Another 2 cents worth
I will say up front that just about anybody can out catch me when it comes to kokanee, but I get enough to keep myself happy.
As has already been said, your leader length IS too long. I don’t use anything over 8 inchs on mine and accounted for 75 in the boat over 3 days at the Pig. The dodger will swing back and forth as it travels through the water, but will NOT impart any action in your squid lure with leaders longer than about 10” or so. The shorter the leader, the more action will be transferred to your lure from the dodger. Try this next time you go; let the dodger out about a foot from the tip of your rod. Now hold the tip under water so that the dodger is completely submersed. Now, look at the squid. With a 20” leader it will just be traveling in a straight line with NO side to side action. Try the same thing with an 8” leader and see the squid twitch side to side.
Now, about that spinner bait. Here is a link to what they are talking about: Kokanee Tackle. Scroll down to the Pinky Pink version and you will see what a friend was using to account for a lot of those 75 boated. And same deal with leader length; I run mine about 8” behind the dodger. These also are tipped with a Berkley Gulp maggot on each hook. I’ve been using white, chartreuse, and pink maggots with about equal success.
And the deeper you go with your DR weight, the closer you can be to the weight. At 30 feet down I’m running about 10 to 15 feet behind. At 20 feet down, I’d run at least 40 feet back. At 35 and deeper, you can run 5 feet back with little or no ill effects. There have been some videos posted that show the fish following and taking the lure only 5 feet behind the weight at 30 to 35 feet deep. They apparently are not detracted by the weight in the least.
Your speeds seem about right. I usually keep it somewhere between 1.5 and 2.0 for kokanee.
Bob Hicks, from Utah - I’m 80 years young and going as hard as I can for as long as I can.
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