Gary Coe, Angler West Television And Sniffer Staff Trade Punches With Big Berryessa ‘Kokes   By: Cal Kellogg September 7, 2007 More Articles by Cal

Now I’ll fish with just about anybody anytime, but one of the great things about being an editor for the Fish Sniffer Magazine is that I have the chance to fish with some of the most prominent anglers in the sport.

Over the past three years I’ve had the opportunity to fish alongside delta icons Captain Barry Canevaro and Bobby Barrack, tackle innovator Gary Miralles, Captains Jim, James, Steve and Chris Smith of the legendary Smith fishing clan, as well as Captain Steve Torress of Masterbaiters Sportfishing in Puerto Vallarta, 2 time winner of the prestigious World Billfish Series World Championship.

On August 14th I added another world class angler to the list of folks I’ve fished with when I headed out to Lake Berryessa with Kokanee Power President Gary Coe to film a segment for and upcoming episode of Justin Wolff’s Angler West Television.

The outwardly mild mannered Coe, is among the fiercest of anglers on today’s competitive kokanee fishing scene, having won more money than any other angler over the past five years. While I enjoy kokanee fishing, I’m a big fish hunter at heart.

When I daydream, it’s images of huge rainbows, hard charging stripers and massive lingcod that fill my minds eye. So I like to harass Coe by calling him the Roland Martin of kokanee fishing, yet with Coe’s intensity, competitive nature and track record as a consistent winner the comparison is accurate.

Early on the morning of August I met up with Gary in Folsom, jumped into his rig and we headed for Markley Cove where we were scheduled to meet up with Justin Wolff at 7 o’clock. We got to the lake at 6:30, so we had plenty of time to ready Gary’s North River and get it into the water before Justin arrived.

With Justin aboard, Gary cruised through Markley’s no wake zone before dropping the hammer on his 250 horse Yamaha, speeding down the narrows toward the main body and ultimately the Big Island. The intel that Gary had gathered prior to the trip indicated that the kokanee bite had been pretty good for the first few hours of the morning and then turned tough as the sun got high in the sky, so we were determined to pinpoint the ‘kokes and get the needed footage for our segment as quickly as possible.

As we glided up to the Big Island, there were about a half dozen boats working the channel on the north side, but Gary opted to cruise around the area to the east of the island. Almost immediately we started marking fish down around 50 feet.

While Gary attached weights to his four downriggers I broke out my Shimano Talora rods. One was armed with a 4 inch copper and pink Sling Blade with a pink and chrome Hum Dinger rigged 24 inches behind it. The other rod sported a 4 inch watermelon colored Sling Blade with a pink and chrome Cripplure behind it on a 24 inch leader.

With the downriggers ready for action Gary pulled a pair of Lamiglas downrigger rods out of his rod locker. One was rigged with a chrome and green Vance’s dodger with a homemade pink and white spinner rigged about 14 inches behind it. Gary’s second rod had a 6 inch watermelon Sling Blade tied to it, trailed by a pink hoochie.

Gary fired up his kicker motor and after tipping our lures with shoe peg corn soaked in one of four different Pro-Cure bait oil scents we staggered our lines from 45 to 70 feet deep. We’d just heard anglers complaining over the radio about the lack of action when Gary’s shallow rod got hammered.

Gary had been playing his fish for a few seconds when his second rod popped out of the clip, so I grabbed it. Gary dropped the kicker into neutral and within a minute or two we were able to work both our fish to the surface and into the net. They were both handsome fish in the 16 inch range.

After putting our fish in the cooler and a little celebratory backslapping, Gary and I were about to re-bait the lures with corn when we heard a splash. We look back just in time to see a thick bodied kokanee with a Sling Blade in tow erupt from the water about 40 feet from the boat. The fish had grabbed my shallow rod tipped with the Cripplure. Instead of a double we’d had a triple and miraculously the hard fighting salmon hadn’t thrown the hook! Snatching the rod, I retrieved the slack and fought the fat sockeye to the waiting net.

Gradually, all of the other boats fishing around us left in search of greener pastures, while we enjoyed steady action on quality fish, most of which weighed between 1.5 and 2 pounds. Gary’s spinner and hoochie were getting most of the action, while I picked up the occasional fish on the Cripplure. At one point I mentioned that I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting hit on the Hum Dinger. “These fish are pretty aggressive and they like a lot of flash and movement that’s why we are trolling so quickly. Try cutting the leader down to 10 or 12 inches,” advised Gary.

Many times subtle changes can make a big difference when it comes to fishing success and this is especially true when dealing with kokanee. Within three minutes of shortening the leader a fish inhaled the Hum Dinger and I proceeded to catch the next four fish in a row on that set up!

As morning gave way to afternoon, Gary and I had limits in the cooler and Justin had all the footage he needed. Generally, Justin doesn’t fish when he goes out to shoot a show, but on this day with the bite going full blast it didn’t take much prodding from Gary and I to get him to try his hand at reeling a few kokanee in. In little more than an hour there were 15 handsome sockeyes in the box, full limits for the three of us.

On the day we had a triple hookup and several doubles on salmon that were remarkably large. All in all it had been the best day of kokanee fishing Justin and I had ever experienced, but I guess that’s what you expect when you have the opportunity to fish with Gary Coe, one of the world’s best kokanee anglers!