Big Kokes in Koocanusa....
I've heard tale of 14+ inch Kokes in Koocanusa but have never seen one...until last Saturday.
Buddy and I have been fishing Koocanusa pretty regular this spring, we've made 4 trips so far, catching many nice Bulls and hunting for the elusive Kamloops. Well last Saturday we decide to venture a few miles south of the Bridge. We were marking fish like crazy of all sizes, changing gear, presentation, speed, depth, you name it we tried it...still no Rainbows..BUT what we did find were a few Bulls(no surprise there), and One very mysterious Koke. I was changing gear on my outside Planer Board line, putting on a 4.5" "cop car" Apex and as I was letting it out the planer line I felt this thrum of tugs, then 'swish' the line went south off the release and I had a fish. It was definitely not a Bull, could tell by the pounding..then dead...kept reeling in then the pounding was back...then dead...finally got it to the boat and WOW big (for Koocanusa) Kokanee. I caught a 13.5" Koke on a 4.5" Apex that looked like it could be his little brother.
Strange thing was we picked it up right after we went through one of the hundreds of schools of fish of every size that we marked on the Sonar. My guess is that there may be a class year of Kokes that is bigger than one would expect for Koocanusa, and they aren't foraging in their normal fashion, they're eating fish!!!
If I make it back up there this weekend, I will be testing this theory out!
Good Fishing!
