Ok this whole learning curve thing sucks...

Been taking the yak out to lake meridian trolling for trout and kokanee with no luck... have a red/silver lake troll and a couple of wedding rings I need some advice on tactics... please help me

Well, I looked on the WDFW website or for the kokanee stocking report for Lake Meridian, the weird thing is they don't mention stocking with kokanee since at least 2009 (that's as far back as I looked). However I know from a guy who fishes that lake they put at least 40,000 in there in 2011 which are to be this year's (2013) catch.
I think you're running into the same issue that we are here at Merwin, it's a slow starting kokanee year. Once that water temp goes over 51 or 52 degrees you should start picking them up. For now you want to fish the first 30 feet unit you find the fish. Start with 20 pulls and work your way to 50 until you find them. The more pulls the deeper you're fishing.
This chart is pretty helpful to gauge depth using the "pull count" method.


Gear: this time of year with the water temp still a bit low, you'll find most kokanee within the first 30' of water. I mainline a Shasta sling blade or a Sepps flasher trailed by a 11-18" leader to a wiggle hootchie, wedding ring tipped with white corn, or a regular hootchie on a mooching style rig tipped with a white Berkeley maggot. I suggest putting white corn in 2 or 3 quart zip lock bags and squirting different scents in each one. It gives you variety while on the water and sometimes their tastes change throughout the day. I like garlic, kokanee killer scent, and anise.

Shasta Sling Blades:  Silver with green bone pattern (uv). Greenish/blue holographic in uv. Silver with pink uv.

Some popular patterns:  (not my photo)



Sepps flashers: watermelon works very well. The white with multi color dots (clown), the pink splatter is one of my favorites. See pic of my tackle box below.

Hootchie and wedding ring: try to match the color on the flasher to start. (i.e. pink flasher, use a hootchie or wedding ring with pink in it). If that doesn't produce, try mix and matching. I really like the action I get out of the wiggle hootchie so if you don't have one, pick up a pink or chartreuse one. You'll love it.

Match the hatch:  (not my photo)


Trolling: troll based on your "bling". Sepps, slower troll (.8-1.2 mph). Shasta a bit faster (1.0-1.6 mph). You can even do 2.0 with the Shasta. A bit of a tip, if you "bend" the Shasta slightly right down the middle, it will give it a you a wider arc which means you can troll slower with it.

Here is my tackle box for reference to some of the gear mentioned above.


Basic rigging options (not my photo).


Hootchie rig:  (not my photo)


Hang in there. With all the kokanee fry planted in 2011 it should be a good year for you up there. That water temp going up is key.

Hope this helps!
Paul

When I see RR's tackle box pics, I feel ashamed of that messy heap of fishing gear has taken over the bench in my man-cave. I can't be the only one....we should form a support group, discuss our feelings on the subject.

RR..... That's some great info. Thanks for all your input and support. Great job bruddha!

+1. You got to be the Koke man, man.


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Good stuff. 
Depending on the weather I may head across the river for some kokanee this weekend. 

RR.  Great example of why the people on this site rock.  It would be a challenge to find a better response to a question on any other fishing site.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

RR-Great information and much appreciated.
This year the IDF&G is allowing anglers to take kokanee from Lake Pend Oreille.
First time since 1999.
The 'Lake' has a very old and deep history with kokanee fishing.
In the 60's, 70's, and 80's and before; large groups of koke fisherpeople here.
Lead line, ford fenders, wedding ring tipped with maggots.
Too much gear for such a small fish.
I will be using mini hootchies and dodgers for the first time for kokes.
This past fall the kokanee were abundant and hitting large lures: 4.5'' apexes, flies with 4/0 hooks, large hootchie/flashers, etc. They were around.
Great pics on koke gear.
Y'all running leader length say 1.5 times length of dodger, or shorter?
Thank you, and hoping for warmer water over on this side.
Grant

Thank you everyone! Glad to help.
Rbchar, leader lengths of 1.5 times the flasher are my usual rule of thumb. However, if you're getting strikes and they're not committing to it, sometimes the problem is that they flasher is too close to your lure and you're spooking them off the bite.
Gary Mirales (founder of Shasta Tackle) has a YouTube video somewhere with underwater video showing how this sometimes happens. They can be finicky, moody fish at times so  if you're getting those short, uncommitted bites, tie on a longer leader and you should see your catch ratio improve.

RR- thank you so much for all the info!  Hopefully ill start catching some fish soon armed with all that knowledge you and others gave me!  I agree Deepcolor the people on this site do rock Ive never had so many people reach out to help before on other sites... joinin here has been great

today I hooked in to my first fish trolling ever. I went to Phillips lake in Mason County and got 3 trout. it was a bit rough with the power boats and the wind combined with the learning curve but that was pretty exciting. for anyone who may be curious I was using a blue dodger and pink wedding ring. water temp was 62 degrees and I am guessing I was 10 feet down or so.

how do you guys start trolling, do you cast your rig out or do you start paddling to get speed and let your bail loose? i was having some issues with my line getting tangled up under my weight. thanks for any suggestions!

hope you don't mind me using this thread redfish, it just seems like an appropriate place to ask.

today I hooked in to my first fish trolling ever. I went to Phillips lake in Mason County and got 3 trout. it was a bit rough with the power boats and the wind combined with the learning curve but that was pretty exciting. for anyone who may be curious I was using a blue dodger and pink wedding ring. water temp was 62 degrees and I am guessing I was 10 feet down or so.

how do you guys start trolling, do you cast your rig out or do you start paddling to get speed and let your bail loose? i was having some issues with my line getting tangled up under my weight. thanks for any suggestions!

hope you don't mind me using this thread redfish, it just seems like an appropriate place to ask.

I never cast my dodger/blade setups. I usually use the "pull" method. I will keep my thumb on the spool and start to strip line out counting each pull from reel to the first or second eye on your rod. I'm moving the whole time.
What type of weight were you using? A small banana style weight should help prevent tangles.

today I hooked in to my first fish trolling ever. I went to Phillips lake in Mason County and got 3 trout. it was a bit rough with the power boats and the wind combined with the learning curve but that was pretty exciting. for anyone who may be curious I was using a blue dodger and pink wedding ring. water temp was 62 degrees and I am guessing I was 10 feet down or so.

how do you guys start trolling, do you cast your rig out or do you start paddling to get speed and let your bail loose? i was having some issues with my line getting tangled up under my weight. thanks for any suggestions!

hope you don't mind me using this thread redfish, it just seems like an appropriate place to ask.

I never cast my dodger/blade setups. I usually use the "pull" method. I will keep my thumb on the spool and start to strip line out counting each pull from reel to the first or second eye on your rod. I'm moving the whole time.
What type of weight were you using? A small banana style weight should help prevent tangles.

no worries wired I also use the pull count method like rr but since I don't have a mirage drive it gets complicated a little, I got to get going stop paddling then I do about 10 pulls then paddle to keep my momentum going and repeat till I have pulled out the amount of line I want out... takes awhile but you get the hang of it

thanks guys! I'll have to give the pull method a shot. I've seen people do it, but on my spinning reel while having to paddle I was getting as fast as I could then I hit the bail and counted the amount of times the line came around the spool. for the most part it worked, but being new to this it was a guessing game. I would troll for 20-30 then check and hope my tackle wasn't knotted up.  I did notice the biggest problem area was on the connection between the dodger and my rubber snubber. do you guys even use these?

I actually printed and saved RR's provided info.  Better explained and illustrated than many fishing books being sold today.