Pautzke Fire Corn

Rating: *****

Price: $46 for 12 via factory; $4.50-$5.50 retail

This product caught on almost immediately after it was introduced to the northern California kokanee mafia in 2006, but it's been slow to show here in the Pacific Northwest. Odd, considering that Pautzke is a local company, located right across the Cascades in Ellensburg.

I'll make a confession before I launch into this: a kokanee guru I'm not. I can count on one hand the number of times I've left the house in the morning with the specific intent of catching landlocked sockeye. HOWEVER, I'll also toss out this qualifier: I know the Pautzke line inside, out, backwards and upside-down, including one of the major components of Fire Corn: Krill. I got on the Krill bandwagon before it was available on retail shelves, and have shared more beers with Pautzke president Casey Kelly than I care to admit. I've compared the powdered form of Antarctic crustacean that Pautzke uses in their Krill scents side-by-side with their competitors, and can tell you with complete candor that it's not even close: Pautzke's is the best.

Fire Corn follows much of the same production process of Pautzke's Balls O' Fire eggs, which have been the industry standard in single salmon eggs for over 50 years. It's lightly cooked and cured in a recipe that the Kelly family has used for decades, with the addition of powdered krill as the kicker. You died-in-the-wool koke addicts will notice that the Pautzke corn isn't shoepeg, but rather a sweet corn harvested from the Columbia Basin - I don't personally think it makes a difference. Fire Corn is plenty durable, and it's the right size to fit 2-3 kernels on the hook of most kokanee bugs and wedding ring setups.

Color is a major component of this product: Fire Corn is available in orange, pink, natural, purple, red, green and yellow. Several northern Cali kokanee guides who use the product swear that the color makes a difference. I've used orange, red and green, and they've all worked, but if you insist that purple or yellow would be better for your home koke lake, knock yourself out.

--J.S.