Lucky Peak Kokes

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We were in the canyon just downstream from spring shores. On Sunday i could have just said "look for all the boats", there were more than a dozen boats in the same spot trolling around. There were two or three boats doing really well, and the only thing I could figure was that the others were just going too fast. I usually alternate faster/slower until I find a good speed, but Sunday I never got any faster than the slowest idle, about .8 to 1.0 mph on the GPS.
 
Sounds like Salmonmonster has it figured out. worthy12worthy12Congrates. I was thinking of making a run up to the canyon, but chose to spend my limited time at the dam. Guess that was a bad call. Will have more time next week to try a few more locations. Guess I will have to put the canyon on the list.
 
We have a group of guys that go on Wednesday afternoons and call it "Men's League". We went up Wednesday after work, fished the same area and only caught 4 on our boat, and each of the other boats caught 3, so they may be on the move.
 
Hit 'em good again today. My wife talked me into sleeping in. We got to the lake around 9:30. Caught two limits of kok's by 1:00. We turned loose as many trout as we kept kokanee. Nice kok's all around 17 inches. We fished near the dam. All fish around 30 feet. We actually had 2 passes through the same spot, both times all 4 downriggers went off, and we landed 7 of the 8. With the net busy, I bassmastered a couple over the rail. One hit my wife in the head. She was not impressed.
 
Very impressive....we worked pretty hard to catch 15 (3 of us) fishing from 9 am up until 5pm....mostly up river from the dam but ended the day with the last 2 by the dam. Ranging from 14 inches to 17 inches. About 45 feet down up in the Canyon.....You should change your name to Salmonmaster
 
Geno, do you have any advice about getting your tires checked before a trip on the freeway? :) Just ribbing you bud...
 
Mojo said:
Geno, do you have any advice about getting your tires checked before a trip on the freeway? :) Just ribbing you bud...
Click to expand...




I've blown a tire or two in my time--but my spare is always full of air.

laugh hyst

Hey, lets test out the new tires on a trip to the Gorge.
 
You guys are hurting my feelings...oh wait..I dont have any. Anyway..Ron there was air in the spare but it was sitting on an old rusty wheel from it's day in Tilamook Bay.

Looks like when you use a boat as much as I do...two years is about all you can get out of new tires on a single axel..oh well...live and learn.
 
LILFISHER said:
If you wern't doing 80 down the freeway that wouldn't happen. LIL fencing
Click to expand...

No Kev, he was talking to me on the phone when it shelled out. I thought he was either going to jail or had witnessed a horrific crash. Good to know it was only a tire.
 
With the weather looking kind of iffy and cold, I thought this would be a good week-end to have the boat in the shop and get all the yearly services performed so there will be one less boat out there this week-end.

Good luck of you are out there!
 
Tough Saturday at Lucky Peak. It rained, it snowed, it blew. We fished near the dam, we fished in the canyon strectch, we fished deep , we fished shallow. We tried almost every color, several types of lures. We had limited success with everything. Hooked quite a few fish, but could only muster 8 kokes in the boat. Some days you get the bear.........
 
My buddy showed me a photo of 2 kokanee that he and a friend caught at lucky peak in 2001. One was 27" and the other was 19". The state record fish is 24.5". They did not realize it at the time.

I've only been fishing for these things for a couple of years, but have not heard of anything anywhere near that big in Lucky Peak. We have yet to see anything bigger than about 18 inches.

Which leads to my question - Is this likely a genetic thing? Are some kokanee 2 year fish and some 3 or 4? or are they all the same and it was related to the food supply relative to the population?
 
A big reason some kokanee sometimes get larger is because they switch feeding from zooplankton to another source. Take Priest Lake and Wallowa L. as examples. When they introduced mysis shrimp, records were regularly broken. At Wallowa, they have broken the state record 6 times since last year. A 7.1 #er was caught last year, and already this year a 7.5 broke the record in Feb. and they just caught a 8.6 pounder breaking the record yet again. But the problem is that the mysis eat the zooplankton, wiping out the primary source of food for the kokes, and then the population collapses as it did at Priest in northern Idaho. Fortunately, the shrimp planted in Payette didn't survive, or the lakers would be history. Only some kokanee switch over to the mysis, thus only a small number of behemouth kokanee. The mysis seemed like a great idea at the time, but sometimes you just shouldn't fool with Mother Nature!! Mike
 
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salmonster said:
My buddy showed me a photo of 2 kokanee that he and a friend caught at lucky peak in 2001. One was 27" and the other was 19". The state record fish is 24.5". They did not realize it at the time.

I've only been fishing for these things for a couple of years, but have not heard of anything anywhere near that big in Lucky Peak. We have yet to see anything bigger than about 18 inches.

Which leads to my question - Is this likely a genetic thing? Are some kokanee 2 year fish and some 3 or 4? or are they all the same and it was related to the food supply relative to the population?
Click to expand...

Salmonster,
Kokanee usually take four years to mature and spawn. But like other salmon, some will hold over an additional year before spawning. This is one way they are able to survive through drought years or several poor water conditions in a row. In order to reach record size you need a combination of good genetics, optimal food supply and the additional year before spawning can certainly be of benefit. Kodiak I's explanation is another variable to the trophy koke's development.
 
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pictures

salmonster said:
My buddy showed me a photo of 2 kokanee that he and a friend caught at lucky peak in 2001. One was 27" and the other was 19". The state record fish is 24.5". They did not realize it at the time.

I've only been fishing for these things for a couple of years, but have not heard of anything anywhere near that big in Lucky Peak. We have yet to see anything bigger than about 18 inches.

Which leads to my question - Is this likely a genetic thing? Are some kokanee 2 year fish and some 3 or 4? or are they all the same and it was related to the food supply relative to the population?
Click to expand...

It would be great to see that photo. Is there anyway you can post it up on here for all of us to see and dream? Also, wondering if anyone has gone up to Arrowrock this spring. Last year we went up there and caught some 18" fish very early in the season. Seemed like the fish were bigger up there for some reason, but we got tired of the squaw fish. Wondering if these whoppers you speak up spent a period of their life in Arrowrock water growing and then got sucked through to Lucky Peak. Just another thought to ponder.
Also Kokanee are density dependent. Less fish = more food = bigger fish. More fish = less food = smaller fish. Has anyone looked at the stocking rates 1997-2001? Any thoughts?
Lucky
 

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