Salmon In North Carolina Lake

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1 August 2013 Mack s Lure Guide Staff Fred Mix with a couple of Kokanee from Nuntahala Lake. The state of North Carolina stocked Kokanee in the Nantahala Lake from 1959 to 1964 as a forage fish for the rainbow. Click here to read report. The state decided the stocking was unsuccessful because they did not witness the spawn. The Kokanee, a species of landlocked salmon, have been naturally reproducing ever since without any additional stocking. Only in recent time has anyone ever caught a Kokanee there. I think the first state record was 8 ounces. My old time fishing buddy caught two of them a number of years back on spoons. I told him he caught silver lake run rainbows until he sent me the photo. WOW, a salmon in North Carolina. I was born in New Orleans and visited Cherokee, NC in 1958 at 4 years old. I thought I was in the Salmon In North Carolina Lake By Fred Mix Rockies! Ever since then I wanted to catch cold water fish. My wife and I have fished Alaska but catching salmon In NC took the cake for me. On my first serious salmon trip I used tackle from a company that was more about BS than fishing success. After that first trip I started researching other lures and tackle. Like most first time kokanee anglers, the Mack s Wedding Ring spinner was the go to lure for me. My biggest Kokanee, 3.8 pounds, was caught on a red Wedding Ring Double Whammy pulled behind a pink dodger. These Kokanee are just like Kokanee are out west. They form up at the thermocline when it warms up and can be seen on the fish finder. For that matter, I have seen the plankton so thick that in 200 feet of water the fishfinder is showing 50 feet bouncing of the plankton. The daphnia will be on your line and downrigger cable. Red and green colors, depending on the time of day, are what they go after from 20 to 65, or maybe even 75, feet down. The Wedding Ring spinners and Kokanee squidders with the Smile Blades are my favorite lures. I still want to master the prespawn fish while they are in the lake. Yes, Kokanee are cyclical. One year there can be 2 or 3 pound fish and not very many, the next year pretty much just 1 and 2 pound fish, but lots of them. Yep, I use scent with the lures, and Maggots versus corn. A quality rod, reel, and line, are important as well. I believe fishing during the new moon is best. Troll from 1 to 2 MPH but mostly 1.5 or less and I do that mostly with an electric motor. On the fish finder, I can see salmon swim down and away from the boat when I was using the gas outboard motor. I rarely ever made a second pass through fish and got a strike when not using an electric motor. The electric motor helps puts that second fish in the boat. The river above the lake is privately held. I have a cabin in that area. I heard tales of spawning runs but never saw more the 8-10 fish. I was told at one time the spawn was all the way up the river on the other side of the highway and into Standing Indian Campground, and that the locals would net and gig them and feed them to their dogs. That abundance has not been seen in 20 years. The population is declining. Eggs to stock should help if warm climate does not change the lake into a bass pond. Yet it is also still pretty awesome to be able to get a double header of 3 pound fish. Putting both fish in the boat by ones self is fun and I am still learning how to be good at it. -end- Page one

2 Stan s Space Be Sure Your Holding What You Hook By Hall-of-Fame Angler Stan Fagerstrom Part 1 of 1 I ve never known an experienced angler who didn t want to have sharp hooks on his lures. That comment won t surprise anybody but here s something that just might---how those hooks are placed on your lure can often be equally important. I ll admit not having given this as much thought as I should have in all these years I ve been trying to put fish in the boat. And it really isn t nearly as important for catching one species of sports fish as it is with another. I m sharing these thoughts after having had opportunity recently to spend a little time with Bob Schmidt, the general manager of Mack s Lure. Bob s a busy guy. I wish I had opportunity to spend more time with him because I always learn something important to my own fishing when I do. You won t find anglers more knowledgeable about kokanee angling than this one. He s Bob Schmidt, the general manager of Mack s Lure. If you ve been reading my Stan s Corner columns lately you re aware they ve been dealing with catching kokanee. My recent visit with the man who heads up the Mack s Lure operation brought up something important. It s that there are other often overlooked considerations where these landlocked sockeye salmon are concerned. If you re an experienced kokanee angler I m betting you re already aware of how soft mouthed they are. When you do manage to hook one you d better be darn careful how it s handled or plan on having something besides fish for dinner. I ve seen advertisements for lure companies over the years where this aspect of successful kokanee catching wasn t getting the attention it deserves. That sure as heck isn t the situation where certain of the products Schmidt s company makes available to us. Unlike some of the lure makers I ve known, Schmidt didn t figure he has all the answers to this business of putting fish in the boat. He gets out there himself and does his own research as well as working with experienced guides and pros. That s why today his company is turning out lures that have got a whole lot of fish in big time trouble. If you ll take a close look at a couple of the illustrations that are included here you can see what I m talking about. Note, for example, the illustration showing an example from the Mack s Lure Double Whammy Kokanee Pro series of lures. As you can see, there s hardly any space between those two razor sharp hooks. So what? So when a kokanee chomps down on a lure with this hook placement it doubles your chances of inviting it to join you for dinner. Continued from Page 1 Note the hook placement on this Double Whammy Kokanee Pro lure. The closeness of those two hooks doubles your chances of not losing those hard to hook and hold landlocked sockeye salmon. Mack s products with this style of hook arrangement haven t always been available. It all came about some years ago when Schmidt had opportunity to spend some time and fish with an angler named Phil Johnson. Phil was from California, Bob says. He tied up his own double hooked rigs with no space between them. I had a chance to see for myself just how darned effective they could be for kokanee fishing. We ve been making them available to anglers ever since. Today Bob s company is marketing three different lure categories with this special hook set up. They are the Ringmaster series, the Double Whammy Kokanee Pro series and the Mini Kokanee Pro series. The double hook set up is also available to kokanee anglers on this Mack s Double Whammy Ringmaster lure. Continued on Page 3 Page two

3 Continued from Page 2 As I ve often mentioned before, I hope you have a Mack s Lure catalog. It makes it so easy to study what I m writing about. I m aware that you can also get a good look at things right here at this website under the products listing, but in my opinion a catalog makes it a whole lot easier. The soft mouth of the kokanee also comes into play even after you ve had a good hook up. Mack s Lure also aids anglers in that respect. How? Well, for starters, what kind of a trolling set up are you using? Are you still dragging around one of those heavy gang trolls with metal blades? You re missing a big bet if you don t get a Mack s Lure Flash Lite troll like this for your kokanee fishing. You won t have trouble telling when a kokanee picks up your lure as you sometimes do when you re trolling with a heavy and outdated metal gang troll. If you re doing that when it s kokanee you re after that extra weight is going to aid in tearing your hooks loose when a kokanee is hooked. And it s not necessary. Our Flash Lite trolls are so much lighter in weight, Schmidt says. That lightness really helps eliminate the chances for losing a kokanee when it starts jumping around as you bring it to the boat. There s yet another Mack s Lure component that helps cut down on hooks pulling free from a kokanee s mouth. I m talking about trolling snubbers. Mack s has specially made models of these in-line shock absorbers. Continued from Page 1 Experienced kokanee trollers know snubbers like this help them hook and hold the kokanee that come their way. Mack s Lure offers these snubbers in both different lengths and colors. Unlike snubbers you ve likely seen elsewhere, Mack s has them in three different lengths and in five different colors. Let s face it---kokanee can be hard to locate and often hard to get to bite once you do find them. When we do get em pinned down and they re feeding we sure don t want to lose those we manage to hook. Nobody has worked any harder to keep that from happening than Bob Schmidt and his talented crew at Mack s Lure. Build what I ve just finished telling you about into your own kokanee fishing and watch what happens. -end- Cookin Your Catch Mustard-Roasted Fish Ingredients: 4 (8-ounce) fish fillets such as red snapper Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 ounces creme fraiche 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard 2 tablespoons minced shallots 2 teaspoons drained capers Directions: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. (You can also use an ovenproof baking dish.) Place the fish fillets skin side down on the sheet pan. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Combine the creme fraiche, 2 mustards, shallots, capers, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. Spoon the sauce evenly over the fish fillets, making sure the fish is completely covered. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish, until it s barely done. (The fish will flake easily at the thickest part when it s done.) Be sure not to overcook it! Serve hot or at room temperature with the sauce from the pan spooned over the top. Let s Eat!!! Page three

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5 Trolling Tip By Mike Hall Fishing Guide on Flaming Gorge Mack s Lure Sonic Baitfish with soft glow bead. Shown is a great rig for trolling. It is important that the soft glow bead is placed where the curve meets the shank. This causes the hook to move from side to side. Using a drop of glue to keep the bead in place is a good idea. I am constantly catching Kokanee, Mackinaw & Rainbow of good quality (3 to 5 lbs) trolling 1.5 to 1.75 mph both long lining and with down riggers. I believe the SBF (Sonic BaitFish) is often best trolled by itself in other words no bait, just a bead as pictured. The color of the beads can make a difference. I use glow, orange, and green glow. The fish will prefer one color over another depending on the day. Go fish this rig and you will soon believe as I do. Jigging, or trolling, the SBF is an extremely versatile & effective method of catching fish. Mack s Lure Sonic BaitFish Fire Tiger. Photo of the Month This beautiful 10.2 pound sockeye was caught by angler Todd Schmidt last month on Baker Lake in Washington State. Todd was using a Double D Dodger with a Cha Cha Sockeye squidder. Questions of the Month Have a question? We d love to answer it! Contact us at mackslure@ mackslure.com if you have a question you would like to see featured! Q: I see the Double D Dodger comes with swivel hardware on the one end. What hardware do you recommend for connecting to the other end of the dodger? Also how far behind the dodger would you run a Cha Cha rig, or small hoochie, when fishing for trout or kokanee? Would it be different lengths depending on the species? A: The Double D comes with a split ring & snap swivel on the end that goes to your leader. On the other end, it is recommended that you rig directly to your mainline with only a snap swivel. To rig; you would tie the swivel end of your snap swivel to your mainline, and the snap end would be snapped directly into the desired hole on the dodger. This rigging also allows the angler to be able to quickly change to a different hole as needed for spreading the lines. It is best to run a very short leader length behind the dodger. The Mack Attack is a free service provided to anyone who is interested by Mack s Lure, Inc. We need your input! If you know of anyone who would like to be on the mailing list to receive the Mack Attack, please forward their address to al@mackslure.com. Photos, stories, and comments are welcomed and encouraged. Please forward all content materials to bob@mackslure.com. THANK YOU! Page five