Silvers Staying Up Late

Thu., April 20, 2000

Rich Landers Outdoors Editor

Anglers are beginning to see the light when it comes to mid-summer kokanee fishing. It can be a lantern, or a pair of 50-watt RV bulbs rigged to a 12-volt battery, or whatever their ingenuity can provide to execute a jig fest in the black of night.

By starting at 9 p.m., anglers can beat the heat and avoid the water skiers. And while the basic techniques can be used at most kokanee waters, night fishers have found particularly good success at Loon Lake, a 1,119-acre lake north of Spokane.

For starters, query anglers to find the approximate depth where kokanee have been holding. At Loon, anglers often set out quietly, trolling along the shoreline, zigzagging over depths ranging from 25-35 feet.

The jigging starts when you spot a school of silvers on your sonar. Drop a marker buoy. If fish are marked at 30 feet, carefully drop one boat anchor in 20 feet of water. Move quietly past the marker buoy and drop a second anchor from the other end of the boat at 40 feet.

Several rigs will work. Try an ultralight spinning rod, 5-6-1/2 feet long, spooled with 6-pound-test line. Tie 9-14 inches of leader from an inline sinker and attach a Glo Hook. Experiment in the boat to see how many inches of line your reel retrieves per turn in order to bring the hook up off the bottom. The test is necessary, since reel retrieve ratios differ.

Charge the Glo Hook with a photo strobe, bait the hook with a bit of corn or a grub, and drop the in-line sinker rig directly down until the sinker touches bottom. Reel up enough to bring the hook 2-10 inches off the bottom. Jig very slowly in a slight side-to-side motion. A wire bite indicator attached to the tip of the rod helps anglers detect a kokanee’s delicate nibble.

This sidebar appeared with the story: WHERE TO GO Silver mine

Top kokanee fishing waters in the region include Chapman, Horseshoe, Loon, Roosevelt, Bumping, Cle Elum, Keechelus, Kachess and Rimrock in Eastern Washington; Spirit, Coeur d’Alene in North Idaho; Koocanusa in Western Montana.

Note: Kokanee fishing has been closed this year in Lake Pend Oreille.

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