2020 East Idaho Kokanee Report (Ririe/Palisades/Island Park Reservoirs)

[sawtooth]

Best of Luck to all you East Idaho kokanee fishermen.

[Armondo]

We fished Ririe on Tuesday from about 9 am until 5 pm, from the Dam up past the "S" bends. Water temp was around 62 F warming to 64 F. It was really slow in the morning. We caught one 12" rainbow, then nothing for a long time. We ended up with probably 10-12 rainbows, the biggest was a hefty 15" fish. We also caught 2 cutts and a perch. Finally at the end of the day when we were ready to quit, we caught a 10" kokanee. We tried lures on the surface, 1 oz of lead with 70-100 feet out, and downrigger from 10 ft to 40 ft. Tried different color combinations of flashers, dodgers, spinners, small spoons and hoochies. Nothing seemed to really interest them. We did mark what appeared to be some small plankton blooms, and some had some fish around them, but no luck trolling through them. Wind was an issue, it was not strong enough to blow us off the lake, but we had to troll a bit faster than I prefer so we could steer the boat. Several times we had to really goose the trolling motor to avoid being blown up on shore. Hope to get out again in a week or so, perhaps after the cold front this weekend.

[Armondo]

Fished on Palisades today from 9:30 to 6:00. Water temp was 58 F when we started and warmed to around 62 F. We explored the west side across from Blowout boat ramp until around noon. We marked lots of fish around a small cove at Big Springs, but did not hook anything except for a sucker. We finally rolled up and moved to Big Elk. It was slow there, but we caught some fish. It was a mix of small cutts, most around 11-12”. We did catch a pretty nice 16” brown. We also caught a few smaller browns. We caught 2 kokanee. One was 15”, the other was 16”. We tried downriggers from 15 to 45 feet and caught the browns at 30-40 feet. The confusing part was that both kokanee were caught on small gold spoons we were running on the surface for trout. A slow day, but it is always good to catch kokanee on Palisades.

[MMDON]

That's very cool. I guess everything in Palisades will hit a gold spoon with some orange on it! LOLtooexcited

[Armondo]

That's very cool. I guess everything in Palisades will hit a gold spoon with some orange on it! LOLtooexcited

MMDON, I will take the kokanee any way I can get them. They are tough to find at Palisades, but when I do, they tend to be nice fish. ;)

[MMDON]

MMDON, I will take the kokanee any way I can get them. They are tough to find at Palisades, but when I do, they tend to be nice fish. ;)
The old timers that had cabins up at Palisades used to use pieces of canned bay salad shrimp instead of corn as bait on their Koke lures. They would microwave it for a very short time just to toughen it up so it would stay on the hook. It's the only thing I've seen that worked consistently on the Kokes up there.

[Armondo]

We fished Ririe on Thursday the 30th from 8:30 to 5:30. Water temp was 69-71 F. We caught 27 fish between the two of us. Most were 10-12 inches. A few were shorter. Two were just under 13 inches. A few of the bigger ones were starting to get a little color. We tried to let the smaller ones go, but several were hooked pretty badly so we kept them. I also caught a 13 inch rainbow. The hot rod had an orange hoochie with a silver spinner behind an orange and chrome dodger with prism tape on it. We caught some on other color combinations, but the hot ticket outfished them by 2:1. Initially caught fish at 30 feet, but they were all pretty small, so we started dropping down. We caught the biggest fish around 50-60 feet. There were still some smaller ones down deep, but a lot less. We marked a lot of schools of fish between the boat ramp on the dam. We lost at least a dozen fish at the boat and had lots of strikes that did not result in a hook up. Best speed seemed to be 1.3 to 1.5 mph. At one point we would drop the ball down with the lure and get a fish within a few minutes. It was the only time I ever regretted having manual downriggers! golucky I hope to get out again before things slow down.

[MMDON]

That is a lot of cranking when the bite is that fast!

[Armondo]

That is a lot of cranking when the bite is that fast!

I am glad I bought a downrigger with a 2:1 retrieve! thumbsup

[MMDON]

I am glad I bought a downrigger with a 2:1 retrieve! thumbsup

So I started with manuals and the wind blew me into the rocks the first week because I couldn't crank fast enough.
The next week I was all electric and highspeed Cannon Digitrolls.

[Armondo]

It can get hectic when I am by myself, but the I-pilot on my trolling motor helps a lot. I can focus on the 'riggers while the I-Pilot maintains my course. Lately I have been fishing with a buddy, so one of us can steer the boat and the other can crank hard if we end up in a shallow area. It also got better as I learned the problem areas in the lakes I normally fish. As part of my learning experience, I lost a ball on the bottom of Ririe Reservoir. :(

[Armondo]

A friend and I fished Ririe Reservoir today. I ended up keeping 10 kokanee, all except one between 11 and 12 inches. The biggest was just under 15 inches, a nice fish this year. My friend kept 12 or 13. His all ran 11-12 inches. We lost more than we caught. Lots of fish got off on the way in, probably because we were fishing downriggers at 70 feet. Chrome dodgers with red or orange and a pink or orange hoochie seemed to work best. Short leaders, about 2x dodger length was better.
From 9 until around 10:30 it was really busy, we would have a hook up every 5-10 minutes. It slowed down in the afternoon, but it was not uncommon for both of us to have fish on at the same time when we found a school. A good day, but it was really hot. We quit by 3 pm. It was 96 F in the parking lot. I was surprised that the fish did not show any color on this trip, so maybe another trip might be in order. Since the fish are running small this year, one more batch of kokanee would be nice. On this trip we caught one fish that was missing half his gill cover. I noticed several that had this problem on the last trip. Has anyone else noticed this? A problem at the hatchery?

[MMDON]

Nice report Armondo! worthy12

[Armondo]

Nice report Armondo! worthy12

Thanks. I have learned a lot on this forum and try to pay it forward by sharing reports with others.