Kokanee Fishing: Does Leader Length Matter?

[Downriggerer]

Interesting observations, what are your thoughts on setbacks, early in the year compared to later?

For me, setbacks are a function of two things - Depth of fish and size of fish.

First, I set back longer earlier in the season when fish tend to be shallow or gathered near the surface.  From my experience kokanee do not like boats passing over them and they will go off to the side before they see anything from the downriggers.  When the water is cold and they could be anywhere, my setbacks are a little shorter, or I will just fish shallow and not stack and run other rods on planer boards to catch the fish my boat is pushing out to the side. 

In the middle of the season, as fish go down, I tend to lengthen the setbacks with the intent of giving myself more time to reel the fish to the boat and to wear it out.  I've had to many kokanee swim right for the boat to save energy and then save it all for a rodeo behind the boat.  I don't want a rodeo behind the boat.  I want the rodeo 35 feet back.  As the fish get bigger, I go farther on the setbacks to give myself more time to play them in.  As long as you are quick to the downriggers, keep your rods loaded and get tight reasonably quickly, the fish will stay on and you can wear it out as it comes in instead of going nuts when they see the boat. 

When fish reach their deepest, say 80-100 feet at Flaming Gorge, I reduce the length of the setbacks because I have depth making up distance from me to the fish instead of the setback.  So, the biggest fish I catch all year tend to be in the late July time frame and that's also when they are 100 feet down.  The set backs get closer because I have a lot more water to bring them up through and wear them out before they get to the boat.  I don't need a lot more distance to wear them out.

Setbacks play into my fight or flight theory as well.  Based on some rough math, if I'm doing 2.0 mph, that's about 3 feet per second.  Assuming a fish has a memory of 30 seconds, I want all my gear passing by them in less than 30 seconds so they remember they were and had something invade their space.  So, maximum setback would be 90 feet.  I'd say a short setback would be in the 25-30 foot range and a "long" setback for me would be approximately 45-55 feet back. 

Now the fish will come up and be curious and interested in the ball as well.  They'll follow it around looking at it for a while, even schooling up with it.  When I see that, I'll take the boat out of gear for a minute to slow down, let the gear fall, let the ball slow down and pull out of the blow back and then put it back in gear.  The salmon are usually startled and it can be a quick couple of fish on the elevator.