Koke conditions

[Metal Manipulator]

For those of you that are catching the early kokes. I was wondering what condition the fish are in? Recently I caught a few at GP and here are the observations on the condition of the fish.

Size ranged from 11" to 13.25"

They did not appear to be very fat.

Their stomach contents varied from a sculpin to absolutely nothing in their stomachs or intestinal tracks. It seems that they are not eating.

The flesh is only slightly colored pink and lacking in flavor.

Is it too early to catch them or is GP fish genetics and their environment not conducive for quality fish early in the season.


What are the conditions of Kokanee that you have caught from other lakes?

 

[Lip Ripper]

This is normal for the fish in early spring at GP. Once the water warms up and there is more allegory in the water they will start putting on weight. 101chromefish101

 

[kokaneekid]

Hey Thanks for the picture, I'm getting excited that the fish are 13” this early in the season. tooexcited I’m with Lip Ripper It’s still early in the season, and we haven’t had any warm weather yet. The water at GP is still very cold, and will need to warm up to give the fish a better food source. Don’t worry, the fish look bigger now than they did in early May last year, and I have a good feeling that we could have some big kok’s by June just in time for the Kokanee Power Derby.

Fish On kokaneekid

 

[Fishin-RN]

Very encouraging! thanks for taking the pics and posting them!

Can't say much for other lakes but each is so unique. Just takes the right conditions for the fish to start feeding and the fishing to get going.

 

[Cheshire49]

Detroit Lake fishing

I'm new to this, but thought I'd toss in. Went to Detroit lake 04-08-2011. We launched at Mongold and trolled towards Piety island and the Santiam Arm. Used "wedding-ring" style spinners (made them ourselves) tipped with nightcrawlers and one with "GULP" brand maggots/grubs. We used between 1/2 oz and 3/4 oz bananna weights. I would further describe tackle and conditions, but I just don't think the fish cared as long as there was a worm involved.

We started getting a few strikes in 50-70 feet of water along the midpoint of Piety Island. Finally landed a couple of Hatchery trout. Got more strikes and more trout as we neared the Detroit Flats Day Use Area. We trolled further up the Santiam Arm and caught a few here and there, water depth didn't seem to matter, but we seemed to have better luck in shallower water (20-40'). The hatchery trout were skinny; they all went home with one person for smoking.
Water temperature was about 45.5 degrees (cooler at the boat launch).

I had been using the GULP brand "maggots" or grubs to tip my hooks and only had one hit that I noticed, so I switched to worms and started catching fish. One of those fish was a 12.5" trout that seemed to have been in the lake for some time. It was noticeably fatter than the other trout (did I mention they were skinny? They were skinny) and its flesh was a satisfying pink/salmon color.

One of my partners hooked a 12.5" Kokanee just off the Detroit Flats area, so I put a second rod (gotta love that 2-rod endorsement!) in the water using a downrigger and fishing at about 20 feet with a dodger and hoochie (actually a mini-tube) rig. I got two trout on the downrigger (strangely enough, the lure was tipped with GULP maggots). The 12.5" kokanee was in good shape; seemed chunky and its meat was nice and pink. We caught two smaller kokanee (one about 10 inches, the other about 9") which didn't have much color to them. We tossed back one even smaller kokanee (7"?). All the kokes were caught with the spinner/worm combo.

We caught our limits (5 each for three anglers) in a 4 or 5 hours of fishing. It would have taken less time if we hadn't trolled from the boat ramp to the flats area where we caught the fish. The fish finder showed scattered fish in the arm, with a few concentrations along the steep shore area across from the flats in the Santiam arm. We anchored and tried worms and power bait where we saw one concentration in about 30' of water, but only had one trout and a few nibbles.

I have heard that the best place this time of year for kokanee is at the log boom by the dam. I haven't tried it, yet. In decades past I have actually caught kokes FROM the dam and seen them caught. In the past I have seen them close to 16". That was decades ago, but it seems the potential is there, especially with a 12.5" fish this early in the year.

Next trip will probably be to Green Peter.

 

[Petty4life]

now thats a report Cheshire49, keep them coming and welcome to KFF

 

[halojm]

Nice report. Glad someone is getting to drop a line for some kok's. My boat is still shrinkwrappd due to weather conditions. Been snowing for three days straight here. First derby in just 4 weeks. better get soe better weather. Keep the reports coming.

 

[sjones]

Nice report

I dove at Piety Knob on the 6th and the H2O was 41.1 deg. so water temp must be coming up that is good news. We saw no fish but we were not look for those.

 

[Cheshire49]

Water temp

Just to emphasize that my water temp readings were surface readings. I think the temp. along piety island was a degree or so cooler than in the flats.
I've never seen anyone diving (scuba?) in Detroit. Watch out for those man-eating catfish!

 

[sjones]

Temp

I was up there for Marrion Co. SO. and that was my first dive at Detroit. It was snowing blowing and not very nice. But the lake was interesting. We were told the water had come up 4-5 ft in the last 2-3 days ( on the 6th ). Underwater vis. was 7-8 ft. which I thought was great. Also something that is cool is that the County uses Con-Crews to clean the place up fairly often so there was very little litter on the bottom down to 50 ish ft. (we did not dive further). We don't usually see fish so I can't comment on that. On a better note I do hope to fish it some time soon but know very little about the lake. Thanks for the report.

Sean