Unlocking Kokanee Secrets: Underwater Footage

What I Learned Taking My Setups Underwater

By Cole Walker – Walking on Water Fishing

I’ve been chasing kokanee across the lakes of North Idaho and Washington for years now, and like most anglers, I’ve always had a few burning questions about what’s really happening below the surface. Why do these fish absolutely smash certain setups while completely ignoring others? Why do I get 95% of my strikes on the turn? And what speeds underwater do kokanee actually want to see? So I did what any obsessed kokanee angler would do, I strapped a GoPro to my gear and took it all underwater to see exactly how these setups work. What I discovered changed the way I approach every single kokanee trip, and I’m pumped to share these insights with you.

For those who don’t know me, I’m Cole Walker from North Idaho, and I run the Walking on Water Fishing channel on YouTube (youtube.com/@walkingonwaterfishing) and Facebook (facebook.com/cole.walker.7121). My passion is helping anglers at all levels catch more fish by breaking down the techniques and tackle that actually work on the water. Speed, presentation, and lure action are absolutely key elements to successful kokanee fishing, and understanding how your setups maneuver underwater is game-changing information that can seriously fill your cooler.

The Classic Sling Blade and Hoochie Setup

Let’s start with the setup that’s probably caught more kokanee than any other, the Mack’s Lure Sling Blade paired with a trailing hoochie. This combination is freaking legendary, and for good reason. When I dropped the GoPro down at 1.2 miles per hour, I watched that Sling Blade go to work with a nice, slow, consistent wobble. It’s moving back and forth exactly like it should be: predictable, steady, and smooth. The hoochie trailing behind it at this speed doesn’t show a ton of sporadic movement, just a nice consistent action as it travels straight through the water.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. When I bumped the speed up to 1.6 miles per hour, everything changed. The tempo of the Sling Blade’s wobble increased dramatically. It is almost like you put a bend in the blade itself. But the thing that absolutely fascinated me was what happened to that trailing hoochie. At 1.6 mph, the hoochie was moving in a very sporadic, erratic motion, and as we all know, salmon-class fish absolutely love that sporadic type movement. It was almost simulating a turn, even though we were running straight.

I know the conventional wisdom says kokanee like to be fished at 1.2 mph, and I’m not arguing with that. But looking at this underwater footage, there’s definitely something to be said about the increased action at 1.6 miles an hour. That hoochie was just whipping back and forth pretty quickly. It was way more aggressive than the slower, more consistent movement at 1.2. It’s one of those things that makes you think about how speed affects your entire presentation.

The Turn - Where the Magic Happens

Here’s the big reveal that I’ve been wanting answers to for a long time: the turn. If you’re like me and most kokanee anglers I know, you catch the vast majority of your fish when you’re turning. I’d estimate 95% of my kokanee are caught on turns, and this underwater footage finally shows us why.

Turning for salmon-class fish is huge, and it’s always been that way. When I watched the footage of my setup turning at 1.2 miles per hour, everything made perfect sense. The turn provides almost a 1.5 mile per hour speed boost, depending on which side your rod is on. If you’re on the inside rod position during the turn, your setup actually slows down a bit. But if you’re on the outside rod (and that’s what I filmed) when you whip that thing around, the speed increases significantly.

The underwater footage showed a nice, slow, consistent wobble with a hard thump from the Sling Blade, and that hoochie trailing behind it was just working perfectly. The sporadic movement during the turn is what always entices those kokanee to bite. So I think one of our big answers here is just the simple fact that turning at 1.2 miles an hour provides the perfect, very consistent wobble and sporadic movement for the hoochie, which triggers these kokanee and salmon-class fish to absolutely smash our lures.

Why Mack’s Lure Gear Performs

I need to take a moment here to talk about why I trust Mack’s Lure products for my kokanee fishing. The Sling Blade is an absolute workhorse, and watching it perform underwater only reinforced what I already knew from thousands of hours on the water. The consistent wobble at trolling speeds, the perfect action during turns, and the way it activates your trailing lure; it’s all there, and it’s all working exactly as it should.

As I always say, the Mack’s Lure Sling Blade with a trailing hoochie is probably the most catching setup there is for kokanee. I know some people have their favorite lures, and that’s totally cool, but in my case, this has been the trailer hoochie all the way. The Sling Blade provides that foundation, that perfect attractor that brings fish in from a distance, while the hoochie provides the finishing touch that triggers the strike.

The reason this setup is so effective comes down to how it moves through the water. At standard trolling speeds, you get that consistent attraction with just enough sporadic movement to keep things interesting. During turns, the action intensifies naturally, creating that irresistible trigger that kokanee just can’t ignore.

Additional Setups and Underwater Observations

While the Sling Blade and hoochie combination is my go-to, I also filmed several other popular kokanee setups underwater. I ran dodgers with hoochie spinners, dodgers with spin glows, and various other combinations that kokanee anglers use throughout the Pacific Northwest. Each setup has its own unique action underwater, and seeing them side by side really helps you understand why certain presentations work better in different conditions.

The dodger setups showed more aggressive action overall, with the dodger providing a faster, more erratic movement compared to the Sling Blade’s smooth wobble. During turns, these setups really came alive, with the trailing lures dancing and flashing in ways that would definitely grab a kokanee’s attention. The spinner blade setups added even more flash and vibration to the presentation.

Practical Application: Speed and Presentation Tips

So how do you take all this underwater knowledge and actually use it to catch more kokanee? Here’s what I’ve learned:

Speed Control: Start at 1.2 mph for that consistent, proven presentation. If the bite is slow, don’t be afraid to experiment with 1.6 mph to add more sporadic movement to your hoochies. Pay attention to your fish finder—if you’re marking fish but not getting bites, sometimes that speed adjustment is all you need.

Master the Turn: Since turns trigger the majority of strikes, make them count. Do nice, slow S-curves through the water as you move up and down the lake. This speeds up and slows down your lures slightly as they move from inside rod to outside rod position. The speed changes and increased action during these maneuvers are absolute kokanee killers.

Rod Position Matters: Remember that outside rods during a turn are moving faster than inside rods. If you’re getting all your bites on one side, it might be related to which rods are on the outside of your turns. Keep track of patterns and adjust accordingly.

Consistent Presentation: The underwater footage showed me that consistency matters. A nice, steady wobble with occasional bursts of erratic action (from turns) is the winning formula. Avoid jerky boat movements or speed changes that disrupt your presentation.

Final Thoughts

Taking my kokanee setups underwater was one of the most valuable learning experiences I’ve had in my fishing career. Seeing exactly how these lures work at different speeds and during turns answered questions I’d been asking myself for years. The Mack’s Lure Sling Blade proved itself once again as the foundation of a killer kokanee setup, and understanding the science behind why it works has made me a more confident, successful angler.

Whether you’re fishing the lakes of North Idaho, Washington, or anywhere kokanee swim, these principles apply. Speed, presentation, and lure action are the holy trinity of kokanee fishing, and now you know exactly what’s happening below the surface. Get out there, put these techniques to work, and watch your catch rates absolutely skyrocket.

God bless, and I’ll see you on the water!

Connect with Cole Walker:

• YouTube: youtube.com/@walkingonwaterfishing
• Facebook: facebook.com/cole.walker.7121