Arrived at Strawberry Marina at 6:30 and began catching fish the minute we started setting out the lines. Boated a total of 22 fish & had at least another 10 fish on that unzipped on the way to the boat. We had multiple other strikes that never hooked up. Caught one Cutt 22.5-inches that weighed 3 lbs 13 oz (see photo) and another Cutt that 22-inches and had to weigh over 5lbs (no photo), it was twice as thick as the one in the photo. Also caught one Koke that went 2 lbs 9 oz - this koke is almost as nice as those you get at FG. I think we had 3 other kokes on that got off - I think my wife was horsing them in. All other fish were cutts in the slot or small rainbows.
We were using downriggers, RMT (white & pink squids) and all of the fish were between 10 & 30 feet in depth. The white squids were the bug of choice today. The first 2 hours of the day were the best - we average 10 fish/hour during this period. There was a 40 minute period between 7:00 and 8:00 that I was working hard to keep two rods in the water at any given time. We were fishing with four rods total & ran 3 cheaters - so I had seven bugs in the water most of the time. Only caught one double hook-up today with the cheater which surprised me.
We fished there on Tuesday and I posted our trip, “Berry Hot Afternoon”. We were also averaging about 10 fish an hour for a while. It was very good action. I had a white RMT squid left on my pole from Flaming Gorge and it was the bug of choice until I lost it. I have to get with Jared at RMT and get some more of those secret squid.
Anyway, it is nice to hear that someone can catch Kokes. Did you have to troll faster for them or deeper? Or did you just catch them while fishing for cuts? I think we were not trolling over deep water. That is probably where the Kokes are. They looked great. And nice size.
I was trolling 1.8 to 2.2 mph in 80 feet of water - depending on the wind direction. The Koke was actually 10 feet deep at about 9:00 a.m. I was surprised that they were not deeper.
It would be nice to be able to catch a limit of kokes. I am going to try over by the dam next weekend.
The large Bahama mama dodger with a white squid worked the best.
Rocky Mountain Tackle. Google them…