2018 Lucky Peak Reservior Kokanee Fishing Report

[fish4kok]

I fished between Charcoal Gulch and Gooseneck for most of today. After the wind calmed down, I got one rainbow between 20 and 25 feet deep. I noticed some "boils" on the surface so then I tried trolling shallow. I got one more rainbow and two kokanee. All shallow and fairly close to shore. When I cleaned the kokanee I discovered their meat was much lighter than normal. Not white, but certainly not the rich orange color I usually see in kokanee. When cooked, they look more like trout than kokanee. The fish were bright with all their scales, so they hadn't tried to spawn this year. I am pretty sure they weren't chinook. Very few spots on the back and tail and the gums weren't black.

Thoughts? I have never seen this in kokanee.

Below is the pics. of the Kokanee meat color that compare to the trout at LP posted by Kokaneekevin on Sept.18-2018. Sometime I caught those fish in LP and AR too. The meat color of the Kok. somehow very light. Click the attachment (9532) on the right for enlargement.

Despite the recent grim fishing reports, my wife and I decided to head up to LP today (Tues). First trip there since early summer. Needed a fishing fix badly. :) Got a late start; didn't start fishing until 11:30, stopping at 3. I normally launch at Spring Shores, but decided to launch at Turner since it has a dock still in the water. And I rarely fish near the dam (just never had much luck there in the past) but decided to start fishing there since it was nearby. Within minutes (like 3!) of our first pass along the dam, I had my first fish on and lo and behold, landed a Koke! Couldn't believe it. In fact, I thought it was a trout and just lifted it into the boat (without really looking at it closely) instead of netting it. Boy was I surprised to see it was a Koke and that I didn't lose it bringing it into the boat. Happy Days! So we kept running back and forth in front of the dam (maybe 100 yards out). Got 5 more hits within an hour. Two of those were those quick hits you get. Pole takes a dive but then nothing. One was a nice trout that I landed and kept. The other two I had on for several cranks of the reel before I felt them throw the hooks. So, given what I think a lot of us know, I believe these 2 hits and 2 hookups were Kokes as well. Who knows really, but that's what I think. Finally on the 6th hookup I landed another Kokanee. Had 4 more hookups in the early afternoon, landing all 4. And all 4 were trout. Kept 1 and released the other 3. So all in all, kept 2 Kokes (each 12") and 2 trout (each 13"). The wind picked up and it was getting a little squirrely keeping the boat on track so we quit at 3pm. Details: 2 poles, both using ford fenders. Started with chartreuse spinners, and then changed to orange spinners and orange hoochies. Chartreuse got the most hits. No downrigger this time, just using 2 and 3 oz lead weights. 75 to 85 clicks out fishing in the 20-25 ft depth range. Marked plenty of fish between 20 and 50 feet down. So with a little more luck, I think I could have landed a few more Kokes. Always the optimist! :) Definitely not a bad outing, especially since my expectations were pretty low to start.


Two pictures attached. First showing my catch for the day. The second pic shows the fillets after cleaning. Top two is one of the trout. Bottom two is one of the Kokes. It's always a nice surprise to find out a trout is orange/pink inside. But I was pretty surprised to actually see the trout were more pink than the Kokes. Don't think I've seen that before. Probably an age thing? Both BBQ'd up very nicely and tasted fantastic!