2019 Anderson Ranch Reservoir Kokanee Fishing Report

[DEALMKR]

Are you launching from Curlew?

Fished yesterday evening 6/15 for almost 4 hours. Nothing for the first 1.5 hours. Then landed 1 on orange and nothing for almost another hour. Finally switched to green as mentioned above and had a steady bite in the 20-30' range. Ended up with 9 in the cooler and lost 3 or 4. Everything in the 13-15" range. I think these are a different age class of fish that we have been catching. A little smaller and almost half had the ligher colored meat. Another success at Anderson

Have not fished Anderson and am tired of Cascade ( weeds )
And Lucky Peak ( skunked ) I live in Eagle. I’m thinking 2
HR Drive? Curfew the best launch?

Thanks
Dealmkr

 

[jacksdad]

Have not fished Anderson and am tired of Cascade ( weeds )
And Lucky Peak ( skunked ) I live in Eagle. I’m thinking 2
HR Drive? Curfew the best launch?

Thanks
Dealmkr

I have only launched from curlew one time, no complaints. It did cost 5 bucks for parking/day use though. Every other time i have launched by the dam/elk creek. It gets crazy there, and parking is limited which forces people to park on the dirt road.
The dam would probably save you 30-40 minutes of driving. I have been going mid afternoon and have avoided most of the boat launch rush and have still done well with the kokes. Hope this helps. Good luck

 

[salmonster]

Lighter colored meat

Fished yesterday evening 6/15 for almost 4 hours. Nothing for the first 1.5 hours. Then landed 1 on orange and nothing for almost another hour. Finally switched to green as mentioned above and had a steady bite in the 20-30' range. Ended up with 9 in the cooler and lost 3 or 4. Everything in the 13-15" range. I think these are a different age class of fish that we have been catching. A little smaller and almost half had the ligher colored meat. Another success at Anderson

We kept 28 of the bigger ones the other day and 4 had the lighter colored meat. I had not seen this before. Have the lighter colored fish changed to a different forage base?

 

[mowrus]

We kept 28 of the bigger ones the other day and 4 had the lighter colored meat. I had not seen this before. Have the lighter colored fish changed to a different forage base?

They are the late spawners they planted from the north..

 

[UncleLucas]

Saturday 6-22-2019

Fished from 7am-6pm. We caught 21 and lost a handful. All in all pretty slow day for us. A random fish here and there all day. Orange was the winner with pink close second. 20-40 ft on downrigger and longline had best action with 2oz weight and 70ft line out. Caught fish from curlew all the way to the snowman and back. Beautiful day on the water and not too many boats surprisingly.

 

[Pauli]

My wife and I fished Anderson Ranch this morning from 0730 to 1200. Lots and lots of boats and very little fish seen caught. We didn't boat any Kokes....out of 30 or so boats we saw less than half a dozen boated. Tried everything in the tackle box and fished from 60 feet on the DR to 10 feet on a longline. Was an off day I suppose. At least the weather was awesome. Will try Arrowrock on Thursday.

 

[conservationist]

Same Result

We had the same experience on Sunday .. Fished 7:30 to noon (when the wind blew us off the lake). Hooked one Koke at 50 feet .... and lost it 20 before the boat ... hooked on a silver and blue dodger with a pink wedding ring trailing. Saw only one fished boated from the 25+ boats on the water from Curlew down towards the power lines. Fished in the AM at 15 feet and tried every depth down to 55 feet when we gave up. Long ways to go to get skunked..... could of done that at Lucky Peak .

 

[kokaneekevin]

Fishing on Tuesday 6/25

Sorry to hear the results from Pauli and Conservationist. I've been there - those days when the Kokanee win. I was there on Tuesday as well. Took a friend. It was his first Kokanee fishing trip. We had a pretty good day. Started at 8:30, stopped at 2pm. Brought home 18 nice-sized Kokes, most in the 16" - 17" range. Biggest was 17 1/2" so we didn't have any monsters, but they were certainly big enough and solid (most had the 'normal' color meat, but definitely had quite a few with the light orange meat). And only caught Kokes; no trout or Chinooks caught. Started at Curlew, fished across to Lyme Creek, then down the narrows a bit and then back to Curlew. We were catching fish all along the way, but they were mainly hitting in the area just beyond the brick retaining walls and before the Lyme Cr bay area. Had the downrigger set at 41' and caught 5 or 6 at that depth. Then long-lined (100 clicks out) with a couple poles using 1, 2, 3, and 4 oz weights. 1 and 4 oz had the most hits, but it seemed like we were catching fish between 10' and 40'. So we never locked into one depth in particular. Used pink and watermelon dodgers with pink hoochies and a ford fender with an orange spinner. Pretty well split on number of Kokes caught on each setup. Other colors were not working for us. What was working for us was our landing ratio to number of bites. After 4 hours, we had 16 bites and 16 fish landed (released 1 small one). Don't think I've ever landed 16 in a row before. Especially with a newbie in the boat. He handled the net superbly! Then we finally lost 2 and then landed a few more. By the time we stopped, we had 21 bites total, with 19 fish landed and 18 kept. Not a ton of bites, but we sure made the most of it. Again, a good day.
On top of this, another friend of mine was there at the same time in his boat (with a buddy). They had a ton more bites (50+), managing to land 15 Kokes. Released one 17" Chinook. They were long-lining using 2 oz weights with pink dodgers and hoochies.

The ups and downs of Kokanee fishing. Crazy but still addicting and fun no matter what!

KokaneeKevin

 

[UncleLucas]

6-27-19---6-28-19

I would like to reiterate basically everything kokaneekevin had to say. We fish yesterday(thur) from 10am-8pm and ended up with 19. Then we fished today from 7am-12:30 and caught 18. A hot bite this am. We caught 7 fish in 30 minutes then it died way off. We caught fish from 20-55ft but most were in the 30-40ft range. Orange was best color today and black/white yesterday. Two highlights of the trip were this am we had all four poles go off and landed all of them. I also caught a nice koke with two hooks and 6 inches of leader in his mouth in the same area I had one break me off earlier. Almost certain it was the same fish. Revenge is SWEET! We did catch a few fish that were starting to turn already. All in all a great trip with beautiful weather and few wake boats.

 

[Pauli]

Hey Uncle Lucas...

What are you guys doing with these large takes of fish. Do you freeze then?....maybe use a seal-a-meal?? I hear that some guys will can them...but I know nothing about that. You could smoke a load of them....but do they go into the freezer after they come out of the smoker? Some guys put the fish (or filets) in a tupperware filled with water and freeze the whole thing in a block of ice. How long will they stay good in the freezer??? Just curious.

Pauli

 

[UncleLucas]

Two years ago we absolutely killed em up there and my parents helped me can a bunch. That will keep forever. I have got in the routine of fileting and smoking them. I eat some, share some and the vaccum seal and freeze the rest.

 

[G3 longliner]

Two years ago we absolutely killed em up there and my parents helped me can a bunch. That will keep forever. I have got in the routine of fileting and smoking them. I eat some, share some and the vaccum seal and freeze the rest.

was at Anderson yesterday Bite was early over by 10am then slow but did get 13- no hogs, biggest was 18 in Had a newbie and still tweaking new down riggers Four boats ahead of us at dam, lot full and overflowing when we got back at 2 - going to be a zoo over the 4th - same - 20-40 ft , watermelon with pink or orange Kokabow spinner hootchies

 

[kodiak1]

Fished yesterday (Monday) and was more than slow. Fishing with both long lines and downriggers. Two fish in the morning. Talked to lots of other trollers, and several were still looking for their first fish, and only one had caught three. The two we caught were at 32 and 35 on the cable. Maybe the slowest day I have ever had at Anderson! Mike

 

[G3 longliner]

Fished yesterday (Monday) and was more than slow. Fishing with both long lines and downriggers. Two fish in the morning. Talked to lots of other trollers, and several were still looking for their first fish, and only one had caught three. The two we caught were at 32 and 35 on the cable. Maybe the slowest day I have ever had at Anderson! Mike

I was there yesterday also - It was tough, marked very few fish, thought my fish finder was broke , all the fish we caught didnt even show on sounder - did end up with 10, biggest 17in, most around 25 ft and a few on longline at 15ft. - Fall creek was dead, caught 5 there and got the others tacking back to dam out in the middle - lost around 10 ( get and goes and a few at the boat)
see no blush on em yet - anything at Curlew / Lime creek area - saw lots of boats coming from there?

 

[fish4kok]

3 days 24 Kok

My wife and I were there from Mon 7/1/19 - Wed 7/3/19
Mon. fish from noon til 7:30 boated 8 Kok, released 2 rainbow trout. Fish from 20 - 25' DR Vance dodger + pink squid and 1 long line pole 1.1.4 oz 80' line out Les Davis 3 blades + green/red WR + white corn. From Deer Creek to Curlew area.

Tues. In the morning (7:30AM - 11:30AM) boated 9 Kok. released 1 small kok and 1-16" rainbow. Same set up DR from 25-30'. After noon (4:00PM - 7:30) boated 2 big kok 1-19", 1-18" with Lur Jensen dodger + pink squids at 40' DR. Curlew area

Wednesday we fished from Deer Creek to Lime Creek boated only 1 Kok in 5 hrs (7:00AM - 12:00PM). After noon we went up to Little Wilson Creek trolled back to Wood Creek we boated 4 more Kok and quit @3:00PM. Long line pole 1.1/2 oz sinker Kokabow watermelon + Hot Devil Sun squid 80' line out, 2 fish caught on L-line pole but lost one close to the boat. DR 37' Vance green dodger + pink squid + white corn.

Total fish took home 24 Kok.

 

[G3 longliner]

My wife and I was there from Mon 7/1/19 - Wed 7/3/19
Mon. fish from noon til 7:30 boated 8 Kok, released 2 rainbow trout. Fish from 20 - 25' DR Vance dodger + pink squid and 1 long line pole 1.1.4 oz 80' line out Les Davis 3 blades + green/red WR + white corn. From Deer Creek to Curlew area.

Tues. In the morning (7:30AM - 11:30AM) boated 9 Kok. released 1 small kok and 1-16" rainbow. Same set up DR from 25-30'. After noon (4:00PM - 7:30) boated 2 big kok 1-19", 1-18" with Lur Jensen dodger + pink squids at 40' DR. Curlew area

Wednesday we fished from Deer Creek to Lime Creek boated only 1 Kok in 5 hrs (7:00AM - 12:00PM). After noon we went up to Little Wilson Creek trolled back to Wood Creek we boated 4 more Kok and quit @3:00PM. Long line pole 1.1/2 oz sinker Kokabow watermelon + Hot Devil Sun squid 80' line out, 2 fish caught on L-line pole but lost one close to the boat. DR 37' Vance green dodger + pink squid + white corn.

Total fish took home 24 Kok.

any reports over the long four day weekend? might go tomorrow

 

[Bassmeet]

We fished Friday and Saturday from 9am- 1pm. Fishing wasn’t as hot as earlier this year, but still managed 10-12 both days (not bad for 4 hours). The quality of fish are great, but did have a couple starting to turn. 25-35ft kokabow watermelon dodger, cut plug orange or pink seemed to produce best for us. Hope this helps.

 

[G3 longliner]

We fished Friday and Saturday from 9am- 1pm. Fishing wasn’t as hot as earlier this year, but still managed 10-12 both days (not bad for 4 hours). The quality of fish are great, but did have a couple starting to turn. 25-35ft kokabow watermelon dodger, cut plug orange or pink seemed to produce best for us. Hope this helps.

Thanks that was about what it was producing when i was there over a week ago Same setup

 

[G3 longliner]

Thanks that was about what it was producing when i was there over a week ago Same setup

Did get 12 yesterday No hogs 16 the largest Five has light meat None has any blush on them so dont know if light meat is due to ready to spawn or the other strain that is in there Caught most tacking back to dam from Fall Creek out in middle- would get one now and then - 25 ft, watermelon, and pink or orange spinner hootchie

 

[UncleLucas]

Thank you to everyone for the updates. We are headed down on Saturday and will post results when we get home.