Flasher Set up for Kokanee, (Step by step with Pics)

[DougJr84]

Here is a generalized Set up for fishing with a Flasher set up for Kokanee.
This is how you fish with out Down riggers.


What you need are; Flasher, Snubber, Rubber bands, Snap swivels or Duo locks, Cannon ball leads, and your Spinner or trailer gear.


You are going to want a assortment of weights for you cannon balls, 1/2oz, 3/4oz, 1oz, 1 1/2oz, 2oz, 2 1/2oz, 3oz, 3 1/2oz, 4oz, and very rarely 5oz, 5 1/2oz, and 6oz. The heavier the lean the deeper you fish. Remember though the more lead you have on the more line you want out to allow the angle of the drop to be able to make you lead at the depth you want it. The speed you are going will also affect how high your gear will plane. The faster you are going the higher it will rise.


You need a snubber when fishing this way. Alot of guys ask why use a snubber it is just like a big rubber band. Well the snubber takes a lot of the stress off of the fish, it will increase your catch ratio due to the fact that Kokanee have soft mouths and with out stress relief you will pull your hook out of the fish's mouth.



You want to tie a snap swivel, I use one with a duo lock snap on your leaders for 2 reasons. 1: it makes it easier to change your gear, and you do not lose any of the leader by cutting it off and retying it on, 2: the swivel will prevent the leader from getting all kinked up or twisted, the swivel also give the fish easier roll,(Kokanee cork screw through the water, twist and turn when you hook them trying to get loose).



Here is the end set up, I am sorry i was not able to take a picture of this in a straight line i had to loop it back to get the full image.

Now i want to note that you do not have to use a wedding ring for the spinner/Trailer gear. You can use all sorts of thing, Wedding ring, hoochies, apex, small spoons, K/T Spinner Bugz, K/T Bugz, and a assortment of other things.

The majority of baits that are used for kokanee are White shoe peg corn(plain), White shoe peg corn(dyed orange, red, green, purple), White Shoe peg corn (Dyed and scented, Paztke Kok fuel is one of my favorites) Berkeley Grubs, and some people use a small piece of night crawler.

When using the lead cannon balls i use a certain amount of pulls depending on the size of the lead i am using to make sure i get my gear in the zone. Some people use line counters instead of pulls. (1 pull = 2 feet of line out.) 1/2oz-17 pulls, 3/4oz 20 pulls, 1oz- 1 1/2oz- 25 pulls, 2oz-2 1/2oz-30 to 35 pulls, 3oz-3 1/2oz 40 to 45 pulls, 4oz or more in weight i go 45 to 50 pulls and no more inless you want your gear over 75-100 feet.

[MadeInOregon]

Great post. Thank you for the pics. How long of a leader do you use between the wedding ring and the snubber?

[DougJr84]

Originally Posted by MadeInOregon

Great post. Thank you for the pics. How long of a leader do you use between the wedding ring and the snubber?

Normally i go with around 22 inch's.

[Don Fischer]

Very good post but one question. What does the rubberband do other than hold the cannon ball on?

[gottafish]

Originally Posted by Don Fischer

Very good post but one question. What does the rubberband do other than hold the cannon ball on?

Geez Don it holds girls hair back, keeps paper rolled up and you can snap your fishing buddy on the butt with it.

[pharmseller]

Originally Posted by Don Fischer

Very good post but one question. What does the rubberband do other than hold the cannon ball on?

I think the rubber band acts as a shock absorber so the fish doesn't pull against the lead when it fights. If you tie the lead in line with your hook the fish fights the lead before it fights the rod. You can lose a lot of fish that way, even with a snubber.

Also, it makes switching lead quick and easy. No knots to tie.

P

[Cast Away]

This is how we used to do it many years ago. It defiantly works to catch fish, but I never liked all the gear and it took away so much of the fun of actually playing the fish. We now use a single 4/0 dodger followed by hoochie or wedding ring with an in line banana weight above the dodger and any where from 1/2 - 2 oz. Go out anywhere from 20 - 40 pulls and we catch just as many as we used to with the multi blade flashers. Also no snubber is needed because we use ultra lite 7ft. rods. Catching a 15" plus kokanne on ultra lite is absolutely one of the most fun fishing experiences that I know of.

When the fish move down the down riggers come out with the exact same set up with the addition of multi blade flashers on the down rigger weight and the in line weight is removed.

[DougJr84]

Originally Posted by pharmseller

I think the rubber band acts as a shock absorber so the fish doesn't pull against the lead when it fights. If you tie the lead in line with your hook the fish fights the lead before it fights the rod. You can lose a lot of fish that way, even with a snubber.

Also, it makes switching lead quick and easy. No knots to tie.

P

Thank you Pharmseller,

That is a perfect way to explain what the rubber band does.

[Diehard]

Thanks DougJr!

[Johnnyclack]

Thanks fellows for the rubber band tip.


I have been using snap swivels to hook weight to the rudder for more years than I care to admit. I'll be using rubber bands from here on out

[SilverBullets]

Originally Posted by pharmseller

I think the rubber band acts as a shock absorber so the fish doesn't pull against the lead when it fights. If you tie the lead in line with your hook the fish fights the lead before it fights the rod. You can lose a lot of fish that way, even with a snubber.

Also, it makes switching lead quick and easy. No knots to tie.

P

But in the picture the lead is attached to the gang troll rudder with the rubber band. Why not just use a duo-lock snap to attach it...the fish isn't pulling against the lead unless it's in-line like you said. The only reason i can think of useing a rubber band to attach the weight is if the weight gets snagged on something the rubber band would break and all you'd lose is the lead.

[Doc_Rhen]

Originally Posted by SilverBullets

But in the picture the lead is attached to the gang troll rudder with the rubber band. Why not just use a duo-lock snap to attach it...the fish isn't pulling against the lead unless it's in-line like you said. The only reason i can think of useing a rubber band to attach the weight is if the weight gets snagged on something the rubber band would break and all you'd lose is the lead.

Bingo with the weight breaking off, but even though the effect will not be that great the rubber band does give some additional shock absorbtion for the fish. For all intents and purposes the rudder is part of the line so the tighter the lead is attached the more force it will exert on the fish.

[chartreuse moose]

DougJr84

I am not a Kokanee fisherman, thanks for taking the time to post this up.

[Bill Rogue V.]

As a real kokanee greenhorn, I've learned a whole bunch from this thread and thank every one of the contributors. I'm also re-reading Kent Cannon's book before I make first-ever serious koke trip since about 1980 ... to Wickiup.

[vent]

DougJr84,

"When using the lead cannon balls i use a certain amount of pulls depending on the size of the lead i am using to make sure i get my gear in the zone. Some people use line counters instead of pulls. (1 pull = 2 feet of line out.) 1/2oz-17 pulls, 3/4oz 20 pulls, 1oz- 1 1/2oz- 25 pulls, 2oz-2 1/2oz-30 to 35 pulls, 3oz-3 1/2oz 40 to 45 pulls, 4oz or more in weight i go 45 to 50 pulls and no more inless you want your gear over 75-100 feet. "
I know speed affects depth, but what are your depth estimations for each of these given speeds of say .8 to 1.2 mph?

[Tight Spin]

Keep letting out pulls until you can't see your flasher anymore. I use two ounces of lead on my flasher.

[DougJr84]

If you would like to see a Prime set up for running a dodger with out down riggers and still be able to fish them down deep. Check out this thead posted by; Doc_Rhen.

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=410156

[Fishalot]

There is no reason to run the weight off the bottom of the rudder that I am aware of, the rudder will work just the way it is intended to with out the weight hanging off the bottom of it. A inline sinker good, unless you are trolling shallow water, than i would go with a dropper off the main line..

Fishalot

[DougJr84]

Lets keep it up so people can read this and learn.

[dog501]

Originally Posted by SilverBullets

But in the picture the lead is attached to the gang troll rudder with the rubber band. Why not just use a duo-lock snap to attach it...the fish isn't pulling against the lead unless it's in-line like you said. The only reason i can think of useing a rubber band to attach the weight is if the weight gets snagged on something the rubber band would break and all you'd lose is the lead.

I tried that and it got all tangled up for some reason, with the rubber band it didn't. I use a rubber snubber instead of a rubber band but both work.

[Bankbound]

Originally Posted by Fishalot

There is no reason to run the weight off the bottom of the rudder that I am aware of, the rudder will work just the way it is intended to with out the weight hanging off the bottom of it. A inline sinker good, unless you are trolling shallow water, than i would go with a dropper off the main line..

Fishalot

I was taught to use a banana sinker about 4" below the rudder. The important part, as it was explained to me was, this keeps everything straight. I don't trout fish much these days so maybe things have changed.

MH

[Private-Aye-Fish]

Nice set up. It looks identical to what I fished for years at LBC but recently I have actually modified mine and have used a similar set up but just one flasher instead of the usual line of pop gear/ford fenders/beer cans etc. So many Kokanee set ups............ so little time.

[1991 Arima]

Good info, thanks for posting

[ttn]

interesting setup, I will try it next time going out for kokanee. Thanks for sharing the info.

[Hornsby4321]

Originally Posted by dog501

I tried that and it got all tangled up for some reason, with the rubber band it didn't. I use a rubber snubber instead of a rubber band but both work.

My question from post #1-19 was, "Why not use a snubber?" And then Dog501 mentioned it. Has anyone else used snubbers off of the rudder? And if so, to what effect? I dont plan on trolling deep enough to hang up on the bottom, but like the idea of the rubber taking the weight off the fighting the fish.

[DougJr84]

Originally Posted by Hornsby4321

My question from post #1-19 was, "Why not use a snubber?" And then Dog501 mentioned it. Has anyone else used snubbers off of the rudder? And if so, to what effect? I dont plan on trolling deep enough to hang up on the bottom, but like the idea of the rubber taking the weight off the fighting the fish.

A rubber snubber will and can work, The reason i use the rubber bands is for a couple of reasons, 1. a whole ball is the same price as 2 snubbers, 2. when the material gets week it is not expensive to change out (which you will need to, the rubber will get week from all the weight and bouncing.

[Private-Aye-Fish]

Used identical set up today with white corn limited out at LBC in a couple hours fishing 30 pulls trolling from Round Butte back towards Three Rivers.