Kokanee Mystery - Advice Needed

OK, I'm an admitted complete newbie to kokanee trolling. Lucky? I think so. Although it took me 10 hours on the water on my first attempt at koke trolling, once that first fish was in the boat I was determined to limit my ten no matter how long it took. 

You see I have 22 hours of daylight and two hours of twilight right now for fishing....and a stubborn attitude to succeed.  And most importantly....no schedule.

I need advice on my kokanee rig and an explanation of what is going on. The photo shows what I used the other day behind a Luhr Jensen 4/0 dodger. I tried to stay on 2mph troll speed as that gave a nice action to the dodger and some movement to the hootchie.

Unfortunately out of 15 fish to the net I released five that were foul-hooked. This seemed strange because the motion of my hootchie and hooks was not so erratic that it would cause many fish to 'miss the target' on a strike attempt and run into a hook.  These fish were snagged in the belly between the pectoral fins, snagged in the gill plates, snagged on the cheek, and even on the top of their back behind the head.

I'm attempting to visualize what is going on "down there" that is causing these hookups. In addition I lost 8-10 hookups that pulled loose before I could get the rod out of the holder and suspect perhaps these were nipped by a hook point too.

I made this rig expecting the fish to strike the corn baited back or front hooks. But these foul hookups indicate the fish are striking at the EYE of the hootchie. As you can see I added 3 beads to space the hooks from the hootchie.

Now I have an additional "theory" because quite often I would mark a school of kokanee just before a hookup. I'm wondering if a frenzy of school effort to grab the meal resulted in a swarm on the lure and some fish found the hook points outside their mouth.

So, I won't deviate from what is working for me but want to reduce the foul hooked fish. I'm thinking to rig with NO beads and drop down to a single hook.  I know, the pros most often recommend the two hook rig. But I have an abundance of fish available so a reduction in my catch rate shouldn't significantly drop my success ratio.

I may try just two UV red hooks and bait and see if the hootchie is not even needed.

Does anyone else experience an unusual amount of foul-hooking when you are fishing for kokanee?  Thanx.

P.S. As a last resort I may have to get out my saltwater rig with my GoPro on a halibut spreader and try to film what the fish are doing when they move in on the lure. I guess if that is successful it would solve the mystery. I just don't know if all that "gear" ahead of the dodger and lure would spook the fish.

Are you not allowed to keep the foul-hooked fish?

Uplandsandpiper has some great underwater videos on YouTube of kokanee hitting his lures. They seem to be pretty erratic and hit from the side aggressively, so it's not surprising to me that you're getting a lot of foul hooks. Maybe try adjusting which hook you put your bait on?

Here's his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/spiltmilt

Are you not allowed to keep the foul-hooked fish?

Uplandsandpiper has some great underwater videos on YouTube of kokanee hitting his lures. They seem to be pretty erratic and hit from the side aggressively, so it's not surprising to me that you're getting a lot of foul hooks. Maybe try adjusting which hook you put your bait on?

Here's his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/spiltmilt

Snagged fish in freshwater, throughout Alaska, can't be retained. Most saltwater areas allow snagging and snagged fish retention but there are a few areas like north of Bluff Point in Cook Inlet does not allow snagging.

Yes, Tyler's videos were what pointed me in the right direction for trolling. I'm wondering if my particular population has a different hunting/feeding pattern than the west coast varieties. And too I had 49°F at the surface so the lake temps may have been a factor producing a more aggressive attack on the lure. I fished til 8pm and by that time kokanee were on the surface near shore rising and jumping for a major caddis fly hatch that was in progress all day long. Been a looong time since I tied a caddis emerger or adult. Need to track down my pattern book and refresh my memory (and eye/hand coordination for smaller details).

I'm going to experiment with a krill pattern I tie up to use for Kenai and Russian River sockeye and see if dragging one of those behind the dodger will produce a strike response. If it works I won't have to worry about bait or foul hooked fish.

These fish were snagged in the belly between the pectoral fins, snagged in the gill plates, snagged on the cheek, and even on the top of their back behind the head.

Kokanee sometimes thrash around like hummingbirds when they get hooked.  If you are fishing with a two-hook lure, sometimes one of the hooks will end up lodged on the outside of the kokanee's head.  And if a hook comes out of a kokanee's mouth when the fish is running straight away from you, the lure can spring back and get hooked on the side or a fin of the fish.

Kokanee sometimes thrash around like hummingbirds when they get hooked.  If you are fishing with a two-hook lure, sometimes one of the hooks will end up lodged on the outside of the kokanee's head.  And if a hook comes out of a kokanee's mouth when the fish is running straight away from you, the lure can spring back and get hooked on the side or a fin of the fish.

The snagging was very peculiar for sure. The belly snagged fish was the 2nd foul-hooked catch and had both hooks impaled in the area between the two pectoral fins so it would have been impossible for a mouth hookup to have the remaining loose hook embed underneath, then dislodge the original mouth hook and impale it also in the belly. That is what struck me as very odd and got me thinking there was something very strange going on down there. Being my first successful kokanee trolling attempt I just chalked it up to new discoveries but I love a good mystery to solve.

My GoPro setup I put together was for my halibut fishing as well as a drop down and get a quick record of what is hanging out on a reef or pinnacle. It still hasn't got wet yet (waiting on a repetitive storm cycle that never ends) so perhaps this Hidden mystery would be a good trial run to see how it works as well as what information it might provide.

I will track down uplandsandpiper's UW vids to see if there are some clues to be had.

Kokanee sometimes thrash around like hummingbirds when they get hooked.  If you are fishing with a two-hook lure, sometimes one of the hooks will end up lodged on the outside of the kokanee's head.  And if a hook comes out of a kokanee's mouth when the fish is running straight away from you, the lure can spring back and get hooked on the side or a fin of the fish.

The snagging was very peculiar for sure. The belly snagged fish was the 2nd foul-hooked catch and had both hooks impaled in the area between the two pectoral fins so it would have been impossible for a mouth hookup to have the remaining loose hook embed underneath, then dislodge the original mouth hook and impale it also in the belly. That is what struck me as very odd and got me thinking there was something very strange going on down there. Being my first successful kokanee trolling attempt I just chalked it up to new discoveries but I love a good mystery to solve.

My GoPro setup I put together was for my halibut fishing as well as a drop down and get a quick record of what is hanging out on a reef or pinnacle. It still hasn't got wet yet (waiting on a repetitive storm cycle that never ends) so perhaps this Hidden mystery would be a good trial run to see how it works as well as what information it might provide.

I will track down uplandsandpiper's UW vids to see if there are some clues to be had.

I'd slow down and use a smaller presentation. They're probably swiping that the hoochie a bunch of times until those hooks get them in the belly for face.

not so erratic that it would cause many fish to 'miss the target' on a strike attempt and run into a hook.

Yup

I'm thinking to rig with NO beads and drop down to a single hook.

I'd keep the second hook for more of a chance at a hookup, and more importantly hopefully have two points of contact on the fish to distribute the force during the fight.

If you're still snagging them, you can bend the point of the hook toward the shank - this makes a psuedo circle hook and you'll snag less fish.