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Went today for a few hours at Nantahala. Caught 3 nice Kokes including my personal best to date. It was a male with a lot of attitude. Came in just a hair under 20" and weight approx.2 3/4 lbs.

In North Carolina hot pink, florescent pink and chartruse work well. Keep it simple in the beginning. Double wammy wedding rings work well. Kokanee killers also produce. Hootchies and squids(in the above colors) trolled behind a small dodger are working well for me now.

By late July the kokes will be out of the coves and branches and located in the main body of the lake. A good place to start is the dam area. They are usually between 35' to 65'. I have caught none deeper. Watch your sonor/depthinder for the under water ridges. They can wreck havoc on your...

Mark Got out for about 2 hours sunday. The chiggars bit my wife up pretty good mountain bike riding yesterday so she did not want to ride. Left my comfort zone and tried a new area of the lake. Got another nice 18" koke and a rainbow. Did mark a couple of schools of fish at 40' to 43'.

Another Head Mark Got out a bit today. Cut short by a thunder storm.. Did manage a nice 18' koke and a walleye. Ron

IMHO you would need a boat capable of sustained trolling at 1.0 to 1.5mph. A good fish finder to find the current depth the kokanee are inhabiting. Tackle and lures designed to catch kokanee. Conventional lures do not tend to work on kokanee. Most serious fishermen make their own custom lures...

Mark Let me know for sure when you come up to the lake. I will make it my business to meet up with you. I trust you launch at Rocky Creek? I have a white 14' Carolina Skiff DLX cc with a blue bimini top with bow mount troll motor. One of my most productive koke places is not far from the...

Nantahala Kokes Got out on the lake for a few hours and hit paydirt. Caught 2. One was almost 18" the second was 17". One caught at 18' the second 35'. Have the heads marked and in the freezer. They hit hard and jumped all over. This might be a banner year.

Mark Thank you for your informative reply. Since the state has not stocked Nantahala in many years it is possible the stocking is being done by some private groups or local HOA's. The Rainbow Springs Fishing Club who control most of the Nantahla river head waters might also be doing some...

TM I don't think the Nantahala rainbows are stocked. The only trib still stocked is Buck Creek way up in the Rainbow Springs area of the upper Nantahala area. There are a number of wild trout streams beside the Nantahala river feeding the lake. The meat was as orange as kokanee and IMHO they...

Finally got on Nantahala lake. I had no luck with the kokanee but I did pick up a nice pair of rainbow trout. The water at the lake is vert clear. no sign of the summer plankton bloom yet. The surface temps ranged from 72 to 74 degrees. My FF indicated the thermocline between 8 and 12'...

TM I am up at Nantahala. Will be launching my boat tomorrow at Big choga to test out the new carburator, fish finder and shuttles. Hoping to do some serious fishing later this week. Will keep you posted and save any heads. I now have internet at my Nantahala house so I can keep in touch...

SeaDog Speaking of food sources. Did you know the reason the Nantahala kokes get so big is because they eat "grits". They also whistle "Dixie" when we put them in the cooler!

TM Thanks for reply. It seems like the Nantahala kokanee have a good growth rate compared to their northern cousins. I was wondering if all the development at the lake and in the upper Nantahala river watershed is making the lake more fertile. The lake goes from crystal clear in the cooler...

Thanks for the reply. The Nantahala kokes seem to run a tad larger. Last year I was catching them in the 14" to 16" range both males and females seemed to be putting on weight and all looked healthy. I stopped fishing for them the end of July. I did loose an 18"+ one at the net. Troll...

Seadog I would love to try to jig for the kokes but I figure I would need at least a 200' anchor line. Don't know if there would be any room left for me! Another benefit to fishing at night would be the lack of power boaters, jet skiers, and geezer barges that infest Nantahala in the summer...

Count me in. I will be up at the lake on or about the Memorial day weekend. Hoping to fish for kokanee at least 2 times per week through September unless gas prices continue to soar.

Good to see this thread starting to thaw out and hear from some of the regulars! Hoping this year will be as productive as last year at Nantahala. Ya'll Have a great 2011 season and keep us posted.

I never had any luck with red. Of the 2 dozen kokes I caught last season at Nantahala all but 2 were caught on "hot pink" colored lures, bugs and hotchies. 2 were caught on green/chartrusse colored lures.

Saw this on Yahoo. TOKYO – A Japanese salmon species thought to be extinct for 70 years is alive and well in a lake near Mount Fuji, a science professor said Wednesday. The black kokanee, or "kunimasu" in Japanese, was thought to have died out in 1940, when a hydroelectric project made its...