Little help from the AK contingency. New species/technique- saltwater sockeye

Old school commercial trollers in the Strait of Juan de Fuca would troll VERY slow with a couple of pink hootchie legs whipped onto a hook behind a dodger.  Yup, think sparse.

-Allen

I think I may have to try a simple red hook, with a red bead above the knot on the Columbia.   

I once saw videos of sockeye swiping at the tail end of the dodger and then getting flossed by the trailing leader.  So it really may not matter what you have on the end of the line, which explains why bare hooks works.

However, playing devil's advocate, this may have been a spawning instinct, and may not be applicable to sockeye further away from spawning (the salt).

-Allen

Found this today

My old buddy Mike Hershberg used to make up a fly that looked like plankton, it was black hair of some type and he did pretty well with them.

Rudy try putting a small red bead on the line in front of the hook above the knot it works for Kokanee also tiny red white squid skirts are good sometimes

+1

That video sure doesn't go the minimalist route. First guy uses a hoochie, glitter skirt, two beads and a shrimp tail, all behind a flasher.

Rudy try putting a small red bead on the line in front of the hook above the knot it works for Kokanee also tiny red white squid skirts are good sometimes

+1

And if all else fails, try the ultra old school U20 flatfish behind a didger ... red/orange or silver with pink spots!   

-Allen

People try all sorts of crazy rigs for catching Kokanee in California. It has never really interested me though. One day, I was jigging for lakers with a chartreuse pline lazer minnow and I saw a kokanee roll near me. I casted out and reeled the lure wuickly across the surface and the little guy inhaled that lure. After that, I hammered the kokanee all day. I tried it again one more time on a different lake and got my limit again.

Long story short: maybe that lure would work for sockeye, or a similar lure? Probably not but just a thought. I am assuming people have already tried all sorts of kokanee rigs in the salt for sockeye.

 

That's good Intel. I've heard the smallest sized pink buzz bombs work casting to a school of reds. It's only been the past few weeks where I think I've gotten consistent red strikes. It's sort of a holy grail in AK fishing is to land willing sockeye biters in Southcentral Alaska.

People try all sorts of crazy rigs for catching Kokanee in California. It has never really interested me though. One day, I was jigging for lakers with a chartreuse pline lazer minnow and I saw a kokanee roll near me. I casted out and reeled the lure wuickly across the surface and the little guy inhaled that lure. After that, I hammered the kokanee all day. I tried it again one more time on a different lake and got my limit again.

Long story short: maybe that lure would work for sockeye, or a similar lure? Probably not but just a thought. I am assuming people have already tried all sorts of kokanee rigs in the salt for sockeye.

Jigging irons (even up to 3-4 ounces) for kokes really turns on in the late season.   

-Allen

People try all sorts of crazy rigs for catching Kokanee in California. It has never really interested me though. One day, I was jigging for lakers with a chartreuse pline lazer minnow and I saw a kokanee roll near me. I casted out and reeled the lure wuickly across the surface and the little guy inhaled that lure. After that, I hammered the kokanee all day. I tried it again one more time on a different lake and got my limit again.

Long story short: maybe that lure would work for sockeye, or a similar lure? Probably not but just a thought. I am assuming people have already tried all sorts of kokanee rigs in the salt for sockeye.

Jigging irons (even up to 3-4 ounces) for kokes really turns on in the late season.   

-Allen

So what's your thought about using them for sockeye?!

People try all sorts of crazy rigs for catching Kokanee in California. It has never really interested me though. One day, I was jigging for lakers with a chartreuse pline lazer minnow and I saw a kokanee roll near me. I casted out and reeled the lure wuickly across the surface and the little guy inhaled that lure. After that, I hammered the kokanee all day. I tried it again one more time on a different lake and got my limit again.

Long story short: maybe that lure would work for sockeye, or a similar lure? Probably not but just a thought. I am assuming people have already tried all sorts of kokanee rigs in the salt for sockeye.

Jigging irons (even up to 3-4 ounces) for kokes really turns on in the late season.   

-Allen

So what's your thought about using them for sockeye?!

I think in the salt water, it may not be as effective.  Not sure the exact situation you've seen this work for kokes, but the situation I'm referring to is late season, when they are starting to really school up in anticipation of the spawn.  The kokes are really aggressive at this time and will strike anything that enters their "zone".

On a different note, I once talked to a guy that used to target sockeye in western Prince Williams Sound (I think Port Ashton area) that would sight fish them, picking off sockeye on small flies out of larger schools of pinks that they were mingling with.

-Allen

Tried for Salmon in Seward, and found schools from Tonsina to Derby Cove and just past.  (all less than 5 miles from launch).

Picked up one sockeye close to Derby Cove, essentially mooching at 60' over 150' depths.   It was mouth-hooked, on the trailing hook of a classic two-snell rig with 2 - 2.5" spacing.  Both hooks were 4/0 or 5/0 size.  Neither embellished with anything, but with a cut herring tail on the leading hook, so the back hook was bare. 

No camera to see, so it's anyones guess if it struck short of the forward bait, or hit the 4/0 Krill imitation bare gamikatsu fly.   

I did get subsequent strikes on the same school with small red-size troller herring hooked by nose on the front hook, but none to the boat.