2018 Anderson Ranch Reservior Kokanee Fishing Report

[fish4kok]

Thank Kevin for very good fishing report.

Wife and I fished in front of Curlew (maybe 50-100 yards directly out from the ramp) and in that little bay just south of that ramp (way before Lime Cr) yesterday (5/3). Caught 30 Kokes, most in the 14" to 15+" range using 3 poles. Also 1 small trout caught (released) and 0 Chinooks caught. Had another 8-10 on that we lost at various stages. Landed one double and almost landed a triple (got 2 out of 3). Used Ford Fenders with various spinners and hoochies. Also used a few different dodgers (rainbow, watermelon, purple) with pink, orange, and chartreuse hoochies. In general, lure setup and color didn't seem to make much of a difference but the ford fender with orange spinner did seem to get a few more hits than the other setups. Speed and depth seemed to be the ticket. For speed, I stayed between 1 and 1.5 mph. For depth, I used a downrigger on one line, setting it to between 22' and 30' most of the day. Got lots of action on that setup, using a depth in the low twenties in the morning, and high twenties in the afternoon. For the other two lines, I used 3 oz of lead on one and 4 oz on the other; then we put out enough line to get them in the mid-twenties depth range. We stuck with that depth in the morning. In the afternoon, we went down to around 30'. We were getting action pretty consistently all day. Great Day! Time to fire up the Smoker! tooexcited

Kevin
....
....

Thanks Kevin for very good fishing report. My wife and I fished 3 days in Anderson from Thurs. May-03 until Sat. May-5. We took home 42 Kok size range from 13" to 17". On Thurs. we fished in Deer creek and we lost 10 fish in 1st hour before we boated the 1st fish. We caught 7 good size kokanee at Deer Creek before noon and 6 Kok in Curlew area in the evening. On Fri. we caught 17 KOk mostly between Deer Creek to Curlew and 12 kok on Sat.

Vance dodger + Signature purple squid did well in the morning. In the afternoon we switched to copper dodger + pink Signature pink squid. We used 2 DR with depth varied from 12' ~ 20' in the morning and 20' to 30' in the afternoon. Long line 1.5 oz sinker + Ford fender + Kokabow Talon + white corn 50' to 80' line out. Trolling speed from 1.2 ~ 1.5MPH
We camped at Deer Creek. Great camping and fishing trip.

 

[mowrus]

Anybody heard anything on the tournament at Anderson?

 

[Elk Hunter]

7.69 lbs won it, big Koke side pot was a 19” fish

 

[mowrus]

7.69 lbs won it, big Koke side pot was a 19” fish

wasn't that a 6 fish limit too?

 

[Elk Hunter]

Yes, there were at least 25 6 fish limits turned in based upon the weights/ awards and probably a lot more. Our average fish was 1.25 lbs and in the mid 15” range

 

[Elk Hunter]

Great 4 days for us on Anderson, today we caught 26 go home fish don’t even want to talk about the lost fish tooexcited, fished mainly in the Woods creek area with both pink and orange MAG TACKLE MINI MAGS working the best for us. Early 12 to 21’ OTW and then after 9am 27 to 40’ OTW, GPS speed that worked the best for us was 1.6, setbacks anywhere from 10’ to 50’. Glad we were able to experience this Great Lake and our 3rd place finish in the derby helped with some gas money.

 

[F-Bomb]

Pretty good fishing

Entered the 4K and got there Friday at 10am and fished until 4pm when the second big dump rolled onto the lake. The fishing was smoking hot right then but it was nasty so we bailed. We caught 30 kokes and had two 17.5 and two 16.5 and then most of the rest looked like clones all at 15 exactly. Bloodied and had to take a little 12 incher which would have ruined our tournament total if we had drawn Friday. No Chinooks on Friday.

On Saturday we hooked a really big fish right off the bat just away from the boat ramp and it swam and jumped sideways across our entire setup. Braided four lines into a world class mess and also shook itself off. We were out of commission for a half an hour unraveling that mess and it really wasn't that much fun. Braided line and those paper flashers can really work up a mother of a knot in about a half a second.

Got reorganized and things settled in and we once again caught fish pretty regularly. Ended up boating another 28 fish but they were all only 14 to the biggest being 15.5. We had at least 20 DR pops with no fish on. Friday we might have had 3. There was exactly zero sunshine and it was just plain cold on Saturday. Friday had some bad times but it was nice quite a bit and also sunny. My setup is hotter in the sun. We threw back all but three 15.5 and then it got really slow and we went two hours without a decent fish and it was getting towards the weigh in time. Didn't think a 6 pack of 15.5 would even be in the hunt so it pretty much seemed moot. We finally at 3 caught 2 more 15 to 15.5 and decided that we would really try for that 6th fish or not even bother. It was getting pretty desperate and the TD was standing out on the dock checking in the final boats and was obviously wanting us to come in but we couldn't get that #6. Finally at exactly 3:25 right out in front of the ramp we hooked a really hot fish. Drug it in as quickly as possible and it turned out to be a damn 14" Chinook and we were sunk! DNF...... It was actually a really fun and strategic game. I was certain a bunch of guys with local knowledge would drag in a 6 pack of 19 plus fish but as it turns out not so.

Another hilarious happening which was pretty embarrassing was that they announced that there were no qualified Chinook entered from Friday. We caught a 14.5. If you keep and turn in a less than 14 Chinook you are DQ'd so I was doing a really good job of measuring it on my fishing table. When I verified it was plus 14 the damn thing wiggled out of my hands and swam right off that table back into the lake! I was pretty sure I just threw back a $500 dollar bill. Thankfully someone caught a 15 and all is well. We caught 7 Chinook on Saturday. Most were those little buggers but a couple were decent.

We fished my standard setup with Macks paper 4 blades silver flash and slightly customized wedding ring spinners. Orange bodies with various Colorado blades silver to combos of white/orange/silver. We had pretty even action on all 4 setups. DR setups from 65ft back 14ft down to 45ft back 28ft down. 28ft produced the most action both days. We also ran two outside poles with 1.25 ounces of weight and they were active as well. It's the most fish I've caught on non-downrigger setups for some time. What ever depth 1.25 ounces equals 86ft back at 2.0-2.3MPH seemed to be a good spot. Not a ton of huge marks of schools on the sounder so the fish are on the top and pretty well spread out. We fished all over the Pine end of the res. Avoided the madness at Curlew and caught most our action towards lime creek or right near the pine boat launch.

white corn with tuna oil and Mike's blue

 

[G3 longliner]

Entered the 4K and got there Friday at 10am and fished until 4pm when the second big dump rolled onto the lake. The fishing was smoking hot right then but it was nasty so we bailed. We caught 30 kokes and had two 17.5 and two 16.5 and then most of the rest looked like clones all at 15 exactly. Bloodied and had to take a little 12 incher which would have ruined our tournament total if we had drawn Friday. No Chinooks on Friday.

On Saturday we hooked a really big fish right off the bat just away from the boat ramp and it swam and jumped sideways across our entire setup. Braided four lines into a world class mess and also shook itself off. We were out of commission for a half an hour unraveling that mess and it really wasn't that much fun. Braided line and those paper flashers can really work up a mother of a knot in about a half a second.

Got reorganized and things settled in and we once again caught fish pretty regularly. Ended up boating another 28 fish but they were all only 14 to the biggest being 15.5. We had at least 20 DR pops with no fish on. Friday we might have had 3. There was exactly zero sunshine and it was just plain cold on Saturday. Friday had some bad times but it was nice quite a bit and also sunny. My setup is hotter in the sun. We threw back all but three 15.5 and then it got really slow and we went two hours without a decent fish and it was getting towards the weigh in time. Didn't think a 6 pack of 15.5 would even be in the hunt so it pretty much seemed moot. We finally at 3 caught 2 more 15 to 15.5 and decided that we would really try for that 6th fish or not even bother. It was getting pretty desperate and the TD was standing out on the dock checking in the final boats and was obviously wanting us to come in but we couldn't get that #6. Finally at exactly 3:25 right out in front of the ramp we hooked a really hot fish. Drug it in as quickly as possible and it turned out to be a damn 14" Chinook and we were sunk! DNF...... It was actually a really fun and strategic game. I was certain a bunch of guys with local knowledge would drag in a 6 pack of 19 plus fish but as it turns out not so.

Another hilarious happening which was pretty embarrassing was that they announced that there were no qualified Chinook entered from Friday. We caught a 14.5. If you keep and turn in a less than 14 Chinook you are DQ'd so I was doing a really good job of measuring it on my fishing table. When I verified it was plus 14 the damn thing wiggled out of my hands and swam right off that table back into the lake! I was pretty sure I just threw back a $500 dollar bill. Thankfully someone caught a 15 and all is well. We caught 7 Chinook on Saturday. Most were those little buggers but a couple were decent.

We fished my standard setup with Macks paper 4 blades silver flash and slightly customized wedding ring spinners. Orange bodies with various Colorado blades silver to combos of white/orange/silver. We had pretty even action on all 4 setups. DR setups from 65ft back 14ft down to 45ft back 28ft down. 28ft produced the most action both days. We also ran two outside poles with 1.25 ounces of weight and they were active as well. It's the most fish I've caught on non-downrigger setups for some time. What ever depth 1.25 ounces equals 86ft back at 2.0-2.3MPH seemed to be a good spot. Not a ton of huge marks of schools on the sounder so the fish are on the top and pretty well spread out. We fished all over the Pine end of the res. Avoided the madness at Curlew and caught most our action towards lime creek or right near the pine boat launch.

white corn with tuna oil and Mike's blue

went Anderson yesterday - weird day - hooked 20 koks and landed 3 - hard to net when your by yourself they seemed real hot - bouncing off boat and heading for motor - BUT was a nice day - did not see a lot of action where I was Curlew to Lime

 

[terek]

did pretty good at the 4k tourney. We decided to keep everything over 14". Threw back a lot of babies, but ended up getting all our fish by noon. all around the 14 1/2- 15 1/2 range, and still managed to pull off 11th place. We tied for 10th on weight, but the other dudes beat us in length by 2 mm. What was a real bummer is 1st place was only 1/3rd of a pound over our weight. It literally came down to who got fish before they took a morning dump, and who got fish after their morning dump. I hope no one was shoving sinkers down their gullets, lol. Still was fun, and made my goal of top 20. Got a nice pole and a hat for a prize. Will deff. do it again.
We did really good thur. pre fishing, and sat. as well. As a lot have said, the fish were REALLY bad about false hitting. Both loosing fish right after hookup, or grabbing a bouncing pole to find nothing at the end. We probably lost/didn't hook over 100 fish over the 3 days

Best fishing was at 28 feet. Every color produced just as good as the other. Speed and depth was the key. Trolling at 1.25 was not producing, we only got good strikes at 1.5 to 1.6

 

[F-Bomb]

congrats Terek

Great job Terek (and team)! It was fun and interesting to decide what to keep and what to throw back. I really thought there would be locals that would clean up with experience and know how but that absolutely wasn't the case. A guy at the lodge who has fished Anderson a ton (and based on the photos does very well) stated on Saturday night that he rarely sees an 18 and never a 19 or better fish this early.

I was pretty worried that my LP setup would not work at Anderson but it worked great if not better than at LP. Those fish love our cigars and because it was a contest we smoked NON-STOP. I can forego those now for quite awhile (cough cough).

That tournament was an absolute hoot to participate in and it was very well ran and organized for their first try. There is no way that 80 boats would have been too many for that lake or the setup for a one day event. They pushed out 40 boats off of that tiny little one lane ramp and area without a single issue. Two starting times and two ending times on the same day two hours apart would work fine and be more fair and less of a burden on the staff and travelers. I'll participate again if the cards flop out correctly. Most fun fishing I've had in a long while. Got my old competitive genes going again.

 

[F-Bomb]

G3 longliner

It seems like if they bounce and roll right at the boat and you don't get them skied into the net on the first tug they are gone. I can't imagine getting this done solo. I'm always surprised that they can hammer a treble hook hard enough to pull out of the DR, take
three nubs of corn and somehow not be there after a couple seconds!

 

[G3 longliner]

It seems like if they bounce and roll right at the boat and you don't get them skied into the net on the first tug they are gone. I can't imagine getting this done solo. I'm always surprised that they can hammer a treble hook hard enough to pull out of the DR, take
three nubs of corn and somehow not be there after a couple seconds!

ya i changed to weddings rings with treble and lost 8 in a row there goes the treble is better theory

 

[formulaben]

net

Can't recall where I read this, but I was told that when they get to the boat they "freak out" more than other types of fish and that's when you lose them...in my small amount of Koke fishing, it seemed to be true. I was using a basic net and would love them before we had an opportunity to take a pass with the old net. The solution was to get an extension type net and bag them as far away from the boat as possible...here is a video explaining the concept. I bought one very close to this and my conversion rate went up quite a bit last year.

 

[F-Bomb]

agree on the net

Absolutely you need the longest net pole you can handle. I bought one of those shallow rubber basket style jobs with a long extending handle and it really works great. The hooks don't get caught into the netting nearly like the conventional deep nylon jobs. If you can get them with their head up and very quickly water ski them into the net starting at about 10ft out you'll end up with less loses right at the boat. They seem to do the last ditch kokanee freak out about 6ft away and if they have leverage by having their head down to riggle it's bye bye. So 8ft of handle is pretty handy.

Still nearly impossible to use that technique solo.

 

[G3 longliner]

Absolutely you need the longest net pole you can handle. I bought one of those shallow rubber basket style jobs with a long extending handle and it really works great. The hooks don't get caught into the netting nearly like the conventional deep nylon jobs. If you can get them with their head up and very quickly water ski them into the net starting at about 10ft out you'll end up with less loses right at the boat. They seem to do the last ditch kokanee freak out about 6ft away and if they have leverage by having their head down to riggle it's bye bye. So 8ft of handle is pretty handy.

Still nearly impossible to use that technique solo.

what i really need are arms that are 2 foot longer - finally got my Traeger and smoked some Koks - not enough salt in brine , good, but a little bland - still learning the Traeger - any simple recipes out there?

 

[centurion]

"what i really need are arms that are 2 foot longer - finally got my Traeger and smoked some Koks - not enough salt in brine , good, but a little bland - still learning the Traeger - any simple recipes out there?"


Mix 4 parts brown sugar to 1 part salt. Cover all surfaces of the fillets with this. Let sit for 4-8 hours. (brine will turn from dry to liquid because of osmosis.) Wipe off the majority of the brine, you can leave a little on for flavor. Pop them in traeger for 3-4 hours on Smoke, depending on how dry you like it.

Really hard to beat it this way.

 

[G3 longliner]

"what i really need are arms that are 2 foot longer - finally got my Traeger and smoked some Koks - not enough salt in brine , good, but a little bland - still learning the Traeger - any simple recipes out there?"


Mix 4 parts brown sugar to 1 part salt. Cover all surfaces of the fillets with this. Let sit for 4-8 hours. (brine will turn from dry to liquid because of osmosis.) Wipe off the majority of the brine, you can leave a little on for flavor. Pop them in traeger for 3-4 hours on Smoke, depending on how dry you like it.

Really hard to beat it this way.

leave skin on fillet?

 

[centurion]

leave skin on fillet?

yes.

smoke it skin side down.

and eat the skin.

 

[metalheadgene]

Recipe

Leave skin on Filet. 2lb dark brown sugar, 1 cup of kosher salt, 1/2 gallon of water, 1 cup of real maple syrup. Submerge and soak in liquid brine for 24 to 48 hours. Then place on racks and allow a pelicle to form. This simply means to let them dry to the until the surface of the filet is tacky to the touch. I iusually do this in the garage were there is cooler temps. I line the table with newspaper to absorb the drippings. I place side of each rack on 2x4 so air can get underneath.

I do this before I go to bed, and first thing in the morning I throw the racks in the smoker.

I don't really do anything other than above and my freinds and family are always asking for more and want to take some home.

 

[nepetbutler]

Long net

Absolutely you need the longest net pole you can handle. I bought one of those shallow rubber basket style jobs with a long extending handle and it really works great. The hooks don't get caught into the netting nearly like the conventional deep nylon jobs. If you can get them with their head up and very quickly water ski them into the net starting at about 10ft out you'll end up with less loses right at the boat. They seem to do the last ditch kokanee freak out about 6ft away and if they have leverage by having their head down to riggle it's bye bye. So 8ft of handle is pretty handy.

Still nearly impossible to use that technique solo.

I extended my net with a adjustable paint pole