In my last column I detailed how Joe Heinlen, a guide on Washington State’s Lake Chelan went about catching the dandy lake trout that beautiful lake contains.
But those slab sided lakers aren’t the only sought after fish Lake Chehlan holds. It’s also a summertime hot spot for kokanee. If you know your fish species, you are undoubtedly aware kokanee are landlocked sockeye salmon.
Chances are you’re also aware of something else. If you like to put fish on your dinner platter, you’re a cinch to love kokanee. They are regarded as one of the best of the bunch at chow time. Fresh or smoked, these silvery-sided little beauties are about as good as they come.
“The summer months are an awesome time for kokanee on Lake Chelan,” Heinlen says. “That’s when kokanee are in the lower basin. The limit on these good eating fish is 10 per angler.”
My friend Joe will undoubtedly tell you he’s glad he got together with Bob Schmidt. Schmidt, as regular readers of this column know, is the man who calls the shots here at Mack’s Lure. Joe and Bob got together to go fishing for kokanee at Lake Chelan a couple of years ago. If the kokanee in the lake could talk, they’d tell you they regret that Joe and Bob ever met. There’s a good reason why.
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Joe Heinlen says his kokanee catch has gone up about 40 per cent since he
started attaching a Mack's Lure Hot Wings ahead of his dodger. This photo shows how he does it. |
“I had often fished with Mack’s Lure Hot Wings before I met Bob,” Heinlen says, “but when we went out together we started experimenting with different ways to rig them. Instead of using the Hot Wings all by itself, we hooked them in front of a dodger and started fishing them that way.”
Did that experiment work out? You better believe it! It’s a cinch Joe Heinlen is convinced. “I’ve been fishing my Hot Wings that way almost all the time ever since,” he says. “I figure my catch ratio has gone up 40 per cent since I started using the Hot Wings/Dodger combination.”
I’ve already detailed how he attaches a Hot Wings and a dodger to the end of his line. Behind the dodger comes a rubber snubber to absorb some of the impact when a kokanee latches onto the bait. This is a necessity because kokanee have soft mouths. It’s easy for a hook to tear out and the snubber helps keep that from happening.
“I use 20 to 30-feet of 6-pound test leader between my snubber and my lure and bait,” Heinlen says. “The lure I like best is a Mack’s Lure Smile Blade and Wedding Ring combination that I put together myself.”
It’s not uncommon for experienced anglers to “roll their own” with various Mack’s Lure ingredients. Following is how Joe describes the set up he makes: “I slide a Smile Blade onto my leader and follow it up with an orange stacked bead. A Wedding Ring comes next, followed by another stacked bead. I use two Number 14 treble hooks at the tail end of this set up.”
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| Guide Joe Heinlen likes to build his own kokanee rigs from Mack's Lure products. Pictured is one of the actual rigs he uses for kokanee on Washington State's beautiful Lake Chelan. |
Heinlen says he sometimes adds one kernel of white corn to each of the two small trebles. His hooks are spaced about ¼-inch apart.
Lake Chelan is crystal clear. It’s something you need to keep in mind if you hope to be as successful in catching fish there as Joe Heinlen is. Fish with him and you’ll find he pays particular attention to the length of his line and in pinpointing the depth at which the kokanee are feeding.
“In the summer,” he says, “I’m often fishing from 15 to 35-feet down. I let out 100-feet of line and then I attach a snap weight of 2 to 4-ounces depending on how deep I want to get down. After I’ve got the snap weight in place I let out another 40-feet of line.”
Again, it’s the crystal clear water he’s fishing that dictates his use of a long line. “The boat wash will spook kokanee,” he says. “They’ll come back after things quiet down. Having my lure 140-feet back gives me a chance to get my lure in front of them after they’ve returned to feeding.”
How many kokanee can you expect to catch if you book a trip with Joe next summer? “We book trips for four hours or a full day,” he says. “Our clients average three to seven kokanee on a four hour trip. When they are with us for a full day we’ll boat an average eight to 15 fish.”
As I mentioned earlier Joe Heinlen also guides on Rufus Wood Reservoir that’s formed by the Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia River. There his primary target is the reservoir’s big triploid rainbow trout as well as its king sized kokanee.
Once again it’s Mack’s Lure products that figure in this interesting guide’s outstanding success at Rufus Wood. I’ll detail what those products are and how he uses them in my next column. Watch for it here beginning Nov. 15.
-To Be Continued-
