2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

[scottc]

I caught a large koke last week hat was turning. he wasn't that far along yet, would still be good table fare

[Badlander]

Caught these on Thursday , nice day of fishing

[terek]

That's nice big boat with a lot of room for the family eh? Congratulation.
Fished LP today from 9:30 ~ 2:30PM, it was slow. boated 3 kok 12" ~ 14" and released a 14" rainbow trout. All the fish I caught with DR at 12' with Forfender + WR and shoepeg corn + scent.
The single mallard sometime follow my boat too. I gave her some old bread then she's happy. I had a picture that she took food from my wife hand. :) Last year I filmed a mallard that land on my boat platform for a short drive, then when the distance between her and the male duck (on the lake) greater then she jumped off and swim toward the male. Didn't see any duckling this year yet.

yes sir. I have 4 kids, wife, dog, and usually my dad tags along. That's a bit cramped for a 15 foot bass boat. But, its just as cramped on the new one. 15 feet of cabin, but all the kids think they need to be on the 7 foot deck.......Less room than before, lol.

We went Friday for 2 hours, and got into them a bit. Landed 4 and lost 4. They seem to be turning pink just a bit. A little color on the tail, and tips of the fins. Wont be long before the bite is off, so get em while u can

[tracker]

Fishing is changing quick. About every week we go up we got to go another 10' deeper. still catching 10-20 fish a trip but now we have to go 60' to 75' deep. I bet even 80' wood catch fish. Long line caught several 10"-12" fish 2oz 60' back dodger and spinner pink and orange. Early in the day 65' on down rigger, later in the day downrigger 60' in water 80' deep, and 75' in 100' deep areas used darker dodger and darker spinner. Caught my first fish of the year with red starting to show. Large rang of sizes 20" was the longest average was 17". Thanks for those sharing. I hope this helps someone. Sonar has been key for me.

[crappieslayer]

Fished Sunday. What a zoo. With all the wake boats and jet skis, it was like being on the ocean.. Caught three early morning on green. Then it died. Around 2pm I switched to an apex and caught 4.

[spoons]

Fished the last hour of daylight last night. Landed two 15 inchers longlining on top with pop gear, white corn, krill oil, no weight. Got another 18 inch 20 ft down, pink hoochie behind dodger with corn and anise.

[stevec]

I'm getting conflicting reports on the depth of the fish now. Some are telling me shallow 10 to 25 feet and others are saying down to 60 feet. Anybody have any first hand knowledge? Going up tomorrow I hope.
Thanks

[terek]

I am in the process of getting ready to head up to lucky peak, and I was told highway 21 is closed. is there still access to spring shores??

[skyhammer]

It was probably a kokanee changing color. Chinook don't turn pink. They go from chrome silver to a dark color.

I have caught 100's of Kings in rivers and lakes and lakes and they turn the same color as Kokanee and Silvers, except the heads don't turn green like the Kokanee.

[AlbacoreShuffle]

I am in the process of getting ready to head up to lucky peak, and I was told highway 21 is closed. is there still access to spring shores??

I just hered on KBOI at 4:45 that hwy 21 is closed from Lucky Peak Rd to Robbi Creek in both directions .

[NiteHawk]

Nice pic! Looks like Alaska? I've caught thousands of kings but never a pink one. I know on the kenai an other rivers in Alaska they go pink during the run.

I have caught 100's of Kings in rivers and lakes and lakes and they turn the same color as Kokanee and Silvers, except the heads don't turn green like the Kokanee.

[fish4kok]

I am in the process of getting ready to head up to lucky peak, and I was told highway 21 is closed. is there still access to spring shores??

Just head home from LP. If you launch your boat at Turner Gulch that will be OK. I saw few trucks towing boat turned in there, but that was about an hour ago. They blocked HW21 few hundred feet above the turn off to the dam.
Any way got 6 fat kok, one measured 17.5" the other from 12 -14" DR 7 ~ 18' deep.

Attached are few photos that I took from the lake about 1:50PM close to Sams Gulch.

[fourthandfour]

July 20, headed up to put in at Spring Shores and fish the far side. Road is reopened, will let you know about air, how it goes later today.

[fish4kok]

Fishing is changing quick. About every week we go up we got to go another 10' deeper. still catching 10-20 fish a trip but now we have to go 60' to 75' deep. I bet even 80' wood catch fish. Long line caught several 10"-12" fish 2oz 60' back dodger and spinner pink and orange. Early in the day 65' on down rigger, later in the day downrigger 60' in water 80' deep, and 75' in 100' deep areas used darker dodger and darker spinner. Caught my first fish of the year with red starting to show. Large rang of sizes 20" was the longest average was 17". Thanks for those sharing. I hope this helps someone. Sonar has been key for me.

Thanks for the information. I'll head up to Anderson tomorrow for just a day fishing. This'll be our Anderson first fishing trip in this year.
Today, I made an other adapter base for the electric Walker DR that will fit in the exiting Canon mount. Now I'm running electric wire,receptacle box and I'll see the smile on her face.
Last year we caught kok at 75' with manual Canon DR, after my wife cranked up 8lbs lead ball few times... and later that was my job to crank it up after she got a fish.:) That will be OK as long as she goes fishing, clean and cook, caned the fish then I'll not complaining...

[Elefantdude]

I'm going to be launching at Spring Shores on Thursday - 7/21 - from my Kayak and trolling in the area. 2nd time EVER, fishing for Kokanee :-) 1st time was earlier this year in February. Had some hits but no hook-ups :-( Hopefully that will change tomorrow. It is supposed to be a hot day! Starting early in the morning. Do Kokanee feed like trout? Come up to surface during dusk and dawn? Or do they just stay suspended at certain depths all day long, depending on weather? Just wondering.... TIA and Tight Lines!

[Badlander]

Went to Anderson Ranch yesterday, fished from 6:30 am to 1:00 pm. Fished from 30 ft to 80 ft, used every color and combination in my box, at various speeds, twisting and turning, NEVER got one bite or one fish, good luck.

[sawtooth]

If water isn't too warm they will come to the top or closer to the surface early in the morning. With the warm weather we have had and all the boats, I would start at least ten feet down and continue dropping until you start getting bit. Last week I limited with only one at ten and the rest between 25-35 ft. Good luck.

[Elefantdude]

If water isn't too warm they will come to the top or closer to the surface early in the morning. With the warm weather we have had and all the boats, I would start at least ten feet down and continue dropping until you start getting bit. Last week I limited with only one at ten and the rest between 25-35 ft. Good luck.

Thanks for the info SAWTOOTH. My Girlfriend and I were out on our kayaks today at Spring Shores and tried a few lures up top and tried going deeper with no luck at all. So I decided to try for some smallies along the lava rocks that were going into the water. I caught quite a few small ones!!! We were heading back to the marina and tried deeper for more Kokanees and I had a fish hit my Kokanee Rig. It felt like a nice one!!! After a decent fight I ended up bringing in a 20" Pikeminnow UGH! LOL! Oh well. Next time!

Here's my 20" Fish ;-)


Here is the size of smallies I was catching:

[crappieslayer]

Thanks for the info SAWTOOTH. My Girlfriend and I were out on our kayaks today at Spring Shores and tried a few lures up top and tried going deeper with no luck at all. So I decided to try for some smallies along the lava rocks that were going into the water. I caught quite a few small ones!!! We were heading back to the marina and tried deeper for more Kokanees and I had a fish hit my Kokanee Rig. It felt like a nice one!!! After a decent fight I ended up bringing in a 20" Pikeminnow UGH! LOL! Oh well. Next time!

Here's my 20" Fish ;-)


Here is the size of smallies I was catching:

That was a cute little pike minnow (Squawfish). Two years ago at Anderson Ranch, when the kokes were down around 70', I was trolling deep and hooked into what I thought was a Chinook. It was a 6lb pike minnow (weighed it with my cabelas electronic scale). I kept it till I got back to shore and checked the record and found the record was 7.8lb. Cheated again..... in 2003 I caught a 2.78lb crappie at brownlee. That was a few months after that kid caught the 3.5lb crappie. Mine was 17 and 1/2 inches, but it was skinny. Had it been a fatty, I could have had a record.. Close, but no cigar...

[Elefantdude]

That was a cute little pike minnow (Squawfish). Two years ago at Anderson Ranch, when the kokes were down around 70', I was trolling deep and hooked into what I thought was a Chinook. It was a 6lb pike minnow (weighed it with my cabelas electronic scale). I kept it till I got back to shore and checked the record and found the record was 7.8lb. Cheated again..... in 2003 I caught a 2.78lb crappie at brownlee. That was a few months after that kid caught the 3.5lb crappie. Mine was 17 and 1/2 inches, but it was skinny. Had it been a fatty, I could have had a record.. Close, but no cigar...

Nice Crappieslayer! We moved here this past August (2015) from Arizona. Love the fishing up here. Been to CJ Strike, Swan Falls, Lake Lowell, Farewell Bend, OR, Sagehen Res, Horsethief Res, and fly fished the Upper, Middle and Lower Boise, Upper, Middle and Lower forks of the Payette Boise River Downtown and Owyhee River. Been trying new waters, but haven't been up to the northern part of the Snake (Hells Canyon, Brownlee, Dvorak (sp?) but plan to try them soon. Haven't been skunked yet!
Though I would like to hook into some Kokanee soon! LOL! Do they bite pretty good in the fall?

[F-Bomb]

Fished LP from 7 to 2:30 today. This morning there were HUGE waves at Barclay/dam. It was kind of an exciting unloading as the wind wanted to put my new pontoon boat back on the ramp and it was tricky program to keep it from washing up and then off of the docks in reverse. Very lucky that there were no other boats around so I could aggressively wiggle it around. YIKES

Medium good action today with 14 in the boat but only two keepers and we lacked our normal batch of the big ones. One decent and one bloody...the rest were the 14" kulls. We also long released a few more than normal. Towards the end of the day I was getting a steady stream of hits on one setup that was pulling it off the DR with no fish and the corn was still on the spinner. Just guessing but I think that they are hammering the flasher. Fish caught at 9ft until after 10am and then we made it down to 16ft with a hit every 20 minutes or so. Had one setup getting all of the love and finally switched flashers to a slightly larger batch of blades but more importantly orange edges to silver and BAM...that setup then started to get equal attention to my hot side (same orange WR spinners). Lesson at LP.....use orange and have orange on your flasher and you will catch fish!

Interesting about the talk of going deeper. I marked a few nice clusters at 25-35 ft around the lake and have yet to catch a single koke at LP this year deeper than 16ft. (of course I haven't spent that much time below 16ft since it seems to be very productive for our setups)

It was cool watching the choppers dip for the fire. The big red/white one plopped down right by us at mid morning by the fuel station. His rotor wash was within 50 yards of us at the widest point.

[Elefantdude]

Fished LP from 7 to 2:30 today. This morning there were HUGE waves at Barclay/dam. It was kind of an exciting unloading as the wind wanted to put my new pontoon boat back on the ramp and it was tricky program to keep it from washing up and then off of the docks in reverse. Very lucky that there were no other boats around so I could aggressively wiggle it around. YIKES

Medium good action today with 14 in the boat but only two keepers and we lacked our normal batch of the big ones. One decent and one bloody...the rest were the 14" kulls. We also long released a few more than normal. Towards the end of the day I was getting a steady stream of hits on one setup that was pulling it off the DR with no fish and the corn was still on the spinner. Just guessing but I think that they are hammering the flasher. Fish caught at 9ft until after 10am and then we made it down to 16ft with a hit every 20 minutes or so. Had one setup getting all of the love and finally switched flashers to a slightly larger batch of blades but more importantly orange edges to silver and BAM...that setup then started to get equal attention to my hot side (same orange WR spinners). Lesson at LP.....use orange and have orange on your flasher and you will catch fish!

Interesting about the talk of going deeper. I marked a few nice clusters at 25-35 ft around the lake and have yet to catch a single koke at LP this year deeper than 16ft. (of course I haven't spent that much time below 16ft since it seems to be very productive for our setups)

It was cool watching the choppers dip for the fire. The big red/white one plopped down right by us at mid morning by the fuel station. His rotor wash was within 50 yards of us at the widest point.

I think I got a picture of it!
Check this out - Is this you?

[fish4kok]

Went to Anderson Ranch yesterday, fished from 6:30 am to 1:00 pm. Fished from 30 ft to 80 ft, used every color and combination in my box, at various speeds, twisting and turning, NEVER got one bite or one fish, good luck.

Thank you for the info. We fished from 8:30AM till noon my wife boated 3 and I had couple hits but lost them. We had lunch with friends and the other two fishermen joined us and we really had good time. 5:00PM we went out again and fish until 7:00PM, wife caught a 19" kok. All the fish she caught from 60' to 75' deep. Copper color dodger and pink squid. The long line pole with 2oz sinker Ford Fender Kokabo with 60' line out did get any bite. Later I used 3 oz sinker and let more line out but still no action. Talked to few fisherman and they got none. She was the lucky today with 4 kok.
I forgot to mount the rod holder for her electric DR. May be that why she caught fish.

[nepetbutler]

Thanks for the info SAWTOOTH. My Girlfriend and I were out on our kayaks today at Spring Shores and tried a few lures up top and tried going deeper with no luck at all. So I decided to try for some smallies along the lava rocks that were going into the water. I caught quite a few small ones!!! We were heading back to the marina and tried deeper for more Kokanees and I had a fish hit my Kokanee Rig. It felt like a nice one!!! After a decent fight I ended up bringing in a 20" Pikeminnow UGH! LOL! Oh well. Next time!

Here's my 20" Fish ;


Here is the size of smallies I was catching:

I forgot d/rigger. I made a downrigger w/ 30' black paracord,4# weight,scotty mini release,tied it to side of boat at 20' and started nailing big koke on pink hoochie

[F-Bomb]

Nope that isn't me. We were around the corner photo right and on the other side of him when he scooped. It was interesting as it didn't look like his bucket closed correctly and he was leaking all the way to the drop on the top of the hill. I watched him through binocs and his later dumps didn't leak out like that....it looked like he almost gave that pictured pontoon a shower from our angle!

My boat is a Sylvan 20ft Fish n Cruise with black sides and top. Did you guys notice the backward trolling pontoon boat? I wonder if going backwards is the only way he can control the speed? Seemed awkward.

Anyways....if you want to catch kokes at LP with your kayak setup please try the following.

Go get a luhr jensen "jeweled bead kokanee troll" flasher. It is a small four blade silver on one side orange on the other with silver flash tape on each blade and a red fin. part # 3690-001-0157 (fire/silver p-lit. Then attach an orange body with silver hammer blade Macks wedding ring spinner exactly 28" of leader back. You can use the #6 single hook that they come with but I normally replace with a #6 treble hook as it seems we get more in the boat with that setup. Get a can of Green Giant shoepeg white corn (walmart has it) and a can of tuna fish in vegie oil and a bottle of Mike's blue herring giz (also at walmart). In the morning before you head out to fish (soaking over night for some reason seems less effective) drain the tuna oil and a little tuna flesh into a container with your corn. Add some blue herring oil and mix it all up. (You can also forego the herring oil as it's worked with and without...I just know it doesn't hurt and the pro koke guides all put giz on the offerings and so I do it too) I've also added sea salt and caught fish but no real noted difference and not enough testing to call that one a do or don't. It does kind of preserve your bait and seems to make things less gooey later in the day. Tip your treble hook with ONE SINGLE CORN (not three). I also dip the lure in the juice and run a rub the juice all over the flashers occasionally. Coming from steelie fishing background I believe smell cover up is critical.

Go get yourself 25' of parachute cord and as heavy a bell sinker as you can find to tie on the end. Then a DR release. Drop that thing down 9ft to start with your lure set EXACTLY 50' back of the DR release. Set your release as tight as possible so that you have to pull it out when you get one on. Note with a light DR weight it's harder to release so some testing required. You just need something heavy enough to maintain a controlled depth at your trolling speed. With this spinner setup you can paddle along testing to see that you have everything spinning and that is simply your target speed. (we fish 1.5 to 2.35 gps) The nice thing about a WR spinner is that they catch fish at all speeds and are much less speed or action critical. The pattern at LP is 9ft to start and drop it down until you don't catch fish through the day as the sun goes up. NOTE: if it's a cloudy day change to a green WR spinner and the results are the same.

So far this year in 9 trips to LP this exact system has boated 189 kokes and about that many bites and long releases. All but two fish have been caught using only two poles per day. (sometimes we tried a third long lining or a stacked dr but it was too much work and caused more tangles then we actually had production so we bagged it.

also...if hand lining your DR setup is too much of a hassle you can go buy a set of shower rod/curtain rings, bell sinkers, and a release for each one. You simply leave your DR down and hook the shower ring around your main cord and drop it to depth...you can stack em deep without having to draw up your DR ball every time you hook up or have a strike. Guys use this for stacking dr setups and not having to draw up every time your upper line gets hit.

Go get em!