2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

[rem40xb1]

Does anyone have any current information on Anderson fishing

[bayhorse]

This report is for Saturday 08-20-2016 not exactly current but the best I could do.
We started at 6:30 am and fished all day for 6 Kokanee and 3 trout.
Kokes were at 60-70' on gold or copper Dodgers with orange little devils.
Caught 3 small 10" chinook at 50' early in the day.
Ran large offerings 20' below the stacked Kokanee rigs but did not get any Chinook action.
The Kokanee were bright 14"-16" next years fish and were great in the smoker!
Hope to get back up in September to try for the chinooks again.
Good luck all!

[ricks]

Tried a couple of trips this August fishing Dworshak for kokes. Early in the month, on the 7th, started fishing at Elk River, caught a couple nice ones but only marking scattered fish, moved to the bridge, caught a couple. Nothing much on the finder other than scattered fish at much varied depths. Moved up to Reed's Creek and did pretty well. Ended a longish day with 18 fish, 3/4 of which were over 10 inches with a few up around 13.

Went again on Sunday the 28th. Started at the bridge, not much but a 22 inch trout. Didn't spend much time before moving to Reed, not much showing there, a couple. Moved further up to Day/Weitas Creek and marked fish in nice blobs, but mostly had a rough time hooking many. Ended up with 8 on the day (mostly pretty small). And lost a full rig bumping the downrigger ball off the ridge right out front of the creek. Beautiful day of fishing, just not much to show for it. Water was glass smooth and only saw a few boats the whole day up past Dent Bridge.

Thinking about going up this Labor Day weekend for one day, putting in at Dent instead of Bruce's, and hooking it up to Grandad to check out the spawn. Never done that before. Never been much past Silver Creek. Have no idea what to expect or where to go looking. Anyone done this before?

Thanks!

Rick

[amxerhull]

Rick, we were at Grandad 2-1/2 weeks ago. We caught lots of fish and they were not turning red but that could be changing now. Let us know how you do.

John

[ricks]

Rick, we were at Grandad 2-1/2 weeks ago. We caught lots of fish and they were not turning red but that could be changing now. Let us know how you do.

John

Amazing what a week or two brings. Forest Service posted some pics of the run on Facebook this last week.

[ricks]

Made the run up to Grandad last Saturday. First time I have been up there. We kept going as far as I could go with an fiberglass sterndrive boat. Ended up in really dirty water from what looked like logging operations leaving the bottom covered in bark. Fished a couple inlets for smallies. That was fun. Then went back to Grandad. So many schools of fish on the finder it was pitiful. From 20 down to 60 ft. Could I catch ANY? No. Nada. Nuthin. Guess I'm no good at kokanee.

[conservationist]

Fished LP today from about 9 to 2 pm ... one rainbow, one good strike but no hookup. Pretty much had the lake to ourselves. Did much better last year at this time.

[kokaneekevin]

Took my boat up to LP today (9/13) with my buddy. We fished from 9:30 to 2:30. Started fishing the channel south of the marina, heading towards the dam. Very slow for the first 1 1/2 hours. No bites at all using Ford Fenders and orange wedding ring-type spinners. Long lining with 3 oz. weights. Moved down the channel. No luck. Got to Goose Neck Bay around 11:30 and finally got some action after changing up a bit, going to 1 1/2 to 2 oz. weights and changing to blue-beaded, white spinner lures. Over the next few hours we caught 2 limits of nice Kokes, all 12" to 13 1/2". Released one small Koke (8") and one trout (15"). Saw only one other boat out there fishing. All in all, a great day.



Kokaneekevin
16' Tracker (beige w/ green stripes), 75hp, 4-str Merc

[nepetbutler]

Took my boat up to LP today (9/13) with my buddy. We fished from 9:30 to 2:30. Started fishing the channel south of the marina, heading towards the dam. Very slow for the first 1 1/2 hours. No bites at all using Ford Fenders and orange wedding ring-type spinners. Long lining with 3 oz. weights. Moved down the channel. No luck. Got to Goose Neck Bay around 11:30 and finally got some action after changing up a bit, going to 1 1/2 to 2 oz. weights and changing to blue-beaded, white spinner lures. Over the next few hours we caught 2 limits of nice Kokes, all 12" to 13 1/2". Released one small Koke (8") and one trout (15"). Saw only one other boat out there fishing. All in all, a great day.



Kokaneekevin
16' Tracker (beige w/ green stripes), 75hp, 4-str Merc

nice will head that way .

[kodiak1]

I sent this question to IDFG's Fish Talk site, and got a very prompt and complete answer to my query. It follows:



By idfg-dparrish on Monday, Sep 12th, 2016 8:21am MDT




Comment in Fish Talk: Had tons of fun catching Chinook out of Anderson Ranch this summer. Are the initial plant of 35,000 spawning this year or next?

J. Michael K.



Michael,

I've got good news and bad news for you.

First the good news: This will probably be the first year that earlier plantings of fall Chinook will be maturing and attempting to spawn in the South Fork Boise River. Fall Chinook have been stocked many times in Anderson Ranch Reservoir and maturing adults have never successfully reproduced in the South Fork Boise River or Fall Creek. The fall Chinook population is totally supported through our hatchery stocking program. There are currently 3 year- classes of fall Chinook in Anderson Ranch.



Now, the bad news: Fall Chinook are stocked in Anderson Ranch and other reservoirs around the state as a fish management tool to reduce over-abundant kokanee numbers. They are a very efficient predators on kokanee. The bad news is - they may have been too efficient because we observed very few kokanee spawning in the South Fork Boise River, this fall. We probably won't stock fall Chinook in Anderson Ranch Reservoir in 2017. The reduced numbers of kokanee remaining in Anderson Ranch may effect survival and the condition of fall Chinook remaining in the reservoir. This will translate into fewer fall Chinook in the fishery, next year.



Southwest

McCall

Magic Valley

Southeast




Fish Talk

[AverysAdventure]

Well bummer Mike. Thanks for passing the information on.

Rod

[Addicted2Kokes]

Fished from 8:30 AM-3:00 PM today. Launched at spring shores (oregon side). Was windy in the early morning. Only printed singles of Fish on the fish finder....no big clusters. Most we caught where in the middle of the reservoir. Chartreuse "little devil" was the golden ticket today tipped with pink mag and shoepeg corn. All where around 13-14". 15-20 feet deep. Caught no trout, threw back one small 6" Koke. Tight lines.

[nepetbutler]

Caught a fatty koke at fifty feet on yellow squid . Soo much fun

[F-Bomb]

We went up yesterday and fished from 8 to 3. Glorious day! Only a couple other people on the entire lake and it was a mix of dead calm or slight breeze. So just about a perfect fall day to be out. No rain until we were driving away.

We fished around Charcoal up towards Spring Shores and found a couple of hot spots that boated 7 x 13-14" keeper kokes in excellent condition both fight and meat. I normally don't keep the 2yr fish but this is all that is offered post spawn and the guys that I took needed some BBQ fair. Lost three right at the boat that were in the same class. The fish are all spread out but we had a steady bite going at 33ft-38ft on DR. We had one pole on a dipsy diver that I think only digs to about 20ft max and it was getting some hits. Our hottest lures were a single orange/white triple teezer off the DR at 33ft. (also the funnest because you only have the fish...no flash to drag around) My standard orange wedding ring behind a paper flasher was also still very productive.

Now what really added to the fun and action was that we also caught a smorgasbord of fish. We caught one squawker...one 20" (SOMETHING?) I wonder if it was a Coho (white gum line..slender..silver sided with dark top and only slightly spotted..less defined V tail that is more than a rainbow but not as sharply V'd like a Koke. It also HAMMERED the triple teezer and fought twice as hard as everything else for the day.....two 6-8" baby Chinook... a few misc rainbows...and one nice 13-14" bass..and then also a few shaker baby kokes. Just about enough action to consider this a darn good day of "catching" and not just a perfect day of fishing!

When the water was dead calm the top was alive with fish working. We used to have a blast dragging a wooly bugger way back and right on the top. The trout would almost stop the boat hitting those back in the day. My next trip will have two DR setups looking for kokes and two fly setups going to see if we can get those top water trout to play. That used to be a good time.

[DocDan]

I just wanted to say thank you for the great information that has been posted on this thread. The kokanee fishing has really been hit or miss for me this year. Probably more miss than anything. Last Friday at Lucky Peak we only caught one small kok south of spring shores in a few hours fishing. We were seeing scattered fish on the fish finder at various depths but not much luck. Hearing good reports and tips to try keeps me going and ready to try again. Blue 16' Riverhawk boat, 60 hp yamaha.

[hooknhunter]

I'm not familiar enough with LP to know what you mean by Charcoal. Would you mind sharing?

[F-Bomb]

Charcoal Creek comes out of the hills E side of the reservoir between the dam and the first big bay as you are going towards Spring Shores Marina. It's the primary opening on that side of the pool. We've done well all year fishing the rock wall just before the Charcoal Creek inlet and then all the way up to the first big bay..always opposite of the very shallow arm that sticks out on that bay (can't recall the name..? goose something) with the buoys on it as you head towards Spring Shores. We have definitely had to hunt around for them more since the smokey days from both of the fires up there. Pre fire we could catch them all over the lake but after the soot settled in it suddenly got a lot harder to find them. I'm a huge advocate of my Lowrance system for this kind of fishing. When we mark fish we catch em. When we drive around and there aren't any fish marked nothing happens. Pretty simple stuff to fish where you see loose group marks from 15ft to 35ft or big clusters deeper. If you see the birds working the water and don't mark fish then get your stuff between 5ft and 15ft deep and twice as far back as you would normally fish and you will get em. You won't see those fish on your sonar because you're only seeing a tiny portion of space and they peel away from your boat as you pass.

As you can tell I have no problem sharing what I have experienced. I absolutely love fishing for these damn things and consider myself really lucky that we have such an awesome opportunity 30 minutes from my door. There are a zillion fish in that pond and the few fish that anglers take have almost no impact on the resource. So I happily share my experiences with the hope that others can get some enjoyment as well. Not to mention that the policy makers pay attention to what is being fished and where the money is going and support those fisheries in a manor that keeps the opportunity available. People that are greedy with the info with a misguided intention for the good of their own fishing don't understand how the real world works. More boats puttering around on LP gathering in kokes means that the fish and feathers will keep pouring resources at it and that means the highest likelihood of the place continuing to be an awesome fishery.

go to youtube and search Shane Magnuson who is a fishing guide on the Columbia around the Dalles. Watch some of his clips and listen to his instructional stuff. That guy's theory on fishing and helping others is a model that we should all consider!

[Physion]

Next time you launch at Spring Shores, go into the office at the right side of the restrooms (store, restrooms, office). On the counter is a pad of maps for the reservoir. The maps show the currently used names of places on the reservoir.

The big bay with the buoys is now called Gooseneck Bay. I have an older map that calls it Bowl Recreation Area.

Fish on!

Physion

[kodiak1]

Charcoal Creek comes out of the hills E side of the reservoir between the dam and the first big bay as you are going towards Spring Shores Marina. It's the primary opening on that side of the pool. We've done well all year fishing the rock wall just before the Charcoal Creek inlet and then all the way up to the first big bay..always opposite of the very shallow arm that sticks out on that bay (can't recall the name..? goose something) with the buoys on it as you head towards Spring Shores. We have definitely had to hunt around for them more since the smokey days from both of the fires up there. Pre fire we could catch them all over the lake but after the soot settled in it suddenly got a lot harder to find them. I'm a huge advocate of my Lowrance system for this kind of fishing. When we mark fish we catch em. When we drive around and there aren't any fish marked nothing happens. Pretty simple stuff to fish where you see loose group marks from 15ft to 35ft or big clusters deeper. If you see the birds working the water and don't mark fish then get your stuff between 5ft and 15ft deep and twice as far back as you would normally fish and you will get em. You won't see those fish on your sonar because you're only seeing a tiny portion of space and they peel away from your boat as you pass.

As you can tell I have no problem sharing what I have experienced. I absolutely love fishing for these damn things and consider myself really lucky that we have such an awesome opportunity 30 minutes from my door. There are a zillion fish in that pond and the few fish that anglers take have almost no impact on the resource. So I happily share my experiences with the hope that others can get some enjoyment as well. Not to mention that the policy makers pay attention to what is being fished and where the money is going and support those fisheries in a manor that keeps the opportunity available. People that are greedy with the info with a misguided intention for the good of their own fishing don't understand how the real world works. More boats puttering around on LP gathering in kokes means that the fish and feathers will keep pouring resources at it and that means the highest likelihood of the place continuing to be an awesome fishery.

go to youtube and search Shane Magnuson who is a fishing guide on the Columbia around the Dalles. Watch some of his clips and listen to his instructional stuff. That guy's theory on fishing and helping others is a model that we should all consider!

F-Bomb,
Thanks for sharing. I also abide by your philosophy of sharing. Isn't that one of the reasons we all visit this site. Lurkers and those who don't share need to reconsider their attitude. When you consider the number of views to the number of regular contributors, it is quite remarkable. Mike

[nepetbutler]

I'm not familiar enough with LP to know what you mean by Charcoal. Would you mind sharing?

Get a map of lake at springshores Marina by the bathrooms. . Got Kokes at 25 ' on yellow/ orange squid tipped anise Firecorn.

[F-Bomb]

We fished Charcoal to Gooseneck Bay from 9am to 430pm. Spent the first hour plus trying a slightly different DR technique and it was not that successful. We put some serious flash on the DR ball and then fished the direct lure with either no flasher or a macks paper flasher a few feet back of that setup down 33ft. Got a couple takes but not my normal action. Actually did better on our single non-DR setup with 3/4 ounce lead orange WR spinner behind a macks flasher. Also I didn't mix in my standard bloody tuna oil that I started using over both yellow or shoepeg corn. Just a little tuna oil which I brewed up in the morning. When the bite was subpar I added the bloody tuna and things then started happening. Lesson there is mix your corn and let it soak a little more and add the pro-cure bloody tuna giz.

My goal there was to try to setup so that you could just play the fish with no flasher or weight involved and it would be more fun. While we did get a couple like that (mostly on TT) my compulsive need to CATCH EM ALL drove me back to the standard setup.

After that first pretty slow hour plus we switched back to the conventional DR setup 20ft - 30ft back of the ball and down 24 to 33ft and things got back to normal. One DR with a red/white triple teezer no flash and one with the macks and orange wr spinner. I'm not sure on the counts but we hooked at least 20 fish of various variety. Only landed a handful of kokes and they were slightly smaller than the ones we were getting midweek. That triple teezer got bit and pulled off the DR at least 50 times but we only hooked about 10. Mostly trout and we did get a few nice big hard fighting and hard hitting trout on that setup. It's fun to catch those but you have to get out of the mindset that you are trying to catch BBQ and just fishing for the joy of playing a fish.

Experimented with a fly trolled on top but went through several changes without a sniff. I don't think it is quite time for that setup on the trout yet. A couple a night freezes and a little later in the season and that technique should turn on and can be a blast.

There were a bunch of boats out fishing and even a few nuts getting wet and stirring up the calm. The single boat ramp setup was maddening when it was time to go home. We witnessed some absolute BS with trying to get out of the lake. In a half an hour only three boats got out of the water and one guy pulled up while three of us were floating around in front of the ramp and cut in front of the rest of the people waiting for their turn on the ramp because his rig was parked lower on the hill I guess. He then only pulled part way of the ramp to get organized and clogged up the works. Then a guy in a yacht came down and was testing a repair on his damn boat while the rest of us stood by waiting! He finally moved out of the water but then parked smack in the middle of the ramp so it was challenging to get backed out and past him. I speculate that his last name is either Turner or Barclay or maybe Lucky Turner or Lucky Barclay since he seemed to own the place! They used to give you a big fat ticket for parking on the ramp back in the good old days! Was there a full moon yesterday?

[Physion]

I finally brought home a limit of kokanee today. My first of the season. I know, I'm a little slow. I could catch 1 or 2 or 3 or maybe 4, but not a limit.
Finally today!!! Most of the fish today were caught near the surface in the Gooseneck Bay area. I used a three-bladed silver or brass troll with a wedding ring style spinner. I long-lined with 100 feet of line and no weight behind the boat. The fish seemed to prefer plain shoepeg corn with no scent. A great day on the water.

Physion

[F-Bomb]

Physion,
What color of spinner did they want? We have had exponentially more action on orange. I tried combos of green and blue but orange always seems to get 9 out of 10 hits. I'm anxious to get up there and test a WR with an orange body silver blade one side and I'm going to paint white on one side to try to mimic the orange white combo of the triple teezer that is knocking em dead (all species) right now at LP. Reading that one guy was getting action with blue white and then our action with orange white leads me to think that we need to introduce some white to my hot orange WR. I know somebody may be thinking why not just run multiple triple teezers if that is so hot. I can't control the depth with a free line TT because they swim a lot higher off of the DR long line and the setback becomes critical. I think that is why we are getting bit at 33ft with that setup as the TT is really swimming along at 20-25ft. If they move on us it takes half the day to figure out the right depth and setback distance. We also get a lot of false releases with the TT lure. With the WR and flasher it trails right behind the DR for a more known depth to tie in with what we see on the sonar and I run a treble hook setup that sticks to them better. My other issue with the TT is that it attracts TOO MANY trout and squaw fish. When we get to the real Koke fishing time of the year I don't want the trout bothering my stuff.

[Physion]

Below is a picture of a troll, spinner, and fly that I make. I was using the troll and spinner yesterday.

[nepetbutler]

Physion,
What color of spinner did they want? We have had exponentially more action on orange. I tried combos of green and blue but orange always seems to get 9 out of 10 hits. I'm anxious to get up there and test a WR with an orange body silver blade one side and I'm going to paint white on one side to try to mimic the orange white combo of the triple teezer that is knocking em dead (all species) right now at LP. Reading that one guy was getting action with blue white and then our action with orange white leads me to think that we need to introduce some white to my hot orange WR. I know somebody may be thinking why not just run multiple triple teezers if that is so hot. I can't control the depth with a free line TT because they swim a lot higher off of the DR long line and the setback becomes critical. I think that is why we are getting bit at 33ft with that setup as the TT is really swimming along at 20-25ft. If they move on us it takes half the day to figure out the right depth and setback distance. We also get a lot of false releases with the TT lure. With the WR and flasher it trails right behind the DR for a more known depth to tie in with what we see on the sonar and I run a treble hook setup that sticks to them better. My other issue with the TT is that it attracts TOO MANY trout and squaw fish. When we get to the real Koke fishing time of the year I don't want the trout bothering my stuff.

Gonna try some custom lures made by SRG lures. Orange glow/UV. I've put a sickle hook on lures and bent hook slightly too left so I can release unwanted fish. Also soaked corn in krill powder , firebrine, wizard koke powder. Heading too goose neck . If you smell bacon wave!