2018 Arrowrock Reservior Kokanee Fishing Report

[John1369]

Avalanche warning

FYI....I got my pathfinder windshield cracked by falling rocks just past the dam. So be aware. I'm glad that's all that happened. Oh the boat ramp is ice/snow free. Today fished from 9am to 3pm across from boat ramp.
Threw everything except the kitchen sink and Dupont spinners at them came home with one 15" trout.

 

[centurion]

FYI....I got my pathfinder windshield cracked by falling rocks just past the dam. So be aware. I'm glad that's all that happened. Oh the boat ramp is ice/snow free. Today fished from 9am to 3pm across from boat ramp.
Threw everything except the kitchen sink and Dupont spinners at them came home with one 15" trout.

I was up there a month ago with similar results. Three rainbows and no kokanee, fished from 8:30-3:00

 

[Pauli]

I've been out 3 times this year....only 6 Kokes and several more Rainbows total. Hopefully the plankton will start to "bloom" soon. Awful cold on the water for just a few Kokes. Shouldn't be too much longer.

Pauli

 

[nepetbutler]

Trolling with zigzag

I've been out 3 times this year....only 6 Kokes and several more Rainbows total. Hopefully the plankton will start to "bloom" soon. Awful cold on the water for just a few Kokes. Shouldn't be too much longer.

Pauli

gonna fish below arrowrock w/Paulina hoochies.

 

[nakinney]

Who's fishing tomorrow?

 

[Physion]

fishing saturday

I hope to go tomorrow. I haven't decided between Lucky Peak and Arrowrock. Recent reports from Arrowrock have not been encouraging and there aren't any recent reports from Lucky Peak. Thoughts or great words of wisdom? I would prefer not to get skunked on my first trip out this season. That would be a bad omen.

Physion

 

[Pauli]

I went up to Arrowrock this morning and was on the water by 0730. Caught 2 16 inch Kokes right away. The next 2 took a bit of time to get. I ended up with 4 fat Kokes (15-16 inches) and 4 Rainbows (13-16 inches). All were caught across from the boat ramp. I did lose 3 right at the boat.....I'm pretty sure that 2 of those 3 were Kokes. Had 2 poles going....one with a blade and a pink wedding ring and the other with a blade and a blaze orange wedding ring. Hooks were tipped with a Big Gulp Maggot and 2 pieces of untreated shoepeg corn. Trolled at about 1.2 mph and used either a 2 ounce or 3 ounce weight at 30 pulls. The weather was just awesome early (but cold.....it was a propane heater day). At about 1130 or 1200, the wind kicked up....and the bite really turned off. Started across the boat ramp, then headed to the confluence of the South Fork (no bites) and trolled the Nibbler creek area (also no bites). Didn't make it over to the dam. I left at 1230.

When I cleaned the catch, 2 of the Kokes had roe in them. That kind of surprised me. Thought it was a little early for them to have eggs yet. Oh yeah..... the road absolutely sucks!!! I think it was the worst right there at the dam, through the constricted area. Not sure if I have ever seen it that bad. Strange thing is that it wasn't really wash-boarded.... it was pot holed. 200 yards of clear sailing followed by 100 yards of potholes. Took me 25 minutes to get from the hard ball to the boat ramp.

Anyone know who to call to get the road graded? I have seen it mentioned somewhere that one can call and report the road condition.....and someone will send out the grader. I'll head up again later in the week......if the road gets graded.

Pauli

 

[DustinU]

Corn...

I can second some of the insight shared here. As having just entered the sport of kokanee fishing a couple years back, ive yet to feel like i have a grasp on any real rhyme or reason for how to catch em consistently (except for deadwood... i think ive got that one figured out for now). Ive been able to catch my fair share at lucky peak, and finally had a good day last summer at anderson... but despite several attempts, i have yet to catch a koke out of arrowrock. Hoping to get out here in the next week or two, so i will post what i learn. Only frustration is i finally got my boat all set up just right last fall, and then my fishing buddy up and decided to go back to school to get his masters degree, so he tells me he has no time for fishing. I normally like to take my boys or some scouts when i can, but they cant go during the week with school, and my saturdays tend to fill up with honey doos.

Also, im curious if anyone sees a difference in performance of various scents of corn in the different reservoirs? Seems like shrimp flavored corn always worked the best for me at deadwood, but plain corn at anderson? Any favorites for arrowrock?

I've used Kokanee killer mix at Arrow Rock with some luck... I know of a guy that fishes Deadwood with a Corn mix that they call Holy Corn no one has the exact recipe.. Some say he adds Dr. Pepper to it...

 

[Pauli]

Fished Arrowrock Friday from 0700 to about 1400. Only caught 1 very large Koke and 4 fat trout. Koke was 18 inches. Trolled across from the ramp, Nibbler Creek and confluence of the South Fork. I did get TONS of bites but was not able to hook up. Orange and Pink were my colors of the day. LOTS of boats on the water.....most everyone I talked to did about the same as me.

Pauli

 

[snowman]

Nice boat ride

Fished Arrowrock on Wednesday mid morning to early afternoon from the boat ramp up to the south fork arm. No Fish. Fished with down riggers 10 to 25 feet, sling blades and arrow flash, hoochies, corn with Kokanee Killer and anise or shrimp scent. Also long line shallow with a Cousin Carl flasher and spinners with corn.

 

[Physion]

Road

How is the road in? Last time I went it was full of potholes.

Physion

 

[H2Oguy]

I was there yesterday and it must have been graded recently because there weren't any potholes or washboards. Didn't catch any kokanee.

 

[GrimReaper]

Arrow Rock 6/2/2018

Hasn't been much chatter on here about Arrow Rock so decided to go check it out for myself this morning after fishing Anderson last weekend. I was surprised to see the parking lot full at boat ramp and plenty of boats out fishing. Wasn't great fishing, ended up with 2 decent kokes (17" and 18") and released a little guy, of course had a few squaw fish and 2 small rainbows. Didn't see much action on other boats and the few fisherman I talked to hadn't caught kokes. Not sure why Arrow Rock has been so poor past couple years, should have fished Anderson instead.


Reaper

 

[terek]

Hasn't been much chatter on here about Arrow Rock so decided to go check it out for myself this morning after fishing Anderson last weekend. I was surprised to see the parking lot full at boat ramp and plenty of boats out fishing. Wasn't great fishing, ended up with 2 decent kokes (17" and 18") and released a little guy, of course had a few squaw fish and 2 small rainbows. Didn't see much action on other boats and the few fisherman I talked to hadn't caught kokes. Not sure why Arrow Rock has been so poor past couple years, should have fished Anderson instead.


Reaper

for real. Wish it would go back to the way it was 3-4 years ago. We used to go there and expect 1-2 limits without question. Fish and game need to get involved, because there is obviously a problem

 

[voicebugler]

Indeed...

for real. Wish it would go back to the way it was 3-4 years ago. We used to go there and expect 1-2 limits without question. Fish and game need to get involved, because there is obviously a problem

The internet and over fishing, perhaps?

20 years ago, it was rare to catch a 14" kokanee in Arrowrock, L.P., or Anderson, but to catch a limit, without boats all over you was not rare. The quality of fish had steadily increased, which is a simple equation of the quantity in the fishery decreasing. As more people keep flocking and taking home multiple limits of big fish, something's gotta give. I know the lashing I'll take for stating the truth, as I've seen it before, but it's inevitable that eventually the bubble will burst. I know the fish are just going to spawn and die, so take em all seems to be the normal response, but spawn is a key piece of that ingredient. The same reduced number hitting your rods and heading to the smoker are the same reduced number going to spawn..

 

[metalheadgene]

It may be due to over fishing and the internet but I am not sure on this one. Typically you will hear of great reports early in the season and then over fishing will follow as soon as all the pics are posted. But something is weird with Arrowrock. From my view it has not been all that great for about the last 3 years or so with little or no reports of any success (including my own time on the lake)

But 3 years ago as I frequented the south fork of the Boise in the fall there were a ton of fish in the river spawning.

2 years ago, not so much. And last year I saw a few...and by the way they were all huge. I cannot help but wonder if the numbers are there but they dong something different in that lake, like moving up the rivers much earlier in the season.

 

[Pauli]

I think you hit the nail on the head. The immense pressure on this fishery has its consequences. Maybe the fish are moving into the rivers earlier than before....but that's a stretch. I remember late last fall saying that the pressure on both Lucky Peak and Arrowrock is too heavy.....and several on this forum just regurgitated the "three year cycle of the Kokanee" talking points. We can't expect to sustain this fishery with the number of anglers on the lake limiting out on fish from early spring until the reservoirs ice over. Fish and game needs to get involved and put the brakes on things...at least for a while. I think that we did this to ourselves.

Pauli

 

[hooknhunter]

I would suspect the big fire to be the problem before anything else. Wasn't the big fire 3 years ago? If it messed up the egg survival, that would explain a lot.

 

[G3 longliner]

I would suspect the big fire to be the problem before anything else. Wasn't the big fire 3 years ago? If it messed up the egg survival, that would explain a lot.

I think the big runoff / dump killed a lot of 1- 2 year fish last year - Fish and Game what you say? you have a clue? pretty quite on your end? HUH HUH ??

 

[pollackoke]

What I heard at an IF&G lecture (at Cabelas last year) is the Kokanee in Arrowrock (and the whole Boise R. system) are pretty much all planted via IF&G stocking program. Another tidbit was that tagged Kokanee planted in Arrowrock and later caught and reported by fisher-folk have all been recovered in Lucky Peak. Thus loss of Arrowrock Kokanee are in large part due to water management, not over-fishing. Consider also that the limit is 6 in Arrowrock; whereas Anderson has a limit of 25. And we haven't seen a large drop in numbers at Anderson.