stc=1&d=1180474498

Next morning we were back at it, with the same gear. First 5 fish came in a 15 minute flurry. Then it went dead. For an hour. Then an hour and a half. Out of despiration, we decided to employ Lucy, my wifes kokanee eating Lab. We told her she better start pointing kokanee, if she ever wanted another smoked kokanee skin.

http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3270&stc=1&d=1180474498
That didn't work, and neither did the orange corn, the pink corn, or the green corn we got the first 5 on. Time to try blue. I figured the bite was just over -- all rods around us were dead. But within 10 minutes we were back in business. We got 8 (throwing back anything under 13") in the next hour to get another 5 we liked and we were done, all on blue corn. Coincidence? Probably. But we doubled twice, on a dead bite. Mmmmm... I am going with the "bright sky, dark bait" theory. Man it's good to be a fisherman, who else gets to have so many made up theories that anyone can argue, but noone can be sure about! Got back to the ramp and were promptly informed by another fisherman that the fishing was really slow -- noone catching much. We smiled. Here's the second day's limit (photo taken back at Odell, just before heading out for some Odell bonus fish).
http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3271&stc=1&d=1180474498

After catching another dozen at Odell my wife anounced that she'd had enough. Sunday was WINDY, a great day for smoking fish and pondering colored corn and colorblind fish. Monday I fished for an hour before breakfast for Mr. Mac. Nice weekend. Who's got scoop on colored corn? Theories? Experiences to share?
http://www.ifish.net/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=3272&stc=1&d=1180474498

[Jedcraft]

Oh great-colored corn-what's next? Sounds like another idea to try.
Thanks for the info.

[pathfinder]

Would regular procure work ( like double hot stuff )

[Steelheadache]

Moknots:

Do you just use the anise/krill scent on all colors or are there also scent variations between the colors as well? You haven't got them color-coded into Pepomint(blue) and Wintogreen(green) etc., like Certs have you?

[moknots]

Oh boy, you might be sorry you asked! If you look close you can see labels on the lid of the corn container. I'd say semi color coded, just for my poor brain. Garlic on the green, anise on the pink, squid/krill on the organge, and "carp spit" on the blue. Not shown, my standby, bigger container of white corn with shrimp oil. So the obvious real test would be to have all the scents you want to try on all the colors of the corn, which in this case would be 25 options -- way too many!! But how else would you know if you found a winner in scent, or in color. In fairness to those truely scientific anglers, I am a hack. But I have fun! And 25 color/flavor combinations of corn doesn't sound fun to me.

As for the "regular Procure" question, do you mean roe cure, with preservative, color, flavor and "bite stimulants" all rolled in to one? Never tried it. Gotta go back to the tackle shop again I guess.

I also really like Smelly Jelly liquid in Crawfish. It's orange, and very faintly stains the corn, and crawdads have always been one of my top kokanee baits.

Moknots:

Do you just use the anise/krill scent on all colors or are there also scent variations between the colors as well? You haven't got them color-coded into Pepomint(blue) and Wintogreen(green) etc., like Certs have you?

[FallRiverGuy]

I was all ready to go buy some blue dye, but now I don't know if it was the carp spit or the color. You are right; there are way too many combinations. I have a few that always produce better than other so I'll have to reduce the number of scents if I am going to try different colors.


Garlic on the green, anise on the pink, squid/krill on the organge, and "carp spit" on the blue. Not shown, my standby, bigger container of white corn with shrimp oil. So the obvious real test would be to have all the scents you want to try on all the colors of the corn, which in this case would be 25 options.

[FishnMike]

Yeah I havn't been sold on the color of corn yet. The corn color is such a minor factor compared to color of the dodger and color of the lure. I do know scent is a huge factor and usually have four scents with me in the boat, all on white corn. I usually only fish one or two of the scents but there have been days when the third or fourth scent was the one they wanted.

FishnMike

[moknots]

Go get the blue food coloring out of the easter egg kit and give it a whirl. Use it with your favorite scent and pull it out when the fish aren't biting anyway. That makes it only one more variable. It doesn't always work, but I've had blue lures pull a few fish after the bite died on too many occasions to call it a fluke. A friend of mine used to own Star Bait and Tackle in Marysville CA. Some of his customers did really well on blue corn.

[julezilla]

one quick tip on using food coloring or easter egg dye to fancy up your corn - dye it first, THEN add the garlic/anise/whatever suits your fancy. The first time I dyed corn, flavored it first, not even thinking that anything oil based would prevent the dye from getting absorbed into the corn like it should. that's what I get for trying to do anything that requires thought before 5am with no coffee. :smash:

and if you use food coloring, you might want to try the neon colors - there's a 4 pack from shilling or mccormick (I can't remember which one), and we've caught a LOT of fish using them.

[moknots]

Great tip Julez

[FallRiverGuy]

So Mike,

If you were, say, fishing a pink hoochie with a dodger with pink and anise scented corn and getting regular bites. What would be your first change if that set-up stopped working? Would you first switch just the corn to a different scent before changing lures? I have changing lures first and sticking with the corn scent that was working earlier.





Yeah I havn't been sold on the color of corn yet. The corn color is such a minor factor compared to color of the dodger and color of the lure. I do know scent is a huge factor and usually have four scents with me in the boat, all on white corn. I usually only fish one or two of the scents but there have been days when the third or fourth scent was the one they wanted.

FishnMike

[FishnMike]

That's the million dollar questino FRG. A lot of time its a gut feeling on which varible I change first. Here in Calif we can fish 2 rods each so when things get tough I have four rods down and I am running all kinds of stuff down there trying to figure out what the key is.

I really have 3 favorite lures I use most of the time. A homemade pink bead, copper bladed spinner, a pink Koke Killer and a orange beaded spinner with a Smilee blade. 95% of the time I can get kokes on at least one of those so I'll run those out and then try different scents on those.

FishnMike

[jzell]

Sight or smell?

Smell or sight?

Which variable to change,

To catch a koke I might?

(a poem from Yoda)

[FallRiverGuy]

Here in Calif we can fish 2 rods each so when things get tough I have four rods down and I am running all kinds of stuff down there trying to figure out what the key is.
FishnMike


Can you see the green with envy I have right now.

[FishnMike]

The two rod stamp is funny. A lot of guys think you can catch more fish with two rods. But when stacking on downriggers, they actually slow you down. When the bite I good I only run one rod for me and one for my dad. Its when its tough I run all four trying to figure things out.

FishnMike