2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

[F-Bomb]

Fished LP from 7 to 2:30 today. This morning there were HUGE waves at Barclay/dam. It was kind of an exciting unloading as the wind wanted to put my new pontoon boat back on the ramp and it was tricky program to keep it from washing up and then off of the docks in reverse. Very lucky that there were no other boats around so I could aggressively wiggle it around. YIKES

Medium good action today with 14 in the boat but only two keepers and we lacked our normal batch of the big ones. One decent and one bloody...the rest were the 14" kulls. We also long released a few more than normal. Towards the end of the day I was getting a steady stream of hits on one setup that was pulling it off the DR with no fish and the corn was still on the spinner. Just guessing but I think that they are hammering the flasher. Fish caught at 9ft until after 10am and then we made it down to 16ft with a hit every 20 minutes or so. Had one setup getting all of the love and finally switched flashers to a slightly larger batch of blades but more importantly orange edges to silver and BAM...that setup then started to get equal attention to my hot side (same orange WR spinners). Lesson at LP.....use orange and have orange on your flasher and you will catch fish!

Interesting about the talk of going deeper. I marked a few nice clusters at 25-35 ft around the lake and have yet to catch a single koke at LP this year deeper than 16ft. (of course I haven't spent that much time below 16ft since it seems to be very productive for our setups)

It was cool watching the choppers dip for the fire. The big red/white one plopped down right by us at mid morning by the fuel station. His rotor wash was within 50 yards of us at the widest point.

 

[Elefantdude]

Fished LP from 7 to 2:30 today. This morning there were HUGE waves at Barclay/dam. It was kind of an exciting unloading as the wind wanted to put my new pontoon boat back on the ramp and it was tricky program to keep it from washing up and then off of the docks in reverse. Very lucky that there were no other boats around so I could aggressively wiggle it around. YIKES

Medium good action today with 14 in the boat but only two keepers and we lacked our normal batch of the big ones. One decent and one bloody...the rest were the 14" kulls. We also long released a few more than normal. Towards the end of the day I was getting a steady stream of hits on one setup that was pulling it off the DR with no fish and the corn was still on the spinner. Just guessing but I think that they are hammering the flasher. Fish caught at 9ft until after 10am and then we made it down to 16ft with a hit every 20 minutes or so. Had one setup getting all of the love and finally switched flashers to a slightly larger batch of blades but more importantly orange edges to silver and BAM...that setup then started to get equal attention to my hot side (same orange WR spinners). Lesson at LP.....use orange and have orange on your flasher and you will catch fish!

Interesting about the talk of going deeper. I marked a few nice clusters at 25-35 ft around the lake and have yet to catch a single koke at LP this year deeper than 16ft. (of course I haven't spent that much time below 16ft since it seems to be very productive for our setups)

It was cool watching the choppers dip for the fire. The big red/white one plopped down right by us at mid morning by the fuel station. His rotor wash was within 50 yards of us at the widest point.

I think I got a picture of it!
Check this out - Is this you?

 

[fish4kok]

Went to Anderson Ranch yesterday, fished from 6:30 am to 1:00 pm. Fished from 30 ft to 80 ft, used every color and combination in my box, at various speeds, twisting and turning, NEVER got one bite or one fish, good luck.

Thank you for the info. We fished from 8:30AM till noon my wife boated 3 and I had couple hits but lost them. We had lunch with friends and the other two fishermen joined us and we really had good time. 5:00PM we went out again and fish until 7:00PM, wife caught a 19" kok. All the fish she caught from 60' to 75' deep. Copper color dodger and pink squid. The long line pole with 2oz sinker Ford Fender Kokabo with 60' line out did get any bite. Later I used 3 oz sinker and let more line out but still no action. Talked to few fisherman and they got none. She was the lucky today with 4 kok.
I forgot to mount the rod holder for her electric DR. May be that why she caught fish.

 

[nepetbutler]

Thanks for the info SAWTOOTH. My Girlfriend and I were out on our kayaks today at Spring Shores and tried a few lures up top and tried going deeper with no luck at all. So I decided to try for some smallies along the lava rocks that were going into the water. I caught quite a few small ones!!! We were heading back to the marina and tried deeper for more Kokanees and I had a fish hit my Kokanee Rig. It felt like a nice one!!! After a decent fight I ended up bringing in a 20" Pikeminnow UGH! LOL! Oh well. Next time!

Here's my 20" Fish ;
View attachment 8728

Here is the size of smallies I was catching:
View attachment 8729

I forgot d/rigger. I made a downrigger w/ 30' black paracord,4# weight,scotty mini release,tied it to side of boat at 20' and started nailing big koke on pink hoochie

 

[F-Bomb]

Nope that isn't me. We were around the corner photo right and on the other side of him when he scooped. It was interesting as it didn't look like his bucket closed correctly and he was leaking all the way to the drop on the top of the hill. I watched him through binocs and his later dumps didn't leak out like that....it looked like he almost gave that pictured pontoon a shower from our angle!

My boat is a Sylvan 20ft Fish n Cruise with black sides and top. Did you guys notice the backward trolling pontoon boat? I wonder if going backwards is the only way he can control the speed? Seemed awkward.

Anyways....if you want to catch kokes at LP with your kayak setup please try the following.

Go get a luhr jensen "jeweled bead kokanee troll" flasher. It is a small four blade silver on one side orange on the other with silver flash tape on each blade and a red fin. part # 3690-001-0157 (fire/silver p-lit. Then attach an orange body with silver hammer blade Macks wedding ring spinner exactly 28" of leader back. You can use the #6 single hook that they come with but I normally replace with a #6 treble hook as it seems we get more in the boat with that setup. Get a can of Green Giant shoepeg white corn (walmart has it) and a can of tuna fish in vegie oil and a bottle of Mike's blue herring giz (also at walmart). In the morning before you head out to fish (soaking over night for some reason seems less effective) drain the tuna oil and a little tuna flesh into a container with your corn. Add some blue herring oil and mix it all up. (You can also forego the herring oil as it's worked with and without...I just know it doesn't hurt and the pro koke guides all put giz on the offerings and so I do it too) I've also added sea salt and caught fish but no real noted difference and not enough testing to call that one a do or don't. It does kind of preserve your bait and seems to make things less gooey later in the day. Tip your treble hook with ONE SINGLE CORN (not three). I also dip the lure in the juice and run a rub the juice all over the flashers occasionally. Coming from steelie fishing background I believe smell cover up is critical.

Go get yourself 25' of parachute cord and as heavy a bell sinker as you can find to tie on the end. Then a DR release. Drop that thing down 9ft to start with your lure set EXACTLY 50' back of the DR release. Set your release as tight as possible so that you have to pull it out when you get one on. Note with a light DR weight it's harder to release so some testing required. You just need something heavy enough to maintain a controlled depth at your trolling speed. With this spinner setup you can paddle along testing to see that you have everything spinning and that is simply your target speed. (we fish 1.5 to 2.35 gps) The nice thing about a WR spinner is that they catch fish at all speeds and are much less speed or action critical. The pattern at LP is 9ft to start and drop it down until you don't catch fish through the day as the sun goes up. NOTE: if it's a cloudy day change to a green WR spinner and the results are the same.

So far this year in 9 trips to LP this exact system has boated 189 kokes and about that many bites and long releases. All but two fish have been caught using only two poles per day. (sometimes we tried a third long lining or a stacked dr but it was too much work and caused more tangles then we actually had production so we bagged it.

also...if hand lining your DR setup is too much of a hassle you can go buy a set of shower rod/curtain rings, bell sinkers, and a release for each one. You simply leave your DR down and hook the shower ring around your main cord and drop it to depth...you can stack em deep without having to draw up your DR ball every time you hook up or have a strike. Guys use this for stacking dr setups and not having to draw up every time your upper line gets hit.

Go get em!

 

[F-Bomb]

Nope that isn't me. We were around the corner photo right and on the other side of him when he scooped. It was interesting as it didn't look like his bucket closed correctly and he was leaking all the way to the drop on the top of the hill. I watched him through binocs and his later dumps didn't leak out like that....it looked like he almost gave that pictured pontoon a shower from our angle!

My boat is a Sylvan 20ft Fish n Cruise with black sides and top. Did you guys notice the backward trolling pontoon boat? I wonder if going backwards is the only way he can control the speed? Seemed awkward.

Anyways....if you want to catch kokes at LP with your kayak setup please try the following.

Go get a luhr jensen "jeweled bead kokanee troll" flasher. It is a small four blade silver on one side orange on the other with silver flash tape on each blade and a red fin. part # 3690-001-0157 (fire/silver p-lit. Then attach an orange body with silver hammer blade Macks wedding ring spinner exactly 28" of leader back. You can use the #6 single hook that they come with but I normally replace with a #6 treble hook as it seems we get more in the boat with that setup. Get a can of Green Giant shoepeg white corn (walmart has it) and a can of tuna fish in vegie oil and a bottle of Mike's blue herring giz (also at walmart). In the morning before you head out to fish (soaking over night for some reason seems less effective) drain the tuna oil and a little tuna flesh into a container with your corn. Add some blue herring oil and mix it all up. (You can also forego the herring oil as it's worked with and without...I just know it doesn't hurt and the pro koke guides all put giz on the offerings and so I do it too) I've also added sea salt and caught fish but no real noted difference and not enough testing to call that one a do or don't. It does kind of preserve your bait and seems to make things less gooey later in the day. Tip your treble hook with ONE SINGLE CORN (not three). I also dip the lure in the juice and run a rub the juice all over the flashers occasionally. Coming from steelie fishing background I believe smell cover up is critical.

Go get yourself 25' of parachute cord and as heavy a bell sinker as you can find to tie on the end. Then a DR release. Drop that thing down 9ft to start with your lure set EXACTLY 50' back of the DR release. Set your release as tight as possible so that you have to pull it out when you get one on. Note with a light DR weight it's harder to release so some testing required. You just need something heavy enough to maintain a controlled depth at your trolling speed. With this spinner setup you can paddle along testing to see that you have everything spinning and that is simply your target speed. (we fish 1.5 to 2.35 gps) The nice thing about a WR spinner is that they catch fish at all speeds and are much less speed or action critical. The pattern at LP is 9ft to start and drop it down until you don't catch fish through the day as the sun goes up. NOTE: if it's a cloudy day change to a green WR spinner and the results are the same.

So far this year in 9 trips to LP this exact system has boated 189 kokes and about that many bites and long releases. All but two fish have been caught using only two poles per day. (sometimes we tried a third long lining or a stacked dr but it was too much work and caused more tangles then we actually had production so we bagged it.

also...if hand lining your DR setup is too much of a hassle you can go buy a set of shower rod/curtain rings, bell sinkers, and a release for each one. You simply leave your DR down and hook the shower ring around your main cord and drop it to depth...you can stack em deep without having to draw up your DR ball every time you hook up or have a strike. Guys use this for stacking dr setups and not having to draw up every time your upper line gets hit.

Go get em!

 

[Elefantdude]

Nope that isn't me. We were around the corner photo right and on the other side of him when he scooped. It was interesting as it didn't look like his bucket closed correctly and he was leaking all the way to the drop on the top of the hill. I watched him through binocs and his later dumps didn't leak out like that....it looked like he almost gave that pictured pontoon a shower from our angle!

My boat is a Sylvan 20ft Fish n Cruise with black sides and top. Did you guys notice the backward trolling pontoon boat? I wonder if going backwards is the only way he can control the speed? Seemed awkward.

Anyways....if you want to catch kokes at LP with your kayak setup please try the following.

Go get a luhr jensen "jeweled bead kokanee troll" flasher. It is a small four blade silver on one side orange on the other with silver flash tape on each blade and a red fin. part # 3690-001-0157 (fire/silver p-lit. Then attach an orange body with silver hammer blade Macks wedding ring spinner exactly 28" of leader back. You can use the #6 single hook that they come with but I normally replace with a #6 treble hook as it seems we get more in the boat with that setup. Get a can of Green Giant shoepeg white corn (walmart has it) and a can of tuna fish in vegie oil and a bottle of Mike's blue herring giz (also at walmart). In the morning before you head out to fish (soaking over night for some reason seems less effective) drain the tuna oil and a little tuna flesh into a container with your corn. Add some blue herring oil and mix it all up. (You can also forego the herring oil as it's worked with and without...I just know it doesn't hurt and the pro koke guides all put giz on the offerings and so I do it too) I've also added sea salt and caught fish but no real noted difference and not enough testing to call that one a do or don't. It does kind of preserve your bait and seems to make things less gooey later in the day. Tip your treble hook with ONE SINGLE CORN (not three). I also dip the lure in the juice and run a rub the juice all over the flashers occasionally. Coming from steelie fishing background I believe smell cover up is critical.

Go get yourself 25' of parachute cord and as heavy a bell sinker as you can find to tie on the end. Then a DR release. Drop that thing down 9ft to start with your lure set EXACTLY 50' back of the DR release. Set your release as tight as possible so that you have to pull it out when you get one on. Note with a light DR weight it's harder to release so some testing required. You just need something heavy enough to maintain a controlled depth at your trolling speed. With this spinner setup you can paddle along testing to see that you have everything spinning and that is simply your target speed. (we fish 1.5 to 2.35 gps) The nice thing about a WR spinner is that they catch fish at all speeds and are much less speed or action critical. The pattern at LP is 9ft to start and drop it down until you don't catch fish through the day as the sun goes up. NOTE: if it's a cloudy day change to a green WR spinner and the results are the same.

So far this year in 9 trips to LP this exact system has boated 189 kokes and about that many bites and long releases. All but two fish have been caught using only two poles per day. (sometimes we tried a third long lining or a stacked dr but it was too much work and caused more tangles then we actually had production so we bagged it.

also...if hand lining your DR setup is too much of a hassle you can go buy a set of shower rod/curtain rings, bell sinkers, and a release for each one. You simply leave your DR down and hook the shower ring around your main cord and drop it to depth...you can stack em deep without having to draw up your DR ball every time you hook up or have a strike. Guys use this for stacking dr setups and not having to draw up every time your upper line gets hit.

Go get em!

Thanks for the information, F-Bomb! Sounds like great tips! Kokanee Fishing sures sounds like science! LOL! I'll try your suggestions on my next trip out! I did see that pontoon back trolling out there. It looked like a few Kokes being caught in the area I saw you guys. I was graphing a few at 10' on my fishfinder, then later in the day, they dropped down between 15' to 25'. I just couldn't hook onto any of them.

 

[rem40xb1]

I fished 4 hrs in the morning Wednesday and Thursday I caught one 5 Lb rainbow and one 7 lb bull trout. I lost a good Chinook right at the boat
I used a Lyman lure #82 November plug 200 ft behind the boat 55-70 ft deep in the lime creek area and the Wood creek area

 

[stevec]

Wednesday fishing

Mid afternoon fishing at Dent using 3 oz. at 60'. Troll speed about 1 mph.

 

[fixed blade]

Were you able to snap a picture the Bull Trout? If so I'd love to see it.

 

[F-Bomb]

Sat Report...
Got to spring shores super early and fished for an hour without getting a sniff...we could have slept in! Finally caught a medium koke going into Robie Creek. Then we got inundated with squawkers! First ones all year. Also kept catching trout instead of kokanee but one was 19" and put up a pretty good tussle. She squirted eggs all over the boat when I was unhooking and releasing. Went out into the main lake with the 100 other boats and it was still very slow. I think we only caught five or six fish with the normal shallow setup. Didn't really see very many people netting either. A couple passers by reported super slow. We finally got into some action with a green spinner at 16ft but it was still what I consider slow. At noon we switched to pink hoochie with a silver smile blade towed behind a paper silver flasher setup which was the most flash I carry. WAMMO at 27 we started to finally get into fish on the custom pink hoochie setup. Switched both poles to pink and then we started to get busy. Had a cool little stretch at 21ft that boated three nice 17" fish and lost two that were similar. That only lasted a short time when a surf boat got right on our mark and spent five tries attempting to get a huge human being up on a board. Magically our fun was over.

I have never in my hundreds of days on LP seen that many boats and jet skis! Everyone in the area that owns a boat plus a few out of towners all decided that today was the day for LP. We also got swarmed by the America's Cup junior varsity regatta. They went right over your lines and one almost rammed us. She was cussing and leaning and finally couldn't make the tack and pulled out. Not a relaxing day but it was still lots of fun. Put some nice ones in the cooler today and while we worked hard for them it was worth it. Kind of cool to catch the big boys on a home made setup plus finally getting something down a little deeper than our standard surface setups.

 

[Bassmeet]

I Fished from 4:30pm-7:30pm. I fished everything from 20-60 ft of water. I caught a lot really nice trout and some pike minnows. (Dodger pink hoochie) The trout were released and swam off looking really healthy. The pike minnows on the other hand, not so lucky. I was hooked up about every 10 minutes, but no luck on Kokes. This is my first time being skunked on kokes this year.... Still a great day on the water.

 

[rem40xb1]

Bull Trout

I didn't get a pic of the bull trout but I catch them fairly often and I will get a pic of the next one I catch and post it

 

[GrimReaper]

ditto what F-Bomb said...

Wife and I fished LP Saturday sun up till sun down with a few hour break on shore at day use site mid afternoon. Marking fish from 10-30 feet down with most around 20' but few takers. Tried different speeds, scents, colors but couldn't dial them in. Lots of rec boaters, jet skis, etc. - I don't usually complain about them because they have as much right to the water as fisherman but I cannot understand why they cut between my boat and shore when I'm 70 feet from shore and there is much more room on other side - but had that happen several times. Also saw the sail boats F-Bomb mentioned, I had no problem with them but one of them did catch a long line from my friends boat nearby.

We ended up keeping 3 koke, 18" was biggest.

 

[nepetbutler]

Launching at 430 am tue. Using double pink slingblade, pink hoochie w/uv flash, tipped wth anise soaked pink firecorn w/ procure koke gel down 20' @1.4 mph. Tan/green crestliner. If u smell bacon WAVE

 

[Skipjack24]

Heres what a 8lb bull trout looks like at AR

Were you able to snap a picture the Bull Trout? If so I'd love to see it.

 

[G3 longliner]

windy

Launching at 430 am tue. Using double pink slingblade, pink hoochie w/uv flash, tipped wth anise soaked pink firecorn w/ procure koke gel down 20' @1.4 mph. Tan/green crestliner. If u smell bacon WAVE

windy today till 10am - slow fishing - 6:30 to noon for 4 kOKS 12 T0 16in. - only had 7 hits for the day -talked to 2 boats at the ramp and they had same only one was pink

 

[F-Bomb]

4:30 am! Please leave a couple angry ones in place for the second shift. We'll be along about 8ish if everything works just right.

 

[jfb]

Saturday Fishing

I fished on the 23rd and found the fish to be at different depths dependent on the location. Fished at the the point North of Freeman Creek and found the fish at 30-40 feet. Then went up to Elk Creek and fished the rest of the day. Found fish to be anywhere from 20 feet to 100 feet. Caught 13 nice fish and had a great time.

 

[fixed blade]

Looks like a snake. I figured they'd be fatter.