Hayden Lake Kokanee

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I haven't been out yet. I remember it being pretty decent fishing this time last year, but that was after a very mild winter. I might expect the bite to turn on in a few weeks.
 
Fished Hayden yesterday. Lost more than caught but managed to nearly limit. Most fish were smaller in the 11"-12" range but caught a few 15" so can't complain much. Beautiful day not many boats. Trolled at 29' - 75'. All fish were caught at 29' weird...
Orange Trout Killer with E chip not my go to lure but I tried a lot of others, both spinners and apex to no avail.
 
View attachment 8402 after reading the reports I went out to give Hayden a try guess Fish and Game went a little over board (05/07/2015 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 150,192 )on the stocking fish are way smaller than
ever before in this lake.. Why not keep it a trophy Kokanee lake like it has been
 
fish in picture were the big ones... I thru about 8-11 back because they were about 6 -7 inches long. a guy at the dock was talking about a giant kokanee, so I took a look and it and actually TAPED it a 14 inches ! not the same lake as the last 4-5 years.. I just don't understand we have small Kokanee in most big lakes in North Idaho. why manage Hayden Lake Kokanee to be just average.... guess ill go to Keller and catch a 2 kokanee limit. ohh boy what fun.. When Hayden started producing trophy Kokanee of a life time. I went out and bought a boat, motor, trailer, and thousands of dollars of gear. I was so excited to have this great Kokanee in my back yard. Thanks you so much Idaho F&G. Time and time again this agency gets greedy and just had to try and make it a little better, and lost an outstanding large Kokanee fishery in in the process....be interested in seeing the lost revenue in the area. compared to March last year i was seeing plates form all over now not so much. Back in the 1950's 60's and 70's this was some of the best open water trolling in the state. now those fish are long gone given up on. Now thanks to fish and game we have a lake full of micro small mouth bass... give it a few years and the kokanee will not be worth catching. oh and by the way Early Spawner Kokanee can naturally reproduce in this lake I guess their is more underground out flow in Hayden that the biologists GUESSED !! just like their GUESS in the early 80's about lake CDA Chinook not being able to reproduce. I was at the meeting where F@G told the public they would never reproduce.
 
sorry for my first post being so negative. this is not how I normally am I just felt like everyone needed to know
 
Last edited:
Robbie;
I don't think you were negative, the facts hurt sometimes. I am totally with you in your opinion of Hayden. I have been fishing Hayden since they first planted kok's there and have seen the decline as well. I wonder if they aren't planting too many fry and the food supply is being depleted. I generally catch and release the fish so I would much rather they plant less fish and manage it as a trophy kokanee fishery. Keep the limit to 2 or 4 fish but they would be quality fish. Maybe add a minimum size limit. It is my understanding they started planting 100k each year. That was great the first couple of years but every year there after the average size has been declining.
 
Date Stocked

Species Type

Size

Number
Stocked

05/07/2015 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 150,192
06/06/2014 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 67,388
06/05/2014 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 82,615
06/14/2013 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 104,238
09/24/2013 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 38,750
06/13/2012 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 101,553
06/15/2011 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 99,965


This is the stocking info for Hayden Lake for the last 5 years. Everyone can have their own opinion but I am not sure how you can say that Idaho Fish and Game is being Greedy! They have basically stocked the lake the same every year. We all want to catch big Kokanee, but I would not blame fish and game. The first few years a fish is introduced to a lake will be the most productive years....i.e. we had great big kokanee, now they are declining in size but these fish should still be nice fat 14-16" fish when they mature. I know that isn't 17-20" but it's not too bad. I think if they knew how to keep them big they would do it. So far this year the ones I have caught have been smaller on average, but they have been 11-13" and they eat good, with nice red meat. Can't say that for CDA or Pend Oreille, those fish have pale meat color and don't have any flavor! I will say that if there is a way to keep the fish size up I am all for it.
 
If they only planted 50k and the limit was 2 fish would you be OK with that?

KokaneeHunter said:
Date Stocked

Species Type

Size

Number
Stocked

05/07/2015 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 150,192
06/06/2014 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 67,388
06/05/2014 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 82,615
06/14/2013 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 104,238
09/24/2013 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 38,750
06/13/2012 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 101,553
06/15/2011 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 99,965


This is the stocking info for Hayden Lake for the last 5 years. Everyone can have their own opinion but I am not sure how you can say that Idaho Fish and Game is being Greedy! They have basically stocked the lake the same every year. We all want to catch big Kokanee, but I would not blame fish and game. The first few years a fish is introduced to a lake will be the most productive years....i.e. we had great big kokanee, now they are declining in size but these fish should still be nice fat 14-16" fish when they mature. I know that isn't 17-20" but it's not too bad. I think if they knew how to keep them big they would do it. So far this year the ones I have caught have been smaller on average, but they have been 11-13" and they eat good, with nice red meat. Can't say that for CDA or Pend Oreille, those fish have pale meat color and don't have any flavor! I will say that if there is a way to keep the fish size up I am all for it.
Click to expand...
 
Kokanee Hunter you posted "They have basically stocked the lake the same every year" My calculator shows ? based on data in your post, they stocked an extra 50,000 fish in the lake since the original 2011 stocking. that jumps the population of Kokanee from 26.3 fish per acre to 39.5 all looking for food together. and the fact that there are 3 different age class of kokanee, one of which is smaller than the fish they stock, is a whole different argument.. One I will save for the next public input fish and game meeting. and when I say "GREEDY" someone is making money on the parking permits.. and until Hayden Kokanee showed up, the pay to launch machine was unused in the late winter early spring till July. I an not seeing the out of state guys this year either, equals lost local business. sad sad sad
KokaneeHunter said:
Date Stocked

Species Type

Size

Number
Stocked

05/07/2015 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 150,192
06/06/2014 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 67,388
06/05/2014 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 82,615
06/14/2013 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 104,238
09/24/2013 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 38,750
06/13/2012 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FRY (0-3 inches) 101,553
06/15/2011 EARLY SPAWNER KOKANEE FINGERLING (3-6 inches) 99,965


This is the stocking info for Hayden Lake for the last 5 years. Everyone can have their own opinion but I am not sure how you can say that Idaho Fish and Game is being Greedy! They have basically stocked the lake the same every year. We all want to catch big Kokanee, but I would not blame fish and game. The first few years a fish is introduced to a lake will be the most productive years....i.e. we had great big kokanee, now they are declining in size but these fish should still be nice fat 14-16" fish when they mature. I know that isn't 17-20" but it's not too bad. I think if they knew how to keep them big they would do it. So far this year the ones I have caught have been smaller on average, but they have been 11-13" and they eat good, with nice red meat. Can't say that for CDA or Pend Oreille, those fish have pale meat color and don't have any flavor! I will say that if there is a way to keep the fish size up I am all for it.
Click to expand...
 
Robbie Curtis said:
Kokanee Hunter you posted "They have basically stocked the lake the same every year" My calculator shows ? based on data in your post, they stocked an extra 50,000 fish in the lake since the original 2011 stocking. that jumps the population of Kokanee from 26.3 fish per acre to 39.5 all looking for food together. and the fact that there are 3 different age class of kokanee, one of which is smaller than the fish they stock, is a whole different argument.. One I will save for the next public input fish and game meeting. and when I say "GREEDY" someone is making money on the parking permits.. and until Hayden Kokanee showed up, the pay to launch machine was unused in the late winter early spring till July. I an not seeing the out of state guys this year either, equals lost local business. sad sad sad
Click to expand...

To be clear the launch and parking fees go to the city of Hayden not the game dept. IMO the F&G likes all of the additional licenses sold. If this was really a trophy fishery they would sell a lot of license to avid Kok fishermen from out of state. Look at the interest Roosevelt gets in the winter because of the quality of the fish there.
 
I know the fish at Hayden are smaller - but:
I don't see how anybody can whine about catching 12-14" kokes at Hayden. If you know your beans you can limit in a couple hours and later in the season they will be bigger yet (If you can suffer the wakeboard boats and jet skis)and you will do even better. No, you cannot compare the quality of the fish to Roosevelt fish but they only allow fish 2 limit - long way for 2 kokes - but a hoot.
PS: Don't even go there about the rainbow or walleyes.
Life is too short to complain about fishin. Would you rather be workin?
Just sayin...
 
Guess I might as well chime in on this too. First of all I don't think Idaho fish and Game is greedy. Idaho has awesome programs going that I as a Washington resident enjoy. Do I like paying a hundred bucks for a license, no but that is the way it is. Do I like paying DOUBLE for the launch at Hayden and other places in Kootenai County because I am non-resident NO!! That seems overboard to me. But all of that said look at Washington Fish and Game launch sites; no docks and very poor launches in general so we are at the very least getting something for our money in Idaho.

The kokanee fisheries are cyclical for size in most lakes that have them. Lots of variables cause this. I agree with salmonriverrick the fish at Hayden are presently smaller but look at how many you get to put in the smoker! I do go for the Roosevelt kokes but the two fish limit is hard after all of the effort it takes to get down there. On the other hand it is a trophy fishery to be experienced and I am thankful to be privileged to get to do it. As far as the Idaho F&G oops; I have talked with the fish biologist at Roosevelt and the Idaho kokes are highly identifiable genetically because they are a different strain. They are called "earlies" because they mature a year sooner. That also makes them smaller than the Roosevelt kokes. Very few have shown up in the lower Lake Roosevelt fishery we are currently experiencing. The fish checkers are collecting heads from Roosevelt fish from fishermen to check to see if there are unclipped hatchery fish. They can look at the ear bone and tell if it was really raised in the hatchery.

As for me I am just thankful to have such great fisheries here in the Northwest. Many thanks to all who make it possible!

Tight lines all and yes I would rather be fishin' than workin' - Alan thumbsup
 
Yes, I realize it is 50k more fish per year but it is still close to what they have done in the past, especially when you factor in the amount of fish that are removed by angler harvest (because there are a lot of people fishing for these fish). Give it a month and this lake will be packed on the first nice weekend, heck if the weather is nice this weekend I would be willing to bet that there will be a large number of people out fishing for kokanee. As far a the launch fee, that is city of Hayden. There still are some bigger ones out there, I have caught some in the 14-16" range this year. You can go to Roosevelt and get your 2 fish at 20" for a total of 40" or get 15 fish at 12" for a total of 180"....just saying, you choose.

As far as the size difference, any thoughts on the difference in them planting fry vs fingerlings?
 
success

salmonriverrick said:
I know the fish at Hayden are smaller - but:
I don't see how anybody can whine about catching 12-14" kokes at Hayden. If you know your beans you can limit in a couple hours and later in the season they will be bigger yet (If you can suffer the wakeboard boats and jet skis)and you will do even better. No, you cannot compare the quality of the fish to Roosevelt fish but they only allow fish 2 limit - long way for 2 kokes - but a hoot.
PS: Don't even go there about the rainbow or walleyes.
Life is too short to complain about fishin. Would you rather be workin?
Just sayin...
Click to expand...

I guess each persons definition of success is different. My definition of success is not to "get a limit" regardless of what size they are. I own a place on Hayden and practice catch and release most of the time so I do not care how many pounds I end each day with but I am much more rewarded with a 20" fish than 6, 8, 10 or even 20 12" fish. There is more than enough opportunity to catch small fish all over N. Idaho I want to see a trophy fishery.
 
this is exactly what I am getting at.
clawman said:
I guess each persons definition of success is different. My definition of success is not to "get a limit" regardless of what size they are. I own a place on Hayden and practice catch and release most of the time so I do not care how many pounds I end each day with but I am much more rewarded with a 20" fish than 6, 8, 10 or even 20 12" fish. There is more than enough opportunity to catch small fish all over N. Idaho I want to see a trophy fishery.
Click to expand...
 
Rich Landers: Wild kokanee drive the limit at Lake Roosevelt THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

By Rich Landers
[email protected]
(509) 459-5508


Thanks to Idaho, Anglers have been hooking a bumper crop of kokanee in Lake Roosevelt since last year. Unfortunately, they’ve had to release most of the delicious land-locked sockeyes.
“Almost every one we catch has an unclipped adipose fin,” said Clarence Rief, a Davenport-area kokanee enthusiast, who said he’s concerned about the waste.
“We can keep only fin-clipped hatchery kokanee. But I know a lot of those fish we’re releasing don’t survive.”
Colville Tribe biologists have tested and linked the increase of kokanee in Roosevelt to the rebound of Lake Pend Oreille kokanee, which are unmarked. Fishermen can keep up to five kokanee a day from the Roosevelt, the Columbia River reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam, but only two of them can be unmarked.
The rule was established to protect Roosevelt’s wild strain of kokanee, said Chris Donley, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife inland lakes manager.
The situation is similar to restrictions on fishing for salmon and steelhead elsewhere in the region.
“We want hatchery fish to be caught, but we have to regulate to protect the wild fish,” he said. Rief caught Washington’s record kokanee, 6.25 pounds, from Roosevelt in 2003. But the kokanee fishery has had many ups and downs since then. Net-pen releases of kokanee ended around 2005 in favor of direct releases from the Spokane Tribal Hatchery.
Production of kokanee from the tribal hatchery has been dramatically reduced in recent years, from about 500,000 in 2010 to about 200,000 in 2013.
Last year, no kokanee were produced and released into Roosevelt because of a disease outbreak, said hatchery manger Tim Peone.
This year, about 85,000 kokanee will be raised, fin-clipped and released, he said.
“When we were releasing smaller fish, predators like walleye and bass got most of them,” Peone said.
“By raising fewer fish to larger sizes – four to a pound this year – we hope to get more fish into the angler creel.”
This year marks a new program in which the hatchery kokanee will be“triploids,” that is, sterile. Peone said this should help them grow larger faster and be more resistant than previous hatchery fish to following their sea-running instincts and heading downstream through Grand Coulee Dam.
“These fish will be released at Fort Spokane-Seven Bays area and will be showing up in angler harvest by July,” he said.
“Our goal is for 100 percent harvest. We want these fish to be caught.”
Less emphasis on kokanee stems from years of research showing that Roosevelt kokanee are a poor investment of fisheries mitigation funding from the Bonneville Power Administration for impacts caused by Grand Coulee Dam. Changes in dam operations have increased drawdowns in many years, leaving the eggs of naturally spawning kokanee high and dry.
Hatchery kokanee were found to be significantly impacted by predators or flushed downstream. The money is better spent, researchers say, on raising rainbow trout in net pens.
But some hatchery kokanee effort continues because the tribes have a cultural link to salmon and the fish support other wildlife. In addition, anglers love to catch and eat them.
The increase of kokanee in Lake Roosevelt starting last year is the result of kokanee restoration in Lake Pend Oreille as well as good numbers at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Donley said.
Fish researchers working with the Colville Tribe have been able to link fish from the big schools in Roosevelt to upstream Idaho sources, he said.
“They’re not the big 19- to 21-inch kokanee that Roosevelt anglers are used to,” he said. “They’re smaller fish, running 14-16 inches.
“There’s a lot of them. Good fishermen can catch 20 a day and they’d like to keep more of them, but the Idaho fish are unclipped.
“If we had a way for anglers to positively ID the Idaho fish, we’d let them keep more of them, but we have to protect the Lake Roosevelt-origin wild kokanee.”
Donley said he understands the frustration of anglers who catch mostly unclipped kokanee.
“I went through it while fishing this winter, too,” he said. “We’d get into massive schools where we could catch kokanee at will, but it’s no different than Puget Sound chinook: the number of wild fish – the lowest abundance stock – drives the limit.
“There are more kokanee in Roosevelt than we’ve seen in a long time. Only a fraction are marked.”
Limits could be changed, possibly on the basis of size, if this year’s abundance of kokanee became consistent, Donley said.
“But this could be just a one- or two-year event,” he said.
Responding to anglers who say the kokanee they release aren’t surviving, Donley is direct: “Catch two kokanee and stop,” he said. “Go on to other fish. If it’s in the summer and you’re going deep to catch kokanee, troll closer to the surface after you catch two unclipped kokanee and you’ll be in the rainbow zone.”
The challenge for fisheries managers is getting anglers to value the fishery as it is. The option is a flat two-kokanee limit, as it is downstream in Lake Rufus Woods.
“You can reduce hooking mortality on kokanee by releasing them in the water and avoiding a net which just knocks scales off,” Donley said.
“But the best way conserve what we have is to catch two and stop.
 

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