Palisades Kokes - Idaho

Hello everyone, I am new to the page and looking forward to gleaning some information from the experts on here and maybe giving some help as well. I have been fishing in the palisades area for 30+ years on a yearly family trip to Alpine WY and have never had much luck fishing on palisades. This year I was introduced to Kokanee fishing and have fallen in love with these fish. I am from Utah and mostly fish for them at Strawberry and porcupine. I just learned that there is a natural population of them in Palisades. Has anyone had any luck fishing for them in there? We will be headed up there in a few weeks and I would like to give them a try. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

betterthanwork said:

I am from Utah and mostly fish for them at Strawberry and porcupine.

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Welcome aboard betterthanwork, Just wondering where do you live? I fish Strawberry but very little of Porcupine, my boat is a little large to get on Porcupine except in the early season. Palisades is on my to do list but plans got slightly derailed this summer. With the wildfire currently going on at Strawberry I'm staying out of the smoke filled skies.

I am in Layton Utah. I definitely prefer the berry but it can get so crowded. On saturdays I think those poor fish must feel like they live in a disco ball with all the flashers in the water

Palisades

I have tried Palisades a few times a year over the past few years. I was there July 3rd and did not have any luck with the kokanee. I generally target kokanee, but have caught rainbows, cutts, lakers and brown trout while I am fishing Palisades. It seems to be hit or miss. One time I think I have it figured out, the next time I get skunked. There is a potential to catch big fish, but they seem to be scattered. My understanding is that the population goes up and down quite a bit because it is natural reproduction. If the Reservoir is low and the fish have problems getting upstream, you end up with a low population 3 years later. I generally try around Big Elk since that is where they will go this fall to spawn. You can launch from Calamity or Blowout, it is the same distance if you fish around Big Elk. Good luck and let us know how you do.

I have heard that the big elk creek area this the place to be. Is it better fishing for them on the lake side or bay side of the road

I have tried both and have not seen one area consistently better than the other. Not a bad idea to cruise around a bit and look for fish or plankton on the fish finder before you put lines down. Not sure how tied in you are to fishing Palisades. I would suggest you try Ririe Reservoir if you really want to catch kokanee and are willing to investigate a new location. The fish are not as big as Palisades, but the I generally can catch some fish there. Try the area around the dam and the Juniper boat ramp. Good Luck.

Thanks for the tip. How big are the fish in ririe

Last time I was there they were running 13-14".

Hey guys just got back from palisades and wanted to let you know about the trip. I don't think i have ever tried to catch fish so hard in my life and be wildly unsuccessful. 20+ hours of trolling all over the lake produced a whopping ZERO fish. No kokes, No Trout, couldn't hook a single thing. We could see fish on the finder but nothing we had was interesting to them. I am convinced that there are no fish in that lake!!! Except for all the carp that we saw. We did finally decide to do an afternoon at Ririe and managed to catch one small koke. I think it was just too hot this week and it shut things down. MAybe better luck next time