2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

[tonyd]

From Lucky Peak? Nah, I WISH!!

However July 20 - August 16 is the season for chinook fishing, you would be fishing along the river banks though at places like the clear water, salmon river etc.


I would recommend renting a boat, but the whole point is just getting out there right? But its always better if you're catching them

Ok thanks. Can't wait to get out there and experience real fishing. I bet the trout tastes really good.

[Snakeriver]

Went up yesterday from 4 to 7Pm. Not a bump they didn't wanna play I guess. Anyone know of a good spot to drop crawfish traps up there?

[gdub]

Went to arrowrock Tuesday evening, started fishing about 630, 3 pike minnows, 4 nice trout, not one Koke or what even seemed like a bite. Is arrowrock done for the season? Fished between the boat ramp and the dam.

[terek]

headed up in a few hours to curlew for the weekend. I hope its better than 2 weeks ago at my wedding. I think we went home with 10. Granted the wedding took up a lot of time, but easily had 10 hrs total on the water for the weekend. I hear they are deep. Anyone been up since Monday? Mabe a tip on depth and colors? See ya'll up there. Blue chevy, red tracker, pop up camper, and a horde of kids

[Narrs]

Just got back after fishing Anderson Monday- Thursday. Early morning started at 80 feet moving to 100 later in the day. Nice big fish just starting to change. Did not seem to matter what gear was used. Mornings seemed best with not much action after 11am.

[rjurries]

Went up yesterday from 4 to 7Pm. Not a bump they didn't wanna play I guess. Anyone know of a good spot to drop crawfish traps up there?

went Wed. with friend and landed 8 Koks most 16-18 in. a little blush but ate good maybe 2 weeks left

[crappieslayer]

I tried Anderson for two days last weekend and only caught 1 fish. A 4 1/2lb Squawfish.. Got him at 75ft..

[crappieslayer]

I've tried Spring Shores area 4 times in the past few weeks and only caught 1 8" koke. 1 pole has a fluorescent pink sling blade with a pink hootchie 10 to 12" behind with shoepeg. Other pole has fluorescent blue sling blades (one larger one small) with a pro troll about 12" behind with shoepeg, trolling one at 10 - 18' and the other at 20-28' trolling speed varied between 1.3 to 1.5. Marking lots of fish, but not catching. I have my hooks 12 - 14" from blade. What do I have to do to catch a Koke or two.. :) They won't let me use my Dupont bait..

[fish4kok]

Greeting to all,
I'm a new member of this forum! Just say hi to everyone in this forum.
My wife and I like to fish for Kokanee since 1990. We fish from Deadwood reservoir, Dworshack reservoir, Anderson Ranch, Lucky Peak...
We went to Anderson res. couple times this year. On July 16 ~ 17 we took home 35 Kok from 14" to 18" and 1 21" Chinook weight 4lbs 5oz. Fishing at 75' deep with dodger and pink signature squid.
We were there on Thurs. and Fri. July 23 &24 and camp at Curlew. Fishing were slow! Alot of changing lures... and depth range...We caught 15 total on both days. There were couple 12" and the rest from 15 up to 17".
The water level is low, it seem like they drop a foot a day. There were a trailer camper sucked in the mud when the driver drove close to the water edge. I saw a big towing truck next morning.
Hopefully we will have more time go to fishing at Anderson next year.

[DeltaDude]

went up to Macks, got 1 trout, no other bites.

Caught the trout on orange spinner hoochie long line.

Nothing on the downrigger with dodger, hoochie/kokabow spinner "tried chartreuse, orange, pink/purple mix"

Also tried from 15ft - 20ft - 25ft

Was marking a few fish, but none hitting.

[bayhorse]

Thanks for the report and welcome! Hopefully next years will be as great as this year has been.

[callelk]

Picked up six today, one pikeminnow, two trout and a koke at Macks, kept one trout and fed the fishes with the pikeminnow. Two more koke's right at Browns. One was a keeper the other was about 10", the same size as the first one I turned loose.

The two small koke's were at 15' with the larger on a longline. All were caught with pop gear and spinners.

The koke's were still very dark w/silver so if they cooperate, we may have a few weeks left.

Someone decided to borrow the caps to my guide-ons' from my trailer....very big of them.

[DeltaDude]

Picked up six today, one pikeminnow, two trout and a koke at Macks, kept one trout and fed the fishes with the pikeminnow. Two more koke's right at Browns. One was a keeper the other was about 10", the same size as the first one I turned loose.

The two small koke's were at 15' with the larger on a longline. All were caught with pop gear and spinners.

The koke's were still very dark w/silver so if they cooperate, we may have a few weeks left.

Someone decided to borrow the caps to my guide-ons' from my trailer....very big of them.

Thanks for the tip, we picked up that trout where you said it would be.

Couldn't for the life of me get bites, not sure if I was using the wrong dodger or what, going out tomorrow, might try the dam area and use a wedding ring.

[callelk]

Thanks for the tip, we picked up that trout where you said it would be.

Couldn't for the life of me get bites, not sure if I was using the wrong dodger or what, going out tomorrow, might try the dam area and use a wedding ring.

Not a problem, I thought I read somewhere that you liked Rainbows...

Try 100-120' back with small (mini T) ford fenders and orange wedding ring with silver blade. That and the same wedding ring with orange Kokabow in-flight (eagle) trolls have been the ticket most of the year. Put the corn on the front hook if you are using the two-hook style.

If not try a gold double-D dodger set to #1 or #4 in front of an orange wedding ring style spinner with your DR at 7' with an 80' setback. Don't run too short of leader with spinners and pop gear! Earlier this year I was running 56" and I am down to 36" now on most but no shorter than 24" on any of my smallest wedding rings..

[crappieslayer]

Went back to basics with a kokanee troll, and a pink. Hootchie. Caught one nice 18" koke, and my girlfriend caught a 13". Only fished a few hours..

[DeltaDude]

I caught the one rainbow about 14" back

and have been fishing behind the dodger about the same distance, so you think I should go further back on the long line or both long line and dodger?

Someday I'd like to sit and pick your brain a bit, or if you have any images of your setup "not that I want to copy you " but I do enjoy the science behind trolling.


I run my line 50' back on my downrigger, then about 15-20' down. Leader is about 10-14" depending on the lure.

Also, kokanee, rainbows, they're all the same to me :) I like rainbows i like their fight, but I am getting into the kokes!

[kok-head]

Fished for about 1.5hrs this evening til around 6pm, had 6 pop loose from the releases and boated 3 of them, 13-15" fish, 31' and 34' on the riggers, 2 were bright silver but the bigger fish was turning, caught them all at the island right in the middle of the wake surfers

[hooked]

Went out yesterday, 9-ish am to 2. Didn't have much luck, and hit all the places we've caught at before from Curlew to the dam. The depth finder had returns all over the water column, from 20 to 80, but couldn't find anything concentrated. The dock at Falls Creek is on dry land, and the end of the ramp was at the water's edge (I wouldn't use it). Glad I launched at Curlew. Had one decent fish on that was obviously much larger than a koke, but busted off the leader...I'll be switching those out from 8 lb to probably 15 lb since it's happened a couple times on lines that don't seem to have any nicks in them.

Something that might be of interest from this otherwise lame report is water temps. I used a deptherm thermometer attached to the downrigger and periodically wrote down the temps. Admittedly I skipped a few times, but here's what I found on 7/25/15:

surface: 71F
30 ft: 68F
60 ft: 63F
75 ft: 59F
85 ft: 58F
100 ft: 58F
120 ft: 54F

BTW, the deptherm (thermometer) is available at: http://www.fish307.com/vexilar-deptherm/ It's cheap ($10) but seems of reasonable quality. The built in feature that shows depth is junk (it filled to the 100ft mark at only 30ft depth), but having a container of water around the thermometer is probably good to ensure an accurate temp from depth after pulling it up through warmer water. I figured trolling it around at depth for 10+ min before checking it would probably get an accurate depth temp if reeled up fairly quick through warmer water. The depths are based on depthfinder depth with an 8lb ball and wire, so at 120ft there's a little angle involved but at 1.5mph it's about 20 degrees off vertical.

[armyducker]

Hooked, that's awesome info, definitely explains why there deep, seemed 75' was our magic depth last time I was up there.

[fish4kok]

Hi bayhorse, Hopefully I'll start to catch them in early Spring.

[fish4kok]

Hi hooked,
Thank for dephthermo information and fishing report.
There were about 10 fishing boats in the powerline area on last Thurs. and Fri., only few boat net 1 or 2 kok. Some fisherman told me they let the line down to 100' and did not a bite.
I will try couple more fishing trip in Lucky Peak.

[fish4kok]

Display image testing.
When we canned the fish, we saved the heads (cut in smaller pieces) and skin and put in freezer for the sea gull in next fishing trip. When the ice thaw out we feed the birds. They love them...
After feeding they still follow our boat for other hour.

[SuperD]

fish4kok, note to self, feed at the end of the day. LOL!

[DeltaDude]

Went out today, ended up snapping my downrigger line, lost my ball and clip, but thats ok, attached some weight ended up catching a couple nice trout on the long line. No kokes tho.

[fish4kok]

SuperD,
End of the day they only have fish guts! LOL. Idaho Fishing Regulation states:
Head and Tail Removal:
It is illegal to have in the field
or in transit any trout, char, coho, kokanee, grayling, tiger
muskie, or bass from which the head or tail has been
removed. For steelhead see page 43. For anadromous salmon
see annual published special rules.