Waterfish
06-04-2007, 11:33 AM
My wife, daughter and I fished Paulina on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Except for a test run in March, this was the first time I've used my new Scotty electric downriggers.
The kokanee are not schooled up very much, but scattered all over the lake. We caught fish trolling along the shores, but also caught them all the way across the lake when going from one shore to the other. On Friday we marked them at around 50-55' deep. Saturday and Sunday they were running mostly at 20-30' deep. Even though the fish were scattered we easily limited out every day (all on downriggers). They were on the small side, mostly 12" with a few going to 14". :food::food:
We used Glowbug Apexs while fishing deep, and Watermelon Apexs when fishing shallower; behind Sep's and Shasta Tackle slingblade dodgers. Also used some of the new UV chartruse Apexs, and they worked well too. We shortened the Apex leaders to 24" and used white shoepeg corn soaked in Pro Cure Kokanee Special oil, and Pro Cure Carp Spit Super Gel on one side of the Apexs. We let out 40' of line behind the downriggers and lost very few of the kokes we hooked. I think that by letting out that much line, once the fish is hooked you have more time to tire the fish out so that it won't jump out of the water and tear off the hook when you're netting it. :idea:
We fished two lines (10' apart) on one downrigger, and one line off the other. We had lots of doubles and even a couple of triples. I think I am hooked on downrigger fishing now! :smash::smash:
The kokanee are not schooled up very much, but scattered all over the lake. We caught fish trolling along the shores, but also caught them all the way across the lake when going from one shore to the other. On Friday we marked them at around 50-55' deep. Saturday and Sunday they were running mostly at 20-30' deep. Even though the fish were scattered we easily limited out every day (all on downriggers). They were on the small side, mostly 12" with a few going to 14". :food::food:
We used Glowbug Apexs while fishing deep, and Watermelon Apexs when fishing shallower; behind Sep's and Shasta Tackle slingblade dodgers. Also used some of the new UV chartruse Apexs, and they worked well too. We shortened the Apex leaders to 24" and used white shoepeg corn soaked in Pro Cure Kokanee Special oil, and Pro Cure Carp Spit Super Gel on one side of the Apexs. We let out 40' of line behind the downriggers and lost very few of the kokes we hooked. I think that by letting out that much line, once the fish is hooked you have more time to tire the fish out so that it won't jump out of the water and tear off the hook when you're netting it. :idea:
We fished two lines (10' apart) on one downrigger, and one line off the other. We had lots of doubles and even a couple of triples. I think I am hooked on downrigger fishing now! :smash::smash: