Using Clip or Snap Weights for Kokanee Salmon Fishing or Trolling

Using clip weights, also called snap weights, is a great way to fish for kokanee salmon while trolling if you don’t have a downrigger on your boat. Even if you do have a downrigger, its a great way to run one or two other poles and have more lines in the water with little risk of it tangling with your downrigger lines. You can increase the amount of kokanee rigs in the water very easily.

Clip weights or snap weights are a heavy duty clip that you can clip or snap onto your fishing line. It clamps on really well, and allows you to drop your line down to lower depths while trolling.

It’s not as convenient as a fish pulling a line out of a downrigger clip, but its still not hard to set. I follow the formula set by the video below. I send my rig back 50 feet, then clip on the weight, then send it back another 50 feet. The video below is one guy’s experience using them. Down below that, you’ll see my experience.

This is essentially the kit mentioned in the video, only its now sold on Amazon, with prime, so I trust it a bit more than eBay. This kit also comes with the clips directly in the kit. This has everything you need to start fishing for kokanee salmon with clip/snap weights.

Off Shore Tackle Snap Weights

My Experience Using Clip Weights to Fish For Kokanee Salmon

I first got into kokanee trolling by hooking as many split shot, and other types of weights I already had on my fishing line. It was ridiculous. I caught one, but it was a major pain. It made landing the fish way harder than it needed to be. The next day I ordered clip weights. Clip Weights are extremely simple to use. The weights snapped really easily onto the line, and gripped it really well. It couldn’t slide up and down the line at all- I tested it. Clip weights aren’t as cheap as split shot or other weights, so I didn’t want to just throw it over the side of the boat if I didn’t think I would be getting it back. I tugged on it pretty good, and it held tight. I was frankly impressed by how well built the clips were.

Removing Clip Weights While Reeling In

When reeling in a fish, its not hard to pause, unclip the weight, and go back to reeling. It takes only seconds, and I’ve never lost a fish while unclipping the weight from my line. On top of that, if the fish are deeper, I’d say 45 feet or deeper, you can attach the clip weights close to the dodger and then you don’t even have to remove the weight. Then you can get your rig further from the boat and it won’t scare the fish.

While the line is out in the water, you can see a lot more movement and action than you would with the line just in the downrigger. If you’re using a kokanee dodger that has a lot of action, you’ll see it in the bounce of your pole. It took me a little while to get used to. All you need to do is just notice the pattern, and get used to how the line moves. I really like that you can see even the little bites on the line. Small bites that you might not notice with a downrigger are really easy to see with clip weights. The extra weight does not affect the ability to see a bite at all.

Are Clip Weights More Effective, or Less Effective Than a Downrigger?

Clip Weights are neither more or less effective. The most important thing is to be able to have your lure at the same level as the fish. If your clip weighted rig as at the level of the fish, and the downrigger isn’t, the clip weight line will do better, and vice versa. It’s that simple. The fish don’t care if you’re using a $500 downrigger, or a $5 clip weight. All you need to do is get the line in front of the fish. Tight lines everyone.

About Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee salmon are landlocked sockeye salmon, which means they don’t return to the ocean and live their entire lives in lakes or reservoirs before spawning in rivers, streams, or gravel close to lakeshores. These salmon are delicious and are really strong fighters, making them a prime target for anglers, and the popularity of this fish is growing. Kokanee are a schooling fish that feed on zooplankton in the water. They tend to find where these plankton are at and then they congregate and feed all in that one area. These plankton, and the kokanee that feed on them, like to hang in water that is around 50-55 degrees, so these salmon are usually only able to survive in deep alpine lakes and reservoirs, and can be found from depths of 10 feet, all the way down to over 100 feet deep.