Kokanee Fishing.

[tkhuntsman]

Hey everybody out there. I hope the start to summer has been good to you all so far. Let's jump right into this I really like to Kokanee fish I like salmon in general but living in the middle of Montana I take what I can get. My kids and I have been hitting the water hard this spring and early summer but the fishing has been a bit slower than usual. The water has been great this year plenty of it and good temps and the weather has been decent. My boat is running as good as ever and the gear has been dialed but numbers haven't been great. Anybody else out there for the big and had much success? I am probably gonna head to Idaho in a couple of weeks and hit some of the big lakes in the northern corner before the summer rec. Traffic gets to crazy and the temps get to high. Good luck and happy summer don't forget to scout and plan those big hunts.

 

[mtnbiker208]

I am not a kokanee fisher, but my wife is. A couple of years ago, she was bragging about how easy it was to limit out. I bet her $20, that the next time, out, she would not limit out. I did hand her $20, but it took her 8 hours. She was used to 1 1\2 hours. WE both won, that bet.

 

[Valumpessa]

Have done a decent amount of kokanee fishing here in Oregon. Best luck is trolling 20 to 40 feet down or jigging kokanators. Jigging is much more fun.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

What tackle setup are you running?

I fish for them on Lake Washington a good bit. Bites can be few and far between and I don't mark a ton of fish. At Alta lake however, I mark them out the wazoo but they seem to have a very narrow bite window where you can't keep a lure in the water.

I run 20lb braid down to a snap swivel, two feet of 14lb mono down to the dodger, and 8-10 inches of 8lb mono to my hoochie. I like the following setups:

Dodgers: Brad's (Twisted Sister is my best producer) or Mack's Sling Blades (no clear color winner)

Hoochies: Smaller ones with snelled double red hooks, tipped with a contrasting color corn. A pink/purple/clear hoochie with green or yellow corn is my best producer. Smile blades, spinners or wiggle lips haven't produced any better or worse. The former two tend to get more cutthroat bites though

Brad's Kokanee Cut Plugs: These work pretty well on occasion if the fish fancy a larger bait. Run a longer leader to them from the dodger, double red hooks tipped with corn.

Scent: I only have Anise Bloody Tuna and Kokanee Special scent. The latter seems to work better than the former but both produce.

Speed: 1.3 down to 0.9 is my sweet spot, s-curves can help dial in the speed

Depth: I usually have one bait just below the thermocline and one 10' or so below

Setback: This can be an important factor. I start at 50' and increase to 100' if I'm not getting bit. I run an electric trolling motor, not an outboard/kicker

Rod: Highly recommend a personalized rod, maybe one that reps your college football team? This won't help you catch Kokes, but you'll look cool trying. WDE.

 

[Muley Buck]

It's been slower for this time of the year in my neck of the woods as well. Kokes are definitely up there on my list. Hard to beat for table fare.

 

[svivian]

54 degrees seems to be the magic temp that Kokanee like to hang around in at depth. Also I’m a big fan of soaked shoe peg corn

 

[johnsd16]

It’s been slow for us here in N Idaho. CDA was really good for us in 2020 but the last two years have sucked, tons of small fish but nothing to keep. Hayden has had better size but they are off for us most of the time. We will fish Hayden harder this year. I was told they were only good for smoking (I’m from MN so Kokanee are new to me) but I love them just grilled.

 

[tkhuntsman]

Yeah I'm not having trouble finding em just not seeing the numbers I like or the size most are 10". after last year I thought we'd see some growth and good numbers but it's just been slow. Lots of good Kokanee lakes around the state here most are over an hour. I need to get up to bitterroot it's kind of a koke factory and cranks out some nice ones. I need to get down to Peck and hit the chinooks too I've heard they were catching some good fish so far this year both are about 3 hours away in opposite directions though guess I'll throw a dart and see what sticks.

 

[tkhuntsman]

It’s been slow for us here in N Idaho. CDA was really good for us in 2020 but the last two years have sucked, tons of small fish but nothing to keep. Hayden has had better size but they are off for us most of the time. We will fish Hayden harder this year. I was told they were only good for smoking (I’m from MN so Kokanee are new to me) but I love them just grilled.

You can grill, smoke, bake, or fry they are landlocked sockeye and are one of the best eating freshwater fish out there. Most of em in the mountain lakes have a 4 year life cycle so you'll see big ones for a year then they spawn out and you'll get a few years of dinks. There usually are a few good fish mixed in on the offset years but I haven't found em here close to home so it's time to hit the road and find some.

 

[tkhuntsman]

How about some big MT Kokanee's finally

 

[tkhuntsman]

We got into some good ones today the average was about 20" and 3.5-4 lbs. We've fished a dozen different lakes and sorted through a bunch of 10-12" fish and finally hit the jackpot. Most of the fish today were bigger than the sea run sockeyes I caught on the coast during my last trip.

 

[tkhuntsman]

We did best on Kokabow spinners in orange or pink and Kokanee bug spinners in the same colors behind arrowflash dodgers at 1.4 mph. 75' set backs and dropped down to 30 ft with 2 OZ clip weights over 50' of water. As long as the surface temps are below 62 degrees this pattern should hold for awhile. Once it warms up more I'm sure we'll have to chase em deeper with the downriggers.

 

[Muley Buck]

Bravo! Those fish are fantastic! Good job!

 

[Valumpessa]

Nice! Biggest I've seen.

 

[johnsd16]

Those are TANKS!

 

[A.hol1]

Those are beasts!

Detroit Lake in Oregon is the easiest for me

These are average size for our area. Mexican hat spinner and some corn are the go to


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[tkhuntsman]

Yeah we tip everything with our own cured shoepeg corn recipe and a little dab of procure super gel on back of the dodger.

 

[tkhuntsman]

Those are beasts!

Detroit Lake in Oregon is the easiest for me

These are average size for our area. Mexican hat spinner and some corn are the go to


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice those aren't anything to frown at and they taste just as good.

 

[tkhuntsman]

Got out again today pretty soggy day but the fishing was outstanding. More big MT Kokanee's and a bunch of fat rainbows.

 

[tkhuntsman]