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Part 2
You’re all set and you just can’t wait to get on the water.
You’ve been reading about the record size kokanee being caught in the Pacific Northwest and you’re well aware of the lures that have been catching them. That’s why you’ve picked up a selection of Mack’s Lure Wedding Ring Double Whammy Kokanee Pro lures. Those lures that have been catching one record fish after another in recent months.
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This lure doesn't resemble dynamite but it might as well be where the record kokanee coming out of Oregon's Wallowa Lake are concerned. A Mack's Lure Wedding Ring Double Whammy Kokanee Pro like this has set new USA size records for kokanee twice so far this year. |
Though you’re all set as far as gear is concerned, you still have one important question rumbling around in your head. It’s simply this: What the heck is the best way to use these proven lures? Can anybody tell me?
Yes I can. Pull up a stool, partner, because I’m fixin’ to tell you how the Oregon angling expert who for a time held the United States kokanee size record goes about it.
If you’re a regular reader of my columns here at this Mack’s Lure website you’re aware that I covered some similar points in recent columns about Wan Teece, the Enterprise, Oregon angler who held the kokanee size record before Bob Both, of Lostine, Oregon, broke it. Both’s approach is a bit different than Wan’s.
The difference begins with the bait he uses on the hooks that come with his Mack’s Double Whammy lures. Anglers use a variety of baits for use with a Double Whammy. Some favor nightcrawlers. Others have different choices. Wan Teece, for example, caught her record fish on a Double Whammy tipped with maggots.
Both takes another approach. “I don’t mess with nightcrawlers,” he says, “I use kernels of white Del Monte shoepeg corn I buy at the grocery store.” That’s what he was using when he boated that whopping big 8.85-pound kokanee that held the Oregon State record for a time.
If you’ve eyeballed your own Double Whammy Kokanee Pros you know they come with two razor sharp hooks. You’ve also noted there’s very little space between these two hooks. “I bait only my top hook,” Both says, “but I really load it up before it goes in the water.”
If that’s what this Oregon kokanee-catching expert uses it might be well for the rest of us to consider taking the same approach. Why? Because just this year he’s already put more really big kokanee in the boat than most of us will catch over the next 60 years.
I have reasons for saying that. Both caught his 8.85-pound record kokanee on May 8. When I talked to him a couple of weeks later he had caught five other fish of more than 6-pounds during that brief time since he set what was then a new record. How does that compare with your own kokanee fishing?
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Do you think Bob Both was just lucky to get that 8.85-pound kokanee that held the Oregon State record for a time?? Guess again! He's been taking whoppers out of Oregon's Wallowa Lake since he started fishing the lake as soon as the ice went out. Here's an example of what one of the five fish limits he caught earlier this year looked like.
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Most of us, of course, don’t have the easy access to Oregon’s Wallowa Lake that Bob does. It's Wallowa Lake where all those record fish are coming from. But you’ve still got to use the world’s best kokanee lure---and that’s what the Mack’s Double Whammy undoubtedly is---properly to put fish in the boat. Boat has done that time after time.
Let’s suppose you’ve got your Double Whammy baited with corn and you’re ready to go. What’s the next step Bob Both takes? It’s to attach his Double Whammy 18 to 20-inches behind a Luhr Jensen bolo flasher. He uses no additional weight and determines the depth he wants his lure to be by the speed at which he’s trolling.
Both sees trolling speed as being of maximum importance to the angler after kokanee. When I asked him what was the single most common mistake most trollers make in their search for kokanee he was quick to respond. “The most common mistake,” he says, “is trolling too fast.”
Unlike some other trollers, he doesn’t believe in using his outboard for trolling. He does it with his electric motor. “Wallowa Lake has about 20-feet of visibility,” he says. “If you use an outboard the noise is likely to spook the fish. I try to keep my boat speed at about .9 of mile.”
Using just the flasher ahead of his Double Whammy and letting out about 45 to 50-feet of line lets him get his lure down to around 18 to 20-feet. That’s where he usually finds fish once Wallowa Lake is free of ice in February and before he quits kokanee fishing in June.
Bob loads the reel he uses for kokanee with 10-pound test line and fishes it with a graphite rod his late father made prior to his death. As I mentioned earlier, he gives his dad credit for much of the success he’s having in his current fishing.
Time and weather conditions also factor into Both’s approach to kokanee angling. He wants to be on the water at daylight. “If it’s snowing or raining,” he says, “that’s all the better.”
As I also mentioned in my previous column, Bob Both told me he expected to see his kokanee size record broken again at Wallowa Lake. If you read my last column, you know that apparently has already happened. An angler from Pendleton caught a kokanee that reportedly weighed 9-pounds, 10.76-ounces at Wallowa Lake in early June. If that record is verified it will be a new world record for kokanee.
Both told me about his feelings regarding having his record broken before it happened. “I don’t care if someone breaks my record,” he told me. “Some say don’t tell anybody about Wallowa Lake’s fishing. I don’t feel that way. Having others share in the fishing is good for the local economy.”
In these last two columns I’ve shared with you the techniques Bob Both recently shared with me. Who knows? Maybe if you start using your Mack’s Wedding Ring Double Whammy Pros the way Bob does perhaps my next column will be about you!
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