The Hunt for Kokanee

Well it has been one full year since I started this blog! I've learned a lot about fishing and have had fun on all my fishing adventures. As much as I would have liked to have caught more varieties of fish, I've learned, it just takes time!  

This last week, I had the opportunity to go fishing with Captain Kerry and his crew on his fishing vessel, Blue Lightning. I haven't had many opportunities to fish from a boat so I jumped with excitement at this opportunity.

 Captain Kerry wanted to target Kokanee Salmon at Strawberry Reservoir. So we combined his knowledge and experience catching Kokanee, and my knowledge of Strawberry Reservoir to make a great Kokanee team. Captain Kerry opted to try a 5 pole set up.

 We rigged one pole with leaded line down the middle of the boat. Then we put two poles off the left side and two poles off the right side. Both the left and right sides had one pole with leaded line, and a pole with a down rigger to keep the lines from tangling.

Each pole was rigged with a dodger with some sort of pink, red, blue, or purple on it. After the dodger, we added about 12-18 inches of line before putting the lure on.

It didn't take too long before we started reeling in fish.

We caught fish with pink colored squids, red wedding ring with a worm, pink/purple squid, purple apex, light pink squid, and a red apex.

We had fun catching cutthroats and rainbows but couldn't seem to find the kokanees.

We moved to a different part of the lake where I have seen plenty of Kokanees in the past. It didn't take too long before I reeled in a 17.5" Kokanee! The Kokanee was caught on the pole with the pink squid. The pole was on the left down rigger which was set at 45 feet.

 The arrival of our first kokanee brought a new burst of excitement as we hoped to find more!

Two fish later, First Mate Preston reeled in another kokanee on this red apex. 

We weren't able to spend all day  fishing but we all enjoyed our time on the water! Fishing with Captain Kerry, First Mate Preston, and Deck Hand Eric ended  up being a great success. We caught a total of three rainbows, ten cutthroats, and two kokanee salmon. There was a tie for the biggest fish. Both kokanees measured in at 17.5 inches.

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

In the summer months, kokanee salmon are usually found suspended over deep water. The first kokanee we caught was 45 feet down in 90 feet deep water. The second kokanee was 60 feet down in about  110 feet deep water. 

Lunker Cove

The past couple weeks I went fishing at Scofield and Strawberry Reservoir. After catching 56 total fish the first trip of the season, we returned to Scofield the following week with my buddy Brandon. We caught several fish on the second trip. Brandon had only been fishing once or twice in his life but he seemed to have a lot of fun catching several fish! My only regret, not taking more pictures!

The following week Jason and I went to Strawberry Reservoir. We tried a new spot that we named Lunker Cove. This location was an instant success! We caught several large trout, including my very first Kokanee Salmon ever!

It is normal to catch several small rainbows at the berry, this trip however was full of nice, fat, healthy rainbows between 15-17inches long.

 

Besides catching the nice rainbows, we caught several good sized cutthroat trout as well!

Jason caught the biggest of the day with a 22" cutthroat.

When it comes to bait, I have the best success placing this glow in the dark Demon (by Custom Jigs and Spins) a foot or two above a small tube jig.

 

I caught the Kokanee Salmon on this Demon tipped with a small piece of worm.

The tube jig I prefer to use is this pan fish jig. The main body is white glow in the dark and has yellow/green tentacles. Simply place a small jig hook inside and tie it onto your line. To finish it off, place a small piece of worm on the tube jig. Believe it or not, the big fish will eat this as well as the small fish.

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

There are several baits you can use for ice fishing. From my experience, the baits that glow in the dark seem to work the best.