Payette and Little Payette Kokes

[IDHUNTER]

Hi Guys,
I recently moved to McCall and I'm looking for a little info on fishing Kokanee in Payette or Little Payette lake. I see they have been stocking the big lake with pretty good numbers of kokanee over the last 4-5 years but are they growing into decent sized fish? What is a good time of year to fish for them? Thanks in advance for any advice you can pass my way!

 

[Physion]

I think most of the kokanee feed the mackinaw (lake trout) in Payette Lake. A number of years ago I did fairly well on the lake. I still try a couple of days a summer for old times' sake, but have had little success. June and early July were the preferred times when I was able to find them.

 

[kok-head]

Hi Guys,
I recently moved to McCall and I'm looking for a little info on fishing Kokanee in Payette or Little Payette lake. I see they have been stocking the big lake with pretty good numbers of kokanee over the last 4-5 years but are they growing into decent sized fish? What is a good time of year to fish for them? Thanks in advance for any advice you can pass my way!

From what I've seen Physion is correct, my buddy does get into some kokanee each year and the fish usually range 10-12", I'm sure there are bigger ones in there but I just never hear of them being caught

 

[ricks]

I've done a number of days on Little Payette. Kokanee there are always on the small size, lot of 10 and under, mostly under. But the lake is also fun to fish for kokanee and to take a break and go for some bass. The bass fishin can rock. It is a trophy lake, so only big bass can be keepers. Never been skunked on Kokanee. Which is nice. Other than last fall when we showed up on friday night only to see Fish and Game had drained the lake down to where the ramp was 200 plus yards from the water!

I have never been able to catch a Koke on Payette.

Rick

 

[ricks]

Fished Little Payette sunday. Didn’t bother firing off the main motor, just the outboard. Started trolling soon as we were in 25 foot of water. We were hitting all poles in little bursts of action. Mostly in 25-30 foot of water running long lines with no weight. Worked toward the dam along the far side of the canyon. Closer to the dam, slower the fishing. We were marking fish at 50 ft in deeper water, but never got a hit on deep downriggers. Went back to the shallows and started hitting again. Boated 15 fish in 2 hours. I never saw the schools on the finder that were hitting in the shallows.

Rick

 

[MaGoo]

Little Payette

Fish Little Payette one day last week when in McCall. Made a mistake fishing alone using two down riggers. I just could not kept up with fish. About the time I got them down to 20' I had a fish. Just wasted time using the down riggers. The fish were very aggressive, hook some in the side and belly. Fish from 8:00 AM to about 10:30. Pick up around 12 fish by 9:30 then it stopped, not a strike for the next hour. All very small 9" to 10" a lot with eggs, none turning red yet. Have not had that many strikes in one and half hours all year.
MaGoo

 

[ricks]

Now that is a perfect description of a one armed paper hanger. Sure is weird how fast the fish will stop hitting. Been there a couple times on Little Payette. All asses and elbows and then, kaboom, nuthin.

Thanks for the report. Nice to know it's still happening.

Rick

 

[KokaneeJoe]

Anyone tried Little Payette This Year?

 

[ricks]

I went a couple weeks ago. With Dworshak so poor I figured it was Little Payette's turn to be good. We saw only one school, dead middle of the canyon at about 25-30'. Caught one lousy 8 incher for the day, noticed no hits on the line nor any loses - I think it literally was just the one fish hit any of our lines.. The finder was so light on returns that I wondered if I was in the right lake. I ran downriggers and lon

Rick

 

[MaGoo]

I was at McCall last week. Fished on July 7 only, from 6:30 to around 10:00 AM. May have seen total of 15 total fish on the finder, did not get one strike. Last year I could not land them fast enough. One other boat trolling, and one just at the launch as I was leaving. However he was going for bass.
MaGoo

 

[John123987]

Anyone fished it this year?

 

[Bassmeet]

????

Anyone fished it this year?

I'm in McCall for the week. Anyone fish up here this year??

 

[hooknhunter]

I ice fish LP every year. I've caught several Kokes, but the big ones were about 7-8 inches (if that). I don't know if you can catch bigger ones in the summertime or not. I'd sure like to hear about it if you can........

I've never actually gone up and targeted Kokes on the softwater.

 

[Bassmeet]

Little Payette Kokes

Fished little Payette for 3 hours. Hooked over 50 fish. In fact I had triples on atleast 5 different times. Sorry to say that every single one of them were under 10 inches. I tried everything to get to bigger fish, but no luck. Not sure if this is typical of this lake or not, but that is what I found. All of the other boats out there were targeting bass or tiger Muskie.

 

[hooknhunter]

Fished little Payette for 3 hours. Hooked over 50 fish. In fact I had triples on atleast 5 different times. Sorry to say that every single one of them were under 10 inches. I tried everything to get to bigger fish, but no luck. Not sure if this is typical of this lake or not, but that is what I found. All of the other boats out there were targeting bass or tiger Muskie.

what you saw matches my experience

 

[hooknhunter]

Fished Little Payette Saturday from about 10 to 4. Took me a while to figure out the depth of the fish, where they were hanging out, and what they were liking, but once I did it was pretty good action. Biggest fish might have gone 10 inches, MAYBE. They seemed to come of reallllllllly easy there. I'm guessing due to the small size. A couple of them had a very light reddish hue, but I didn't get any bright red ones. Came home with around a dozen or so. Should make good bait for somewhere with big fish......... Also pulled up about a dozen NPM's.

8oz torpedo weight followed by a Kokabow Black Eagle, a snubber, a Pink Ice Tail Feather (3.75 inch), and a pink/clear P-line mini reaction squid was by far the best string I could come up with.

If you have a recipe for home canned sardines, I'm waiting........