2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

[Dakotakd]

Yesterday, left at second ramp by bathroom,arrived 830 left at 3

[stevec]

Anything happening at Dworshak? Going out tomorrow with wife hopefully bringing back some kokes.

[Idahoduckdog]

Got a late start today, fished Spring Shores across from Marina. Arrived at 10a, left at 2p. Caught one (16") with dark pink and purple spotted Cha-Cha, silver Kokabow flasher, 1oz. Had a few hits on silver flasher with orange Cha-Cha and Dodger with orange Cha-Cha as well. Most fish were showing 18-30ft on the HUD. Good luck and happy fishing!

[microfish]

They just quit spilling water this past few days. Have heard reports kokes are willing to bite! I know a feller and his wife were up yesterday and brought back 31! good luck and be safe and have fun!

[stevec]

Still in shallow & up top?
Thanks for info.

[Trailbob]

Fished on Th and caught four kokes across from Curlew, surface to about 5' deep. All were caught in about 10 minutes, around 8:00 am. No bites after that. Two were on dodger and home made bead spinner with night crawler, and two on dodger with pink hoochie with plain shoepeg corn.

Most others we spoke with didn't get a bite.

Fri we were on the water at 6:00 am. Caught one 19" trout on top. No kokes. Left early due to the wind.

[callelk]

Went out for a boat ride in the rain on Saturday and went Sunday with the wife from 11 until 5. Picked up two that were 18" and lost one at the boat and two others that came off right after they tripped the downriggers.

Funny thing is they are as big as my June 2015 fish and are hitting the same lures as I was using last June. Last year at this time small wedding rings were the ticket and the fish were 10-12". All the fish this year have been 14" plus and hitting my Sluggo Squid's.

[JKToons]

Fished 10 to 2 around the spring shore area. Landed 6 of the 7 hits. Sadly all but 1 where trout, I guess that is what is get when I had to use power bait since I forgot the CORN... 3 hits on orange squid w/ orange uv dodger, 1 on orange wedding ring and 2 on pink cha-cha squid w/pink uv dodger.

[fish4kok]

Fished from 2:00PM til 4:30PM in Spring Shores yesterday. Two hits, one got off the hook and 1 squaw fish :).

Last week there were more action in same area with same lure set up (Ford fender + pink & blue wedding ring + white corn 100' line out), we kept 4 kok ~14", released 3 small one and 1 trout.

[crappieslayer]

Fished Spring Shores area today (one guy in blue and white bluewater escape) and hooked 5 and landed 2. Had a few bites that I missed too. First fish was a nice one, but only had it on for a minute. One of my keepers was a nice 16" fat koke.

[bwright]

Hello, I am new to the thread and new to kokanee fishing. I will be trying out LP for the first time this week and I was hoping that you folks could give me some advice. Based on what I've read here I picked up an assortment of Kokabows, Hoochies, and dodgers. I don't have a DR set up yet so I will be long lining. I will be in a square back canoe with trolling motor so that wind is my primary concern. I would appreciate any advice on where to focus my attention (no fish finder), where/when I might escape the wind, good places to park (don't need a ramp) or any other general fishing advice that you have for me. I have also noticed that many of the locations referenced in this thread aren't on the maps I am looking at, if anyone knows of a map that has local identifiers on it that would be awesome! Thanks in advance!

[DeltaDude]

Hello, I am new to the thread and new to kokanee fishing. I will be trying out LP for the first time this week and I was hoping that you folks could give me some advice. Based on what I've read here I picked up an assortment of Kokabows, Hoochies, and dodgers. I don't have a DR set up yet so I will be long lining. I will be in a square back canoe with trolling motor so that wind is my primary concern. I would appreciate any advice on where to focus my attention (no fish finder), where/when I might escape the wind, good places to park (don't need a ramp) or any other general fishing advice that you have for me. I have also noticed that many of the locations referenced in this thread aren't on the maps I am looking at, if anyone knows of a map that has local identifiers on it that would be awesome! Thanks in advance!

Lucky Peak can be extremely windy, or very calm. It is hit and miss, be sure to check the weather, however you can usually escape most of the wind by going toward spring shores. The fish are in the top 10 feet right now and if you are long lining just make sure you don't have much weight or any if you are able to get away with it.

Tip your hooks with SHOEPEG corn, shoepeg is a must, you can get a can of it at winco or fredmeyers if needed. You will want to go roughly 1-1.5mph I have been having some good luck on the lower end, but again it all depends on what lure you are using.

Before you let your lines out be sure you put it in the water next to your boat and make sure everything is spinning, last thing you want is a spinner just sliding along.

Fish seem to be up past spring shores just a little bit, but you should be able to catch some all around.

[G3 longliner]

Hello, I am new to the thread and new to kokanee fishing. I will be trying out LP for the first time this week and I was hoping that you folks could give me some advice. Based on what I've read here I picked up an assortment of Kokabows, Hoochies, and dodgers. I don't have a DR set up yet so I will be long lining. I will be in a square back canoe with trolling motor so that wind is my primary concern. I would appreciate any advice on where to focus my attention (no fish finder), where/when I might escape the wind, good places to park (don't need a ramp) or any other general fishing advice that you have for me. I have also noticed that many of the locations referenced in this thread aren't on the maps I am looking at, if anyone knows of a map that has local identifiers on it that would be awesome! Thanks in advance!

I would say go to Springs Shores far NE ramp will be a big fleet right there so just stay with them your biggest issue ( especially if weekend ) will be the GOOGANS ( that would be jet skies and ski boats ) your canoe will be bouncing around a lot - ya cant get away from them - longline with troll gear or dodger, rubber snubber, hoochie or spinner , scented sho peg corn, back 75-100 ft with 1 ounce weight or maybe even no weight ( there is a bunch of different gear ideas ) - good luck

[Physion]

Hello, I am new to the thread and new to kokanee fishing. I will be trying out LP for the first time this week and I was hoping that you folks could give me some advice. Based on what I've read here I picked up an assortment of Kokabows, Hoochies, and dodgers. I don't have a DR set up yet so I will be long lining. I will be in a square back canoe with trolling motor so that wind is my primary concern. I would appreciate any advice on where to focus my attention (no fish finder), where/when I might escape the wind, good places to park (don't need a ramp) or any other general fishing advice that you have for me. I have also noticed that many of the locations referenced in this thread aren't on the maps I am looking at, if anyone knows of a map that has local identifiers on it that would be awesome! Thanks in advance!

I fished for years out of a 17 foot canoe with a side mounted trolling motor. I caught lots of fish. A couple words of caution for you: 1) tie all your equipment into the canoe, 2) consider making or buying a set of outriggers. I tied things into the canoe so that if I did capsize (never did, thankfully) I wouldn't lose expensive gear. I went for a long time without the outriggers, but wakes from other boats became a worse problem than the wind. I wouldn't fish without outriggers if I were still using my canoe. Cabela's calls them "stabilizers." I'm not sure I would put a downrigger on the canoe. That would create some torque and cause the canoe to be less stable. Instead, consider using in-line weights. I've used up to 3 ounces and that got me down to about 30 or 35 feet deep. I have many good memories from the canoe, I wish you well.

[callelk]

Fished from 3:30 until 6 yesterday picked-up 1 and lost 1. Not marking a lot of fish so I will run over to the dam today and troll back to see where they went to.

My trolling motor is now broke in and has had it first oil change so its now time to get serious.

[SuperDaveMT]

I fished for a number of years out of a Pelican Bayou(the old scanoe), but I was fortunate in that my local Koke lake is electric motor only so I only had the wind to worry about. I put outriggers on it and it made a world of difference. I got the Yak gear stabilizers for around $150. I reinforced the canoe sides with some trex decking where I mounted them. I used a cannon mini troll downrigger without any issues out of the Bayou. It doesn't extend out very far, and you can position it so it's easy to reach while fishing. I drug bottom more than a few times with it with no ill effects. If you have some way to measure your speed that's really helpful, either a gps on your depth finder or a hand held gps. I rigged my depth finder to be portable using a 6 pack cooler and a small gel cell battery and rigged up a bracket on the Bayou with pvc pipe for the transducer (works for ice fishing too). If no speed indicator, make lazy S turns and pay attention to which rod gets hit on the turn - inside rod means slower, outside rod means faster. Good Luck, be careful and always wear a life jacket!

[bwright]

Thank you everyone for the great advice! I'll definitely start thinking about stabilizers and the Cannon Mini Troll is exactly what I had in mind. I might get that and a fish finder setup soon, but for now I'll be keeping it simple. I have the shoepeg corn covered, and a good idea of how to get the depths that I want to cover. For speed, I have a phone app that should work fine, but I'll try the lazy S too. I think I'll try the very early morning to avoid the mobs and hopefully the wind, the wind report is showing low wind 6-9 am Saturday. I'll be back with a report soon, and in the mean time I'll be listening to any additional advice. Thanks again!

[Narrs]

Fished from about 9:30am to 2:30pm. Only 3 bites and lost 2 at the boat. Tried depths from 5 to 25 feet all within sight of Spring Shores. Oh well still was a nice day on the water.

[30carbine]

Sitting at Cerlew right now waiting for my brother to get back from a run to Pine for a little more food. Friends of ours hooked 20 yesterday and boated 10. We started this morning after getting here late last night and so far have 12 in the boat. 14-18 mostly 16 & 17. Pink hoochies or Dick Nites behind pink or watermelon dodgers. 1 ounce weight 35-40 pulls back. I think that's about 65-75 feet of line. Only one on a downrigger and we've quit using them for now. Going to camp again tonight and see what we can get before the wind starts tomorrow. Maybe Anderson won't be so bad after all.

[30carbine]

Oh yeah, Friday the 13th isn't so bad either.

[G3 longliner]

I fished for a number of years out of a Pelican Bayou(the old scanoe), but I was fortunate in that my local Koke lake is electric motor only so I only had the wind to worry about. I put outriggers on it and it made a world of difference. I got the Yak gear stabilizers for around $150. I reinforced the canoe sides with some trex decking where I mounted them. I used a cannon mini troll downrigger without any issues out of the Bayou. It doesn't extend out very far, and you can position it so it's easy to reach while fishing. I drug bottom more than a few times with it with no ill effects. If you have some way to measure your speed that's really helpful, either a gps on your depth finder or a hand held gps. I rigged my depth finder to be portable using a 6 pack cooler and a small gel cell battery and rigged up a bracket on the Bayou with pvc pipe for the transducer (works for ice fishing too). If no speed indicator, make lazy S turns and pay attention to which rod gets hit on the turn - inside rod means slower, outside rod means faster. Good Luck, be careful and always wear a life jacket!

Today at LP - slow again 12 hits boated I nice kok and a 16" rainbow - tossed back a small kok and trout - they be corn thieves didn't see much going on talked to one guy said they caught only 2 big trout

[packgoatguy]

Today was my first try at trolling for kokes at Lucky Peak... a friend and I got to Spring Shores around 7am and fished till about 11am. The wind was a bit pushy for our little boat, but we caught a few fish in-spite of it. Had 3 hits, lost one kokanee at the boat and boated two others (one fairly nice one in my book, about 15-16inches). Also picked up about an 11 inch perch on our kokanee setup??? We were long lining kokabow dodgers behind a snubber, and then about 10 inches of leader to some kokabow spinners and a hootchi I tried. I had several flavors of shoe peg corn we were trying; garlic, annis oil, and shrimp (and plain of course). My flavored corn is all dyed misc shades of pink and orange... We also had on pink powerbait mealworms. The kokes we hit were all on the shrimp flavored corn combined with the pink worms. One was on our down rigger about 10ft down and 40ft back, the other two were on a long line with about a half ounce weight about 70 ft back, trolling about 1.15 mph. One on a pink kokabow spinner, one on a green and black kokabow spinner, and one on a pink hootchi spinner. Ive got a decent Lawrence fish finder, but I was not marking many fish... I'm thinking in part because the upper columns of water was so filled with debris that I couldn't get my sensitivity set low enough.

So... I have a couple questions for ya'll; I am fairly new to the kokanee trolling gig, having only done it once before (last year at deadwood). What is a good day of fishing (catching) like at lucky peak, arrow rock, or anderson ranch? Should I usually expect only a couple hookups and be happy with that? Or should I be hitting more fish? Also, I have read up on techniques and such for how to rig up to catch them, but is there really a science to this?? or is it more about putting a lure in front of a fish? For example, does the flavor of corn, color of dodger or lure, etc all matter as much as things like trolling speed, weather, etc?

[scaletamer]

Good luck tomorrow everyone! I'll be the guy in the badass 1-man pontoon boat! If anyone in a $100k+ boat needs a deckhand and can't fish i'm your guy! hahahaha! Peace and good luck to all

[fixed blade]

Yes! I'll see you tomorrow!

[nepetbutler]

I use a compass app on smart phone w/ GPS speed. Will work a pink slingblade, pink hoochie tipped w/ pink anise krill soaked Firecorn Longlinging 1/4 oz trolling sinker. Goose neck bay . If u smell bacon, WAVE. 1.2 mph