2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

[bayhorse]

Thanks Ken for the options. I like the sounds of staying at Freeman Creek camp ground and tying up at camp. Looks as if it could be about an hr. Drive from Orofino ,is the road paved ?
I assume that reservations should be made early and do you have specific spots you could recommend.
The more we talk about this trip the more excited I become!
Thanks again for the help?

 

[kodiak1]

It has to be either a trout or a kokanee. There aren't any other salmonoids in there. There are many variations of trout, however. One good method to test whether it is a koke or trout is to stick your finger in the mouth. The teeth of a kokanee are pretty undeveloped compared to the trout. There is an obvious difference. By the way, good job on hammerin' both kokes and trout, today. Thanks for the report. Were they hitting one lure more than the next? Mike

 

[pthept]

For us the trout seemed to be hitting a white rooster tail trolled at the surface. Even had a koke hit a white rooster tail. I was pulling wedding ring with a glow hook tipped with shoe peg behind pop gear and got a few. Tried kokabows on the surface without pop gear and did not get any action.

 

[ricks]

My son and I stayed at Freeman Creek last october during the Great 2013 Federal Gov’t Shutdown. We were going to stay at Dent but it closed for the paid holiday and they dumped our reservation. From Freeman we had to travel up lake to and past Dent for the best fishing, but we caught 27 in an evening and the next morning. Lots of times that late in the year can be a hard catch, but we had some success working half brass and chrome cowbells and wedding rings with soaked corn down 40 feet.

Dent is elbow to elbow pull through sites with full facilities, included covered tables which is nice in Northern Idaho in spring! While Freeman has 3 different loops with varying facilities and prices. Dent and Freeman are both about an hour from Orofino on good paved roads. Both are reservable - pick your date, whatever fits your schedule, and get your reservations as early as you can.

The last part of the drive into Freeman is pretty steep winding road. The early part of Dent has some steep winding parts. They are both easy to get to following a printed online map from Google or any other mapping search tool. The signage from Orofino is pretty good.

The boat ramp is great at both locations and you can easily pull your boat out at night with generous parking - even right at your campsite. Docking is always more limited at Dent. On a holiday weekend getting a dock space at either campground is hit or miss.

I have not fished for Kokes memorial day at Dworshak to have a good opinion as to which is the better place or where the most likely areas are for fish. I tend to read here on Kokanee Forums and do just what you are doing, ask question on the best areas on the lake to start looking. I live close enough that I am not all that fearful of just driving over and trying a hunch - (going to do just that next saturday and start at the dam)

Have fun! Bring your bass stuff as well. They are a lot of fun when you want a workout.

Rick

 

[kenbarb]

Hi bayhorse, I think Rick answered most of your questions. This early in the year the Kokanee will start to school up in the lower part of the lake, closer to the dam, near the Freeman Campground later in the year, late Aug. & Sept. they will be migrating to their spawning areas uplake , at this time Dent Acres would be the best place to camp. Here is the website that shows the camping locations at Freeman Creek Campground, we take our motorhome when we go there, and stay in the first loop. You can pick any camp site near the lake, and it will be nice. http://idahostateparks.reserveameri...Code=ID&parkId=311022&topTabIndex=CampingSpot

In the event the above site does not come up for you just Google Dworshak State Park, then click on the site that says something about reservations. Ken

 

[bayhorse]

Thank you Ken and Rick for all of your help I have definitely decided to stay at Freeman campground.
I will call tomorrow and reserve a space.
Looking forward to trying some new areas and hope to run into you nice folks. Thanks again!

 

[duanetown]

LP unidentified fish

Fished out of Turner today from 9am til about 530. Turned out to be a good day after the morning wind slowed down. All together we landed 18 kokes, 7 trout, and 3 fish I'm not sure what they were. They had the head and body of a koke, the tail of a trout and had black spots along their backs. Any idea what we caught? The fish are shallow. Top 10' of the water column.

More than likely the fish you caught are landlocked Chinook salmon. Black mouth and gums. Lots of sharp teeth. Coho's have also been stocked in LP at one time. That lake is a veritable smorgasbord of fish. Look at the historical fish stocking report from Idaho Fish and Games website. You would be surprised to find out all the fish that have been put into that fishery over the years.

 

[kok-head]

Fished out of Turner today from 9am til about 530. Turned out to be a good day after the morning wind slowed down. All together we landed 18 kokes, 7 trout, and 3 fish I'm not sure what they were. They had the head and body of a koke, the tail of a trout and had black spots along their backs. Any idea what we caught? The fish are shallow. Top 10' of the water column.

i'm thinking you hooked some variation of a kamloops or triploid rainbow (or one of the "unspecified rainbow" species that fish and game has stocked), i guess its possible that you hooked a chinook, but those haven't been stocked since the year 2000 and its doubtful that natural spawning has taken place, from what i found online the chinook live for 4 years and then die

 

[doublehaul]

New to the forum and new to kokanee fishing as of last year. Made it out last Sat myself with my son. Only managed two trout out from Turner. Lots of grabs and brief hookups but none to the boat. Wind was tough, but just as we were pulling out, wind began to die down, guess I should have stayed longer. Curious where people have been finding 'em in LP? PM me if preferred. Thanks for the info and those willing to share on the site. This site has got me excited and intrigued by koke fishing locally.

 

[kok-head]

New to the forum and new to kokanee fishing as of last year. Made it out last Sat myself with my son. Only managed two trout out from Turner. Lots of grabs and brief hookups but none to the boat. Wind was tough, but just as we were pulling out, wind began to die down, guess I should have stayed longer. Curious where people have been finding 'em in LP? PM me if preferred. Thanks for the info and those willing to share on the site. This site has got me excited and intrigued by koke fishing locally.

welcome to KFF doublehaul,

people are finding them at LP dam and at the marina currently from what i've heard (i haven't been out yet this yr), you will find small schools scattered all over the reservoir right now but will prolly find the bigger schools between the dam and the marina

the kokanee are a bit sluggish due to the cold water temps right now but they will bite if you give them the lure they hate (or love to hate) at the right depth and speed, fish 0-10' deep and if the kokanee are in the area you're fishing you should get a few cooperative fish

tell us about your boat and gear, do you fish with downriggers? what speeds were you fishing? do you have a fish finder? it isnt necessary to have the newest fish catching gadgets but they will help catch fish

 

[spoons]

Went up Saturday and got 3 koke in the boat plus 1 trout. Put on about 1:30. Did not fish in either of the main pools. Caught them in the narrows between the dam and spring shores. Had several hits and a couple hookups that got off because Eric didn't set the hook. Everything was from 20 feet up and still scattered all over the place...not schooled up at all, so it was helpful that we were dragging 7 lines. Used pop gear, dodgers and hoochies, etc.with corn. Nothing really worked better than anything else. Had a great afternoon and took a home a tasty meal.

 

[campdog]

I was trying to let the kids real in a fish. The more fun the kids have, the more often the wives will let us go fishing.

 

[doublehaul]

Kok-head….thanks for the info. Regarding your questions….as a new koke fisherman my gear is a mish mash of stuff. My background has primarily been in fly fishing and before I wanted to buy a bunch of new gear, I wanted to get my feet wet. So infact, strange as it sounds, I have been trolling with full sinking fly-line with typical kokanee gear (dodger and hootchie, wedding rings, assassins, wiggle hoochies, etc) and although I have not caught limits of fish like some, I have found a few, enough to keep me coming back. I have a 16' jet "sled", one down rigger, fish-finder. Speed unknown as my fish-finder doesn't measure speed, but I am looking for the speed wheel attachment. With the "fly gear" I have been trying to mimic what the canadian's do for salmon off the coast with mooching rods and a single action reel, just downsized to make the small kokes fun to catch. At any rate with that gear it has been difficult to determine my speed or depth unless I am on the down rigger. I have found as many fish on the plain sinking fly line as on the down rigger. I fully recognize that this is not ideal koke gear, but gets my stuff down a ways depending on my speed.

Sounds like this time of year, just need to cover some water and try to find some fish. Fish in the upper 10 feet of water are tough to pick up on my fish-finder due to surface scatter (I am new to fish finders also) so might as well be fishing blind when they are this high in the column??

Really appreciate the info!

Thanks

 

[kok-head]

Kok-head….thanks for the info. Regarding your questions….as a new koke fisherman my gear is a mish mash of stuff. My background has primarily been in fly fishing and before I wanted to buy a bunch of new gear, I wanted to get my feet wet. So infact, strange as it sounds, I have been trolling with full sinking fly-line with typical kokanee gear (dodger and hootchie, wedding rings, assassins, wiggle hoochies, etc) and although I have not caught limits of fish like some, I have found a few, enough to keep me coming back. I have a 16' jet "sled", one down rigger, fish-finder. Speed unknown as my fish-finder doesn't measure speed, but I am looking for the speed wheel attachment. With the "fly gear" I have been trying to mimic what the canadian's do for salmon off the coast with mooching rods and a single action reel, just downsized to make the small kokes fun to catch. At any rate with that gear it has been difficult to determine my speed or depth unless I am on the down rigger. I have found as many fish on the plain sinking fly line as on the down rigger. I fully recognize that this is not ideal koke gear, but gets my stuff down a ways depending on my speed.

Sounds like this time of year, just need to cover some water and try to find some fish. Fish in the upper 10 feet of water are tough to pick up on my fish-finder due to surface scatter (I am new to fish finders also) so might as well be fishing blind when they are this high in the column??

Really appreciate the info!

Thanks

glad that you're finding fish, speed is important and the right speed can be accomplished without a speedometer, what i used to do is run my motor at the lowest possible idle speed (while dragging drift socks or buckets off my bow cleats) for 5-10sec and then shift into neutral for 5-10sec, and if you troll with a smaller gas kicker or electric that makes it a lot easier and its nice to not have to let your main motor heat up so much and not work the transmission too hard

to locate fish ill cruise at higher speeds through an area and can usually pick up some fish on the finder even if they are pretty shallow and then ill motor past the school i marked and give them a few min to regroup and then slowly troll back through them

 

[doublehaul]

Well I should correct myself a little, not finding fish yet this year, but a few last year. Didn't start until May last year though when the fish may have been more aggressive. Thanks again for the tips, I'll keep after it.

 

[Sweetroll]

Kok-head….thanks for the info. Regarding your questions….as a new koke fisherman my gear is a mish mash of stuff. My background has primarily been in fly fishing and before I wanted to buy a bunch of new gear, I wanted to get my feet wet. So infact, strange as it sounds, I have been trolling with full sinking fly-line with typical kokanee gear (dodger and hootchie, wedding rings, assassins, wiggle hoochies, etc) and although I have not caught limits of fish like some, I have found a few, enough to keep me coming back. I have a 16' jet "sled", one down rigger, fish-finder. Speed unknown as my fish-finder doesn't measure speed, but I am looking for the speed wheel attachment. With the "fly gear" I have been trying to mimic what the canadian's do for salmon off the coast with mooching rods and a single action reel, just downsized to make the small kokes fun to catch. At any rate with that gear it has been difficult to determine my speed or depth unless I am on the down rigger. I have found as many fish on the plain sinking fly line as on the down rigger. I fully recognize that this is not ideal koke gear, but gets my stuff down a ways depending on my speed.

Sounds like this time of year, just need to cover some water and try to find some fish. Fish in the upper 10 feet of water are tough to pick up on my fish-finder due to surface scatter (I am new to fish finders also) so might as well be fishing blind when they are this high in the column??

Really appreciate the info!

Thanks

If you have a smartphone you should be able to find a free or cheap app that uses it's GPS to give you speed. I have one called Spyglass that works really good.

 

[ricks]

Dworshak Army Corp spring report out:

Paul Pence, natural resources manager at the dam, says with the weather beginning to warm up, kokanee fishing is starting to improve in reservoir areas near the dam and at Canton Creek. "Most are averaging about 10-inches long and pretty fat," he says. "It might be a little cold for swimming this time of year, but Dworshak still has a lot to offer outdoor-lovers -- camping, hiking, picnicking, visitor center activities, fishing and boating.” more…..

Rick

 

[doublehaul]

Funny you should mention that....just purchased an app last night...$1.99, pretty cool for the price, has waypoints and other useful stuff also. I'll give it a test this weekend. Seemed to be very accurate with my truck's speedometer this morning on the way to work. We'll see how it does with the slower speeds! Thanks for the tip!

 

[kenbarb]

My wife (Barb) and I had a lot of fun at Dworshak Wednesday. Arrived at Bruces Eddy at 8:15am, the #1 launch is usable, #2 launch is not. There were a couple of car with trailers in the parking area, not too many fisherman yet. There is some fog, but looks like it will burn off soon. We get the boat launched and head for Canyon Creek, when we get there there's four other boats in the area. We start with 3 rods out, one with no weight, and the other two with varying weights, the one without weight was long lined at about 150', terminal lure was different on all rods. first Kokanee was caught on the rod without weight, about a 10" fish, shortly after the rod with 1-1/2oz went down, and Barb pulled in one that was about 13", this was after about a hour of fishing.

We kept at it, and fished until 3:30pm, we landed 12 nice Kokanee that ranged from 10" to 12", most of them on the smaller side. We had one triple, and one double hookup, the fish are really spread out, and when we found a school it was a small one, but they sure attacked the lures when we could find the small schools. We fished Canyon Creek, and up to the entrance of Indian Creek, then trolled toward Freeman Creek where we found a small school of Kokanee. It was pretty slow fishing, but a lot of fun trying to figure out what to use, we think they will hit just about anything, the trick is finding them. Did not use the downriggers, might try them the next time.

From this point on the fishing should keep getting better, the fish will be schooling up more. The surface water tenp. was 39F, air temp. was around 50F, after the fog burned off we had bright sunshine, with a very light breeze, very nice. can hardly wait to get back up there.

 

[ricks]

My wife (Barb) and I had a lot of fun at Dworshak Wednesday.

Thanks for the report! Sounds like you had a perfect day. (one of these days we'll run across each other, look forward to that)

I've been planning to do pretty much the same routine this coming sunday. My son and I will start out with both long line and a couple downriggers fairly shallow. With the water that cold I wouldn't think the fish would be feeding very deep. I'll report back if I can figure out how to catch anything. (might be pretty quiet if I don't :^)

Rick