Cove Palisades

[King Fisher]

Going to Cove Palisades this weekend and want to get into the Kokanee. Can anyone help out on what techniques to use, lures, colors, etc. Last time I went we anchored and casted jigs. I know trolling is very effective, but I don't have downriggers. Please help:pray:

[SlamminKokes]

Going to Cove Palisades this weekend and want to get into the Kokanee. Can anyone help out on what techniques to use, lures, colors, etc. Last time I went we anchored and casted jigs. I know trolling is very effective, but I don't have downriggers. Please help:pray:You wont need downriggers now. If you troll just use a 1oz. weight to get you down. Jigging is still effective.

[Finny Business]

i used to fish billy chinook for kokes all the time. there are several areas to get into them over there and different techniques to consider. if you like to troll for kokes i would agree with what was written above, you do not need a downrigger. id use a 1 oz. bannana sinker attch. with the swivel chains and below that use either a small dodger and a kok a nut lure tipped with either a small piece of worm or white shoepeg corn. other options would be a light string of flashers with brass and silver blades ( think really light and really small like willow leaf ) and behind that 2-3 ft of leader and a wedding ring ( green / red ) again tipped with small piece of worm or white corn. you will have to experiment with depth but we always seemed to catch fish at 40-60 pulls and slow trolled. areas to troll would be mostly in the metolious arm around the island but seriously these fish are scattered all over billy chinnook and the real key is to find the thermo cline layer in the water as the kokes like to hang just under this in the colder water and where their feed congregates.
another option would be to jig for them but drift jigging on suspended schools can be tricky. standard koke jigs will work but you need to find the fish and what depth they are in. maybe troll untill you find a school and then mark it and go back and sit on them and jig them.
my personal favorite tactic was to take my boat up the crooked river arm of billy chinook, way up past the waterski course almost to the headwaters and then troll super light flashers and wedding rings. its soo narrow up there that you cant race track troll. you need to make a pass and then reel in and motor back down to the start of your run and then reload but we would usually one or two fish per pass and alot of doubles. we also would quietly cruise up that arm very early in the morning before full daylight and anchor off and sit quietly untill sun up and then you could literally see the silver cloud of kokes in the water. its very shallow and very clear so stealth tactics need to be used BUT its tons of fun! throw 2" buzz bombs in pearl colors and make sure you tip the trebles with white corn. cast off to the side of the schooling fish and gig / retrieve back towards the boat ( standard buzz bomb retrieve ) make sure that you let it sink almost all the way to the bottom though after you cast. this can be absolutely deadly. you can also use zingers and other castables in the same manor.
the only thing is with the last bit of advice is that its still pretty early for that tactic. i usually try that a little later this summer since the kokes will start to stack up in those canyons ( the deschutes arm is also good for this ) prior to their spawning runs so early july would be go time for that. other than that the fish we caught averaged about 13" with lots of other going bigger some years up to 17" and they always seemed heavy and fat! you will also catch redbands, some browns and the odd bull trout plus some agressive smallies.

best of luck!!

[boomguy]

fished this weekend. 2 rods, limits on saturday, limit and 1/2 sunday. trolling ford fender and green wedding ring.

[bigd]

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/000_00071.jpg


Spent 5 days there last week,,, you will not need more than 1 1/2 oz lead,, we got limits every day,, all fish we caught were on top,,, lots of jumpers,,, just troll,,, jigging was way slower than trolling,,,,, you can catch fish any place right now.

[King Fisher]

Thanks guys, Any tips on corn worms, what scent etc? I got one PM, just curios as to what will work best.

Rick

[Finny Business]

Thanks guys, Any tips on corn worms, what scent etc? I got one PM, just curios as to what will work best.

Rick
id use small earth worms or piece of crawler and for the corn gotta go with the white shoepeg corn you buy at the store.
best of luck and let us know how you do

[Doc_Rhen]

Shoepeg corn with Pro-Cure Kokanee special seemed to be working for us the last couple times out. Caught fish on Wedding rings and Apexes. Pretty much every color we used worked. The most consistent producer was a Glow Green wedding ring followed by a pink apex, and third was the orange apex. We were using 3/4 oz sinkers on lake trolls (both chrome and brass) and only letting out 50-60 feet of line. It has been two weeks so they may have moved down a little because of the water warming. Our riggers were running 15-25' and we figured the lake troll lines were probably around that 15' level the way we were running them.

[King Fisher]

BTW- is the limit really 5 fish? Also, how is the crawdad situation, my friend said they used to be plentifull at Billy Chinook.

[Finny Business]

used to be 25 fish limit? dont know for sure now though. crawdads are EVERYWHERE and fairly large. have seen the comercial crawdad guys in the arms taking them with traps.

[SlamminKokes]

5 fish limit and no crawdad fishing in the Metolius arm!

[RiverJohn]

Going to Cove Palisades this weekend and want to get into the Kokanee. Can anyone help out on what techniques to use, lures, colors, etc. Last time I went we anchored and casted jigs. I know trolling is very effective, but I don't have downriggers. Please help:pray:

Wedding rings down 40ft - (appx40 pulls) with white corn on the hook.

Use bananna weights to get down.

[BalouSC]

Man I love that lake! I come back to the US just to fish and play there every summer! I will be there July 24th this year. Maybe I will see some of you guys! Cheers~

[King Fisher]

REPORT- Used wedding rings with corn at 30-55 pulls and did well. What really worked was the mini squid with corn, pink was the best color. Pretty nice sized fish too. Thanks for the help.

[bigd]

Sounds like you had as much fun as we did over there...............

[JDS]

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/000_00071.jpg


Spent 5 days there last week,,, you will not need more than 1 1/2 oz lead,, we got limits every day,, all fish we caught were on top,,, lots of jumpers,,, just troll,,, jigging was way slower than trolling,,,,, you can catch fish any place right now.

Hey BigD,

Great looking boat, I have the exact same one. :applause: I'm headed over to LBC in July, hoping to do as well as you did.