Antero 12/20/09 & 12/22/09 Ice fishing

[niteskies]

Was at Antero Sunday and Tuesday. On Sunday the fishing was a little slower, we tried a new spot on the flats in front of the dam, We were fishing for trout and mid morning I hooked a kokanee on an orange/white jig tipped with wax worm. On Tuesday my son was with me and we did better catching 9 fish, 5 trout and 4 kokanee. I have not done much ice fishing for kokanee and so I am still in the learning stage on Kokanee ice fishing. The CDOW started stocking kokanee in Antero a couple of years ago and there was some doubt about how well the kokanee would do since Antero is only about 15-16 feet deep and can get a thick weed growth in the summer months. It is good to see the kokanee are now 10-13 inches in size and should continue to grow. A few pieces of advice I have picked up so far. A jigging machine that jigs a couple strings of cow bells up and down helps attract the kokanee to you. Pink is of course a great color choice, Smaller jigs than you would use for jigging in open water and tip the jig with shoepeg corn or wax worm. If anyone has any other pointers on kokanee ice fishing that would be great. I might start a thread on the general discussion forum asking about ice fishing for kokanee.

Thanks,
niteskies

 

[SmokeOnTheWater]

And you're asking for tips. Nice tip from you about using a string of cowbells as an attractor, only stands to reason. I'll definitely try them next time.

 

[silverkoke]

nice kokes , if you dont mind me asking were you on the north or south side of the dam

 

[niteskies]

South side. With all of the weed beds in Antero it helps to find a clear spot so the fish can see your jig. On my most recent Antero outing on 12/28 the kokanee were not biting, but I did hook into some nice trout. On the 12/28 trip from the south shore I went out about 1/4 of the way along the face of the dam and fairly close to the dam in only 11 feet of water. It was a cold morning -20 at 6:45 am when I got to the lake and I did not want to walk any further.

niteskies