Kokanee Salmon
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Kokanee Salmon Through the Ice Many people like salmon and salmon abounds in Colorado mountain lakes. Kokanee can be found in Beaver Creek Reservoir; Blue Mesa; Carter Lake; Dillion; Eleven Mile; Green Mountain; Lemon; McPhee; Navajo; Stagecoach; Sweetwater Lake; Taylor; Twin Lakes; Williams Fork; and Wolford. Wolford is a great Kokanee Reservoir with Kokes going through mock spawn just off the dam and along the west bank north and south of the west boat ramp long after a safe ice cap has formed. Fish in 10-15 feet of water using brightly colored (orange seems to be the best) 1/8th ounce spoons such as Swedish Pimple, Kastmaster, Kamlooper, or Tripple Teaser. Work your lure for the best action. Rainbows can be caught in the same areas on a second rod using a small (1/32 oz)tube or hair jig in orange or other bright colors. Tip your rainbow tube or jig with a small piece of orange Power Bait (just enough to cover the hook). Use a piece of cork (just enough to have zero bouyancy)to detect the sometimes very subtle bites of the Wolford rainbows. Wolford is a great place to catch large numbers of Kokanee and Rainbows. The Snake River inlet at Dillon is another good winter location. One thing about Wolford, and most mountain lakes this year, the lake can be down and if it is, it can be a long way down to the ice from the parking lot. You may want to consider backing down the boat ramp to unload or load your gear. This can be especially helpful coming back up off the ice. Kokanee Salmon on Open Water There are first, second, third and fourth year class kokanee in Colorado lakes. Generally, fourth year kokanee go throuth the spawning cycle and then die as do other salmon. Kokanee slamon are bight silver most of their life but by fall of their 4th year (spawning) kokanee will be all red and the males will have a hump on their back and a large hooked lower jaw. Spawning fish will move to the inlets or to boat ramps or other area where they were released into the lake. Spawning fish are attempting to get back to where they were hatched to spawn. One of the best techniques to use for open water kokanee is to troll over deep water using lead-core line. When in doubt start off with four colors of lead core line (120 yards or 360 feet) with a 25 foot clear monofilament leader, green rainbow colored Giant Cow Bell pop gear, a snubber and a Mack's Wedding Ring. If you tip the Wedding Ring with white or flavored corn and troll 1-1.5 mph over deeper water you will get bit. Watch your depth finder for fish and keep your lure/bait 2-4 feet above the fish. (Suspended fish always look up and if your bait is below them they will never see it. With pop gear and bright colored lures you can draw fish from some distant so if you have to error, error on the side that will assure you are above the fish. Several lures or harnesses will attract kokanee but remember to use bright colors and keep the hooks small (size 6-8). On cloudy or dark days you may have better luck using the Mack's Wedding Ring with glow beads. I think the glow bead helps anytime visability is reduced because of rain, clouds, at night or other low-light periods. You can use down riggers, clip-on weights or lead-core line to get down to the fish. I prefer using a 7-foot Shakespere Sturdy Stick with a Penn 209 reel and 100 yards of 18# test lead-core line. Take out about 6 inches of lead from the end of the lead core and insert 25 feet of 15 pound mono line into the empty space created by the removal of the lead-core for the leader. Tie two over-hand knots in this area where the lines merge and you will have a connection that you can wind up on your reel. If you use a snap swivel at the end of the lead-core,or try to tie a surgeons or nail knot, instead of the knot described here, you will either have too much line out past the swivel and will not be able to reel up enough line to net the fish, or you will have to shorten the leader, so short that it will not be effective, which is not recommended. Once you're in the right area with the right bait, getting fish to bite can be easy. Using a depth finder with GPS and creating and following trolling trails and hitting waypoints where you've caught fish before can improve your odds of succuss. I use the Eagle Elite 500C color/GPS depth finder. To get the right speed, trolling with our big motor, you may want to drop a drift sock off the nose of the boat. Speed is very important when fishing for kokanee. Kokanee don't eat fish and don't have to chase their foot. They eat plankton and other small creatures or life in the water. So keep your speed 1.5 mph or less. The real trick is in landing kokanee. These fish have paper thin and small mouths. Every fish I've ever landed has been just barely hooked. DO NOT SET THE HOOK ON A KOKANEE! Kokanee will hook themselves. Idle the boat, have other fishermen with lines out real in as fast as they can, to get out of the way, and SLOWLY real the fish in. Make sure that your Rod tip is up; keep slack out of the line but never put too much preasure on the fish. stop reeling when the fish is tugging on the line. If the fish is running toward you. Reel up slack quick, but never, never, apply too much preasure. You must have a good snubber (a rubberband type tube that stretches as the fish tugs or leaps so that they don't rip the hook out). The next thing is that you have to have a net man (or woman) to be ready to net the fish as soon as it arrives at the boat. A long extendable net is a good idea. I prefer nets that have octagon sides rather than round sides (the shape of the handle) so that the pin automatically falls into the hole when extended. Also, remember you must net a kokanee, you cannot lift them into the boat. Trying to set the hook, yanking the rod tip, and trying to hoist a kokanee into the boat guarantees you will lose the fish. If you have questions about kokanee fishing, drop me a line by going to LINKS on this website. God Bless and great fishing. |
