BBVD, Ford Fenders? Are you serious? Know why it's called a Ford Fender? Cuz it's like reeling one in when you hook up. I hate the Ford's, or even regular popgear. They make you lose fish after fish and take forever to reel in. And, YES, i've been laughed at cuz i use my down rigger for Kokes, can you believe that? It's all good though, cuz i sure wipe the smiles off the peoples faces when they see my catch.

What i think is scary is people fishing with 4oz of lead, a full length ford AND a snubber. The heartbreak these people must go through, losing fish after fish. But i must admit i did use this setup my first time koke fishing. But i quickly learned from that disastrous fish losing nightmare.

The best setup i have ever used is a trout/koke snubber(not the sergical tubing with the dacron in the center) 5" or 6" half brass half crome les davis flasher(with shrimp oil on it) and half of a red wedding ring on a 14-18" leader with a size 12 or smaller trebble hook tied on the end tipped with maggots. I fished this side by side with my G/F's pole last week in montana and i landed 7 of 8 and she got 2 of 10 on the standard popgear and wedring. The popgear and lead let the hooked fish swim all over eratically behind the gear, but the popgear and lead rarely moved because of the drag as you reel in. So in reality the fish can swim in any direction to dislodge the hook, and can do it easier because it now has a stationary point to pull from. It's just like fighting a fish with your drag way too tight. Rip.

Also kokes tend to nip at your bait so this gave me the idea of a very small treble and flasher and almost every fish was hooked at the very front of the jaw, right on the lips with 2 hooks in the bottom and one in top along with no popgear drag, they were not getting away! And i think the short leader with the flasher enticed them more with the jerking action it gave the wedring. The wedring was actually the blade half the body then the ring then the hook. Keeping the ring down at the bait was the whole idea. Just adding twinkle to your maggots.

Like i said i hate popgear and fords. So i was just giving you guys some ideas if your arms get tired or you get tired of missing bites and losing fish, no bragging here, it's just that koke fishing had stumped me for a while, and now it seems easy, or easier, so i passed on some info trying to help out.

How big were those Kokes you say? That's not too far from me and has caught my interest. And like BUSY said, hows the launch??? I write too much.