Strawberry Kokanee?

I checked the DWR stocking reports and noticed that they have been stocking 450K to 600K kokes every year in Strawberry Reservoir. The fish being stocked are two to three inches in length.

I have noticed on various forums that very few reports are being made on the Koke fishing at Strawberry. I have been fishing several times the last two months and only caught about 12 kokes this year. Whats happening? Are the kokes minnows ending up as food for the Cutt's? I see some are being planted in March - these must be planted through the ice. Do the ice plantings survive better than the soft water plantings? Are others catching Kokes at this reservoir and I just suck?

No matter what time of year the DWR stocking effort is made to Strawberry, those cutts just have to love the taste of those little morsels!

As far as Koke catching goes for me, I've only pulled one out of that lake and it must have been a sheer accident. It was only about a 13" fish and I picked it up just entering the canyon from the Indian Creek Bay side.

Now is spawning season and the bite is slowing down at Flaming Gorge so I would expect Strawberry to be there as well; however, I have no recent experience or report to give you. Keep trying though, hard water is fast approaching!

The plant numbers are gigantic for a lake that size. The size of the fish caught almost make one think they are stunted from too many fish. If they were having all but a few getting eaten by the cutts, the remaining would be bigger fish I'd think.

I have heard that the Utah state recoerd was broke this year from Strawberry. The previous record from Utah was also from Strawberry. They are in there. Just tuff to locate.

From my experiences, The big ones are in there, and locateable but they seem to be quite a bit more tempermental than most koke lakes. plus you have to weed through the cuts. The average spawners are in the 16 to 20" range which are 2- 3#, with plenty bigger ones.Go check out the traps Thats a nice koke to me.
The current state record is from there, and i too heard someone broke the record this year as well.
MY #1 OPINION on da berry is there are not as many social koke addicts fishing the crap out of it and spreading the word when a pattern is found on them. 101ok101101ok101

I think once that place takes a hold and gets going, it will go crazy like the gorge is now.

I would think with 1/2 million fish being planted & I assume some natural reproduction, that the koke fishing should be phenomenal at Strawberry. The kokes have been in the reservoir for many fish generations (>10 years?), I would think if it was going to get good it would already be there.

Just a venting a little frustration, i guess. I have found the fishing for kokes challenging this year at both FG and Strawberry.

I went to the Berry 3 times last year and caught 1 koke accidentally about 10" in length while letting line out. While targeting kokes, had no problem catching cutt's. Most of the larger cutt's caught were in the slot. A few smaller keeper range(under slot) also caught. Thinking about trying it again next year. Never made it up there once this year.

The prob is the cutts. I was fishing with a buddy of mine that has a camera on his riggers and found that as you go through a school of kokes, you'll single out one or two, as they set chase on your bait, a cutt will set chase as well and the koke being the faster fish will spot the cutt and take off and that leaves your bait in front of the cutts face and the dumb thing will strike it and cutt on. When ever you find a school of kokes, there will be cutts hanging around waiting for a koke to be singled out.
At least this is what I have found anyway..

Hey, guys, we had a better Strawberry season this year than last: 55 Kokes in 2009, 70 kokanee in 2010! They are challenging to catch as it seems each year is different in where they are and what they will hit. Our best day was 14 kokes in the boat on 23 July. We feel lucky when we get 2 or more per outing. We fish Strawberry almost exclusively for Kokes, 2 1/2 days a week all summer. Cutthroat catch was way down this year, numbers have dropped, not crashed though. We are seeing a bigger spread in size this season for those pesky cutts; that's good. I spoke with the Strawberry fisheries biologist, Alan Ward, recently about this year's kokes in the trap. They are fine fish, but only 200-300 showed up in the early take. He and I both suspect there is some shore line spawning going on, similar to FG. In our Sep outings, some fishermen were catching full spawn colored Kokes along the east shoreline across from the main marina. My fish sonar crapped out so we were fishing blind for the last two months of our season (Aug, Sep). Our hourly catch rate(all species) has dropped somewhat steadily for the last few years, but we're encouraged by the increased emphasis on the larger rainbows being planted. They were fun to catch here at the last part of the season, 7-20 per morning's outing. Most of our Kokanee catch runs 17-19", the smaller ones are usually next year's fish.
As usual, my wife out fished me on her larger Bahama Mama and pink haze hoochie from RMT. We use about 13" leaders. I suppose some of our good success is the time we put in on the water, 65-84 days a year at the 'Berry.

Check out this video and in particular, the last fish caught. Looked like a very healthy and fat Koke to me and the date stated as Nov. 6th. What do you guys think? If you click the icon in the lower right hand corner of the video, you can see in full screen size.

http://www.utah.com/fish/strawberry_reservoir.htm

Definitely NOT a Koke! One look at the anal fin tells the story. Looks like a nice rainbow though.

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Originally Posted by SmokeOnTheWater

Definitely NOT a Koke! One look at the anal fin tells the story. Looks like a nice rainbow though.

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Hit the pause button at 1:47 of the video. The black back and shiney silver side is what had me fooled. Tell me what is different about the anal fins.

I've been looking for a few close-up photos that would illustrate my explanation better, you know, a picture's worth a thousand words. I promise I won't be lengthy.

The anal fin on salmon (all salmon) is shaped almost like an isosceles triangle where the base (next to the body) is nearly twice as long as the leading and trailing edges of the fin. If you compress the largest ray of the fin against the body, the first ray will be about one half of the total fin length.

If you compress the anal fin on any trout, the largest ray will usually reach the full length of the anal fin. This is better seen with one of each lying side by side at the cleaning station. Then you will be convinced as I was when I first learned the difference fishing for salmon & steelhead in the Great Northwest. When either of these fish first enter the rivers from the ocean thay are very bright chrome/silver and having never fished for steelhead or salmon in my home state of PA, I was a TRUE ROOKIE.

Just take a look at several pictures of trout and salmon only focusing on the anal fin and you'll soon see what I mean.

101chromefish101
See what I mean -

Just reading this old post, I fished Strawberry a lot more than I did FG this year.
seemed like there was a lot more boats fishing strawberry for kokes than ever
what will next year bring?

Robert, I would guess we will see even more next year. It's becoming a real zoo there, even during the week. And no way will I be there on a weekend other than for the DAV Event next year.

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Originally Posted by dubob

Robert, I would guess we will see even more next year. It's becoming a real zoo there, even during the week. And no way will I be there on a weekend other than for the DAV Event next year.

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maybe I should stop posting how I catch them. I keep thinking this then I pick some thing up that some one posted then I try to give back, also they will say things on my post that is different. that gets me thinking, and it helps my fishing.