2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

[ddisney]

this is my first year kokanee fishing and it has been great fishing at ririe. last 3 times i have gone out i caught my limit in 90 minutes

[kok-head]

Sounds like you fellas had better luck than I did. Fished Saturday from 8:00 to about 4:00. Only one nice 16inch koke. Caught it by LP dam, long line out 100' with 4oz of weight. Fender and WR. When I was tying the boat down at the ramp I talked to a guy that got on the lake at 9 and had his limit by 1. He said the key was scented corn. Wouldn't share what scent. Do you guys use scented corn and if so what do you recommend?

i don't use scents, lots of folks do though, tons of info on KFF about scents, i found a good thread on KFF titled "Favorite scent for kokanee?", its a good read

fishing down by LP dam isn't usually very productive this time of year, i would recommend dragging that long line through the fleet of the 50 or so boats that fish the narrows just kidding, but if you find a good group of boats get 100-200 yds or so from the edge of the big cluster and give that area a try, or stalk the guy who wouldn't share his super secret scent with you and watch him next time to see if it actually took him 6hrs to get his limit

some guys are so secretive with their lures and scents, sometimes they won't even show you where their secret trailer parking spot is

lots of folks feel like one specific thing is the "key", but it really comes down to a combo of 4 or 5 different things properly proportioned at the right time of day and year, im pretty confident that i could have done exactly what he was doing (and not used any scent) and probably done as well or at least close to it

guys on KFF who have kokanee dialed in even on a slow day can get a limit in 2.5-3hrs so i'm betting his "key" (to what was actually slow fishing whether he knew it or not) to his 1.5 keepers per hr pace was not changing gear / speed / approach / depth enough to get his limit in 2 or 3 hrs

[campdog]

Kokanee fishing can be frustrating at times, and an adrenilan junkies dream other times. Fishing one day to the next is never the same even though there are always a few lures that will always pick up a few fish. The challenge is to find the rig that will keep you busy until your arms get sore.

I've had days where one side of the boat will catch all the fish and the only thing that was different was one person was washing there hands with Dawn dish-washing soap about every 15 minutes.

[MackayGuy]

some guys are so secretive with their lures and scents, sometimes they won't even show you where their secret trailer parking spot is

Who are we talking about here? When I'm parked in my secret parking spot you can't even see my truck/trailer.

[kok-head]

Who are we talking about here? When I'm parked in my secret parking spot you can't even see my truck/trailer.

haha! if i ever find it i'll keep quiet, very "hogan's heroes" if you will..."i see nothing!"

[gdub]

Last year, I heard through different sites that scents were a must, so I packed corn with scent and some without. By the end of the year I wasn't using any scent and did really good, been out about four times this year, no scents and have done real well. I will say when I started using down riggers that's when I really started catching them. I really don't know if that's the trick but it sure is fun to watch them hit and pull the line out of the clip and watch them break water.:)

[Kokatoon]

Thanks for the feedback. For now, I will continue to fish scent free... I have always been fairly successful in years past. I am convinced that the solution is to fish more often. I think changing depth will help most of all. Most of the fish I saw on the finder were around 50'. Trolling at 1.4mph with 100' of line out and 4oz of weight should have had me close to that depth. I'm planning on heading out Thursday after work to test my theory.

[kok-head]

Thanks for the feedback. For now, I will continue to fish scent free... I have always been fairly successful in years past. I am convinced that the solution is to fish more often. I think changing depth will help most of all. Most of the fish I saw on the finder were around 50'. Trolling at 1.4mph with 100' of line out and 4oz of weight should have had me close to that depth. I'm planning on heading out Thursday after work to test my theory.

fishing more will help, nothing can replace time on the water, and you might be close to 50' deep depending on your speed, but the fish down there are going to be pretty sluggish and the cool water and near zero visibility will make fishing tough when fishing 50' deep in LP, and its hard to say if those are kokanee that deep, most folks aren't fishing deeper than 30' right now

[campdog]

Seems to be kinda quiet about the tournament this weekend. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to enter, it might be a really good day to spend at Arrowrock. Does anyone know how many there are registered?

[kok-head]

Seems to be kinda quiet about the tournament this weekend. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to enter, it might be a really good day to spend at Arrowrock. Does anyone know how many there are registered?

no idea about how many folks are signed up, but it could be in the thousands at this point

[cromedogg33]

Anyone fished Anderson lately? Should be up there in the next couple weeks and was wondering how the fishing has been going.

[JTM]

Planning on catching the big ones on Friday, So there will be no big guy's left for the tournament.

[conservationist]

Fished from about 8:30 to 2 PM. First 2-3 hours were a bust. Then hooked two nice 15-16 inchers and a dink. Fished another hour and nothing .. then 2 nice 15" fish ... Decided to go home while ahead. Felt bad as the dink was hooked bad and ended up in the bag. Only thing that worked was a 6 inch dodger with a pink hoochie with a bill. Only one side of the boat found fish.

[JTM]

It was a strange day on LP, I showed up at 9:30 and was the only boat on the lake! - OK that is BS there was a quite a few out, I had a limit in 2 hours but kept fishing and culling to try and get some bigger fish.

Almost all my fish came at 30' and on the same rod and side, I found some big guy's but could only manage to get a few to hit. Most times I can target the size but these fish went from 8" to 17" all at the same depth and speed with the same lure so go figure.

WR's at 30 was what worked for me. Oh yeah the 17 came right in front of another boat!! That's always nice........


http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/w...2/DSCF1019.jpg

[Lunddude]

Fished Anderson two weeks ago. Brought home 27 with the biggest right at 13 1/2" with the majority being 11-12". All fish were caught on hootchies with scented corn 20-30 foot deep on the downriggers. Very few boats were fishing for kokanee, good luck to you if you decide to go.

[Lunddude]

Seems to be kinda quiet about the tournament this weekend. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to enter, it might be a really good day to spend at Arrowrock. Does anyone know how many there are registered?

What tournament would that be?

[kodiak1]

Fished it last Thursday morning, and had to work for them more than last week. No jumbos, which tells me they might be feeding on a diff. schedule. Kept 10. They dropped earlier than last week. Mike

[Kokatoon]

Fished this morning was nice until the wind came up. Boated 2 nice Kokes and lost another 2 at the boat. Fished the same setup but only let out 65' of line. That was the trick. There were a lot of folks there for the tournament. Hopefully the wind dies down for them.

[JTM]

What tournament would that be?

This one.

http://www.robiecreek.org/FishingDerby2014.php

[sawtooth]

Did anybody make it up to LP for the derby? If so what was the size of the big fish and how many boats where there?

[Pzak]

I fished the derby. The leader when I left was a 17" fish that weighed 28 oz.

[DRM]

fished yesterday from about 3 - 9. one shy of both limits. looked like the water dropped 12 inches while we were there. did not find any of the bigger fish, but they will fit in the smoker nicely.

[JTM]

Fishing was spotty, lots of people fishing, wind howling in the morning oh yeah and had to save a guy who fell out of his boat no life jacket, he was close to his other people on a dock so he somewhat swam to them as we fished up all his crap
He lost and had to go get his boat for him. People amaze me I realize that you feel safe under control of you own boat I know I do but when it's cold and howling winds please use you're brain it only takes a second

Kudo's to you!! that was nice, and very humanitarian. Also thank you for this post, it made me think. I fish by myself and use an I pilot, If I were to fall over it would continue to troll along without me, I now carry my remote on my belt loop.

[cromedogg33]

Thanks for the reply. I believe I'll be staying at lime creek on my trip. I've heard that's a good place to start and then go towards the dam.

[duanetown]

Has anyone used any of the products from FWG (http://www.fishwithgary.com/) and if so what has your success rate been? Just curious, I have tried some of his methods but not his tackle this year at LP. It always seems that I go back to hammered silver fenders and squids with shoe peg corn for my best success.