Kokanee fishing!

[Idaho45guy]

Here in the Northwest, we have a landlocked salmon called the Kokanee, or BlueBack. They are small in the lake I fish at with most around a foot long or less. But, some lakes support larger ones that can get to be around 5lbs.

Being a species of salmon, they are absolutely delicious! My favorite way to prepare them is to cut off the heads, remove the entrails, then splay them open and stuff them with butter, crushed garlic, Himalayan salt, then wrap them in foil and throw them on the grill. Best fish, ever!

Fishing for them is great since you simply troll for them. My dad has a pretty big boat and the lake we fish is 52 miles long. We just get the poles out, get the proper depth and speed set, and then sit back and drink beer and BS while reeling in a fish every few minutes. It's the easiest and most relaxing fishing I've done.

Pics from this weekend...

Well, I guess no pics. This site is being weird again...

It won't let me upload them from my computer and it won't let me add a link to my Photobucket account. Frustrating. Seems posting pics works sometimes, and then the next day, nothing.

[Idaho45guy]

Got it to work... Kind of...

[square butte]

Nice photos - Once upon a time, we used to be able to snag for them during the fall kokanee run up the Flathead river in MT. That got spoiled by some biologists who thought they knew a thing or two. It was great fun while it lasted and a good way to put a bunch salmon in the freezer. I don't think they were ever able to bring that population back to those levels - But Waksupi would know. The bald eagles used to come down from Alaska for that - And you could see a couple hundred sitting in trees and diving for fish just below the lake McDonald bridge in Glacier park

[skeettx]

YES!!!! I love the Les Davis Cowbells, an #6 snelled bait holder hook and nightcrawler half.
Down here it is rainbow trout and with the larger ones, I smoke them with apple wood
YUM!!!
Mike

[TexasGrunt]

Kokanee fishing - where the gear outweighs the catch!

BTW, they are landlocked Sockeye salmon.

[MT Gianni]

I only ice fish for kokes but they are as delicious as can be.

[TexasGrunt]

I've got a few Sockeye while fishing for other salmon.

Here's some fishing pics.


There's no salmon here in Texas so I've made the switch to striped and hybrid bass.

[popper]

You do the fall stripper run at Denison?

[TexasGrunt]

You do the fall stripper run at Denison?

I've never done it. I mainly fish Tawakoni. I've only been fishing three times in the past year. Hopefully I get my leak fixed and be ready to go by October.

[opos]

We lived in Colorado for a long time and a long time ago..the Kokanee were stocked in a couple of the bigger lakes in the high mountains...granby reservoir and Shadow mountain lake...we trolled for them a lot and found that using a rubber band between the snelled hook and the flashing "pop gear" allowed enough play to keep from pulling the hook from the soft mouth...really liked to eat them and for their size plenty sporting.

[swheeler]

I've caught them through the ice jigging a Swedish pimple tipped with maggot or white corn. In the fall around spawn I've landed many on a lime green Needlefish spoon and trolling cowbells or ford fenders with rubber band set up and corn. I haven't snagged them in years now at a local spillway, too many West Coasties combat fishing for me. Lake Marie Ronan up Waksupi way used to be pretty good for bluebacks.

[pjames32]

Troll for them on Navajo lake in NW New Mexico. Also use a rubber snubber!

[popper]

Son got a 22# stripper off Eisenhower point when he took clients fishing, learned to NOT fish with clients in the boat. Anyway, stripper run on the river below the dam is supposed to be real good in the fall - get stopped by the dam on spawn run. Big ones. Lots of Gar also but smaller than they used to be. I got a maybe 7# stripper several years ago during river flood conditions - on a fly rod. Wore me out. Big Blue cats are the premier on Tawakoni.

[swheeler]

Reading about Kokanee fishing got the juices flowing so for Fathers Day the wife and I went fishing for them. The closest place I could find stocked with them was Newlin Res about a 100 miles from here. We got up about 5am and were on the road just before 6 am, were on the water trolling by 8 am, first koke by 8:30, seemed to like a chrome and pink dodger, 18" leader and a red hoochie two hook set up tipped with corn or small piece of worm was what they wanted. We managed to land 6 plus one small rainbow, the kokes are about 13" and 13-14 oz, they tasted really good pan fried for supper for us and daughter and grandkids.

[Idaho45guy]

That's great, swheeler! We use a bit of surgical tubing to take some of the shock out so we don't tear their mouths. Although that didn't seem to help as we hooked 50+ but only got 22 in the boat.