kokanee advice?

[Staneycup66]

Never fished for kokanee through the ice anyone have some advice they could part with? Thanks

[missoulafish]

Where you going to target them at? If you don't want to share on the web, PM me.

[pmmpete]

A typical kokanee rig is a big silver spoon, such as one from cheap lure, followed by a foot or a foot and a half of leader tipped with a small rocker-type lure with one or two maggots on it.  Try a red rocker lure to start with, as that color seems to be most consistently successful, but experiment with other colors and with glow lures.  Jerk on your line to make the spoon flip, flutter, and flash, which attracts kokanee. 

Kokanee bite very lightly.  You will have most success if you are on a lake where you can see your lure and the kokanee down your hole when you are fishing in a dark ice shelter.  This typically means that the kokanee are in the top 4-8 feet of the water.  You can find those conditions at Georgetown Lake, fishing in water perhaps 20 feet deep, although so far this year in Georgetown Lake the kokanee have been down out of sight.  On a good day when the kokanee are high enough to see, there will often be several kokanee milling around your lure, and darting in to nip at the lure.  As the kokanee nip, you have to try to set the hook.  Timing is critical.  Even when you get your timing pretty good, you may only be hooking kokanee on a third of your attempts.  But when sight fishing, you can catch a lot of fish.  50-80 fish days at Georgetown Lake, where there is no limit on kokanee, are not at all unusual.  And you may pick up some trout as well.  Kokanee have soft mouths, so don't try to set the hook too hard. Just quickly pull the kokanee to the surface and lift them out of the water.

I'm lousy at fishing for kokanee when they are down out of sight, so I'll let somebody else explain techniques that work for that.  If the fish are out of sight, a fishfinder which is sensitive enough to pick up a small rocker lure is very helpful, because it allows you to position your lure and flasher at the same depth as the kokanee schools.

You can catch kokanee using a Jawjacker.  Set up the jawjacker in a hole near the hole where you are actively jigging, so your jigging will attract kokanee both to your active lure and the lure on your jawjacker. 

The kokanee you want to catch are the ones which are going to spawn next fall, which are the biggest silver kokanee.  When talking about kokanee, "big" is a relative thing - on most lakes in Montana, if you catch a 12 inch kokanee while ice fishing, you should report it to Boone and Crockett.  Kokanee which are going to spawn in two years will be pretty small.  In the early winter you may catch some Kokanee which spawned last fall, but haven't died yet.  These "spawners" will be a mottled brownish maroon color, will have a long hooked jaw and a humped back, and will be bigger than the silver kokanee.  They aren't very tasty either cooked or smoked, and most people throw them back.

[Staneycup66]

Thanks for the advice guys, I was primarily thinking for Helena valley but also Harrison lake possibly

[pmmpete]

Stanleycup66, for information about kokanee fishing techniques when they aren't in sight through your hole, check out the Georgetown Lake page in the Montana Fishing Reports subforum at the end of December 2015.

[vicster]

Helena Valley has some big Kokes in it.  I like white peg corn on my jig there which is bigger than the single maggot I use elsewhere but the bigger salmon don't seem to mind.  Flasher makes a big difference for finding fish.

[pmmpete]

As far as I know, the Helena Valley Regulating Reservoir has the biggest kokanee in the state of Montana.  I do a lot of open-water downrigger trolling for kokanee there in the summer, and by the end of the summer am catching 16-18 inch kokanee.  However, I haven't been ice fishing for kokanee in the Regulating Reservoir.

If anybody knows of other lakes in Montana which have big kokanee, let me know!  Catching kokanee in the Helena Valley Regulating Reservoir has kind of spoiled me for open water fishing for kokanee in lakes where a 10-11 inch kokanee is a big kokanee.

[vicster]

Little bitterroot up in the flathead.  It takes a long time to ice up and the big fish are in 100 ft plus of water so it can be tough to find/hook them(or so I've been told, never fished it myself).  I've seen pics though, there are some toads in there.

[TCubed]

Little bitterroot up in the flathead.  It takes a long time to ice up and the big fish are in 100 ft plus of water so it can be tough to find/hook them(or so I've been told, never fished it myself).  I've seen pics though, there are some toads in there.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh just kidding there are some monsters in there, but they are as stated very hard to find anymore.

Nick

[missoulafish]

You can keep two Kokes over 12"

[Batanga]

LBL used to be better for size, but we still get some nice ones once it freezes.  There was a guy who caught a 7 lb, 28 incher a couple of years ago trolling for trout.  In 2004 our group caught two over 4 lbs...every year since we typically see a couple over 3 lbs, but they are rare.  Best advice...patience and good eye sight...they can bite so soft sometimes!  Below is a link to the story on that big salmon...incredible fish!

http://m.flatheadnewsgroup.com/hungryhorsenews/outdoors/lakeside-fisherman-enjoys-birthday-gift/article_039e0624-b564-11e1-889f-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm

Missoulafish is correct...only two over 12 inches is the limit.

[BK_Fisherman]

I typically fish for kokanee over deep water between 70 to 120 feet. Kokanee are almost always stratified in the water column feeding on various types of zooplankton, which are generally found higher in the water column and are suspended over deep water. You may find kokanee anywhere from 10-80 feet down so a flasher is a critical asset not only for locating fish, but it also ensures that your lure is being presented at the correct depth where the fish are located.

[pmmpete]

I typically fish for kokanee over deep water between 70 to 120 feet. Kokanee are almost always stratified in the water column feeding on various types of zooplankton, which are generally found higher in the water column and are suspended over deep water. You may find kokanee anywhere from 10-80 feet down so a flasher is a critical asset not only for locating fish, but it also ensures that your lure is being presented at the correct depth where the fish are located.

I catch large numbers of kokanee while ice fishing at Georgetown Lake, because the kokanee at Georgetown Lake are usually visible down the hole, so you can set the hook (or try to set the hook) when you see them nip at your lure and maggot.  However, I'm lousy at fishing for kokanee when they are too deep to be seen.  I can use a fish finder to position my lure at the level of schools of kokanee, but am not real good at getting them onto the ice.  What techniques do you use when ice fishing for kokanee which are too deep to be visible?

[vicster]

LbL the big fish are eating Mysis shrimp, and the big fish are often well over 100 ft deep.

[Batanga]

I like to use spring bobbers when they are biting softly.  When they are biting well, I like to feel the bite with pole(s) in hand to minimize reaction time loss with the spring bobbers.  When fishing deep (over 100 feet), I switch over to braided line to help with setting the hook better.  When fishing really deep (over 200 feet) I use 100% glow in the dark riggings and I charge the paint with a head lamp every 15 minutes or so.  Most importantly, when fishing suspended fish, is to have a good flasher style fish finder (I have a Vexlar).  Heated ice house is nice too!...keeps all your gear and line free of ice, minimizes the variables.  Most times I use maggots, wax worms and/or corn with shrimp oil.  These are some of my tips for fishing NW Montana kokanee...I have buddies that do well doing totally different things.  They are a fun fish to target because there are so may different ways to fish for them....and they taste good.  Especially the ones eating the Mysis shrimp.

[pmmpete]

Vicster and Batanga both mentioned that they have caught kokanee which had been eating Mysis shrimp.  On Flathead Lake, my understanding was that the introduction of Mysis shrimp was what caused what was then an excellent Flathead Lake kokanee fishery to collapse and essentially disappear, because the shrimp ate up the plankton which the kokanee were feeding on.  Why haven't the Mysis shrimp caused the collapse of the kokanee fishery in other lakes such as Little Bitterroot Lake?

Thanks for the tips about ice fishing for deep kokanee.

[TooLucky406]

Pete,

Mysis shrimp lead the collaspe to Kokanee in Flathead not solely due to them feeding on the the plankton rather it help boom the population of the lake trout. It was thought that in many of the Canadian water that the mysis shrimp actually help the population of their kokes and was place in Flathead for that purpose.....that back fire and help the lakers. To my knowledge there are no lakers in LBL, thus benefiting the kokes there. Never fish there myself.

[RicA]

When I was growing up in Whitefish, catching kokanee in Wfish Lake was one of my favorite pastimes.  In the fall it was easy to snag 100's of them for the smoker.  The introduction of the shrimp destroyed all of that.  I can't think of anything in my years here that affected fishing the way that blunder did....well maybe the introduction of pike but that's another story.

[Batanga]

I'm not a biologist, but what we saw in LBL was that it took many years for the salmon to key into the shrimp as a food source.  It is my understanding that the Mysis shrimp have been in LBL since the early 80s (maybe someone could confirm this..), but we didn't start regularly catching salmon in LBL with shrimp in their bellies until the early 2000s.  There seems to be two distinct populations of salmon in LBL:  the ones that eat shrimp and the ones that eat plankton.  The fish that are in the deep water, near the bottom are eating shrimp and are bigger...much bigger.  The plankton salmon are typically suspended in larger schools and are much smaller.  The question I have always had, is why did it take the salmon in LBL so long to key into the shrimp food source?  I sometimes wonder if this delay also had a role into what happened in Flathead Lake.

Another puzzling observation that I have at LBL is that there seems to be more deep/bottom salmon every year that are eating the shrimp, but the average size appears to going down every year.  Could this be that the shrimp food source is limited and now stressed?  If this is true, then harvesting larger numbers of these fish could lessen the stress on the shrimp population, thus allowing for the remain salmon to get bigger?...like they used to???...or was that just a fluke?  But, FWP has put a daily limit of 2 on these larger fish because they are worried about them being overfished...which is also understandable.  It will be interesting to see what we get into this year...just need a few more cold nights to finish capping the lake.  Can you tell that I'm excited? 

[missoulafish]

Similar phenomenon in Flathead too. Deep fish eating shrimp and shallower fish keying on smaller perch and whitefish.

[Staneycup66]

I just graduated from bozo with a degree in fish and wildlife management, my understanding of why it caused a collapse in flathead lake had to do with the fact that mysids tend to move up in the water column during evening and night hours above the level at which kokes feed so that the time when kokanee are most actively feeding mysids wouldn't be at a level in the water column where they could utilize it as food. This had a two pronged effect: smaller lake trout which feed during the day could still effectively utilize the mysids causing the lake trout to grow large enough to feed on kokes, furthermore the mysids were still consuming plankton which reduces forage for the kokanee.

[teamtigerstripe]

Has anyone been out to Ronan yet?

[Mudslide]

Hi Guys
 I'm coming down from Alberta to play in a hockey tournament in Kalispell on Jan 22-23. I'd love to do a little ice fishing while I'm there.  Any advise on lakes near Kalispell that are good for ice fishing would be appreciated. I mostly catch and release and am not picky about species.
Thanks
Mud

[Idahogator]

Hi Mudslide, click on Pete's tackle, top of the page, when there, you'll find a way to contact him/them.   

[Koke Head]

For whatever it's worth, I was koke fishing with a Hailey's on one pole and and a Swedish Pimple/Glow Hook on the other. On this particular day the bite was really on and I could see the fish pretty well.  Of the kokes that approached the glo hook, about 50% bolted upon closer inspection (and no, the tip of the hook was not exposed).The other half would bite.

However, they would bite on the Hailey's hook every time they moved toward it.  Maybe my glow hook was too big, but I have used Hailey's ever since and don't recall ever getting outfished by someone using a Swedish Pimple. In fact, I felt bad for a guy I didn't know who was catching about 1/4 what everyone else was pulling in, I lent him a Hailey's and he started matching everyone else right away. That's just my experience.

[choques 53]

Not familiar with haileys hooks. Can I get them at most sporting goods stores
Thanks

[vicster]

I think he is talking about a hali.  Jigging spoon with small chain to a light wire hook.  You can rig something up with a short piece of mono tied into the split ring of your spoon and a small midge (like a 16-18) nymph, works really well for Kokes as well.  Most larger sporting goods stores will have the hali's.

[Koke Head]

Yes. Hali's. Sorry for the misspelling. Haven't looked at a packaged one in a long time.

Also, you can buy extra hooks in case you lose one off the lure.

[heysharkie]

"Boon n Crocket" that's too funny. Great post.

A typical kokanee rig is a big silver spoon, such as one from cheap lure, followed by a foot or a foot and a half of leader tipped with a small rocker-type lure with one or two maggots on it.  Try a red rocker lure to start with, as that color seems to be most consistently successful, but experiment with other colors and with glow lures.  Jerk on your line to make the spoon flip, flutter, and flash, which attracts kokanee. 

Kokanee bite very lightly.  You will have most success if you are on a lake where you can see your lure and the kokanee down your hole when you are fishing in a dark ice shelter.  This typically means that the kokanee are in the top 4-8 feet of the water.  You can find those conditions at Georgetown Lake, fishing in water perhaps 20 feet deep, although so far this year in Georgetown Lake the kokanee have been down out of sight.  On a good day when the kokanee are high enough to see, there will often be several kokanee milling around your lure, and darting in to nip at the lure.  As the kokanee nip, you have to try to set the hook.  Timing is critical.  Even when you get your timing pretty good, you may only be hooking kokanee on a third of your attempts.  But when sight fishing, you can catch a lot of fish.  50-80 fish days at Georgetown Lake, where there is no limit on kokanee, are not at all unusual.  And you may pick up some trout as well.  Kokanee have soft mouths, so don't try to set the hook too hard. Just quickly pull the kokanee to the surface and lift them out of the water.

I'm lousy at fishing for kokanee when they are down out of sight, so I'll let somebody else explain techniques that work for that.  If the fish are out of sight, a fishfinder which is sensitive enough to pick up a small rocker lure is very helpful, because it allows you to position your lure and flasher at the same depth as the kokanee schools.

You can catch kokanee using a Jawjacker.  Set up the jawjacker in a hole near the hole where you are actively jigging, so your jigging will attract kokanee both to your active lure and the lure on your jawjacker. 

The kokanee you want to catch are the ones which are going to spawn next fall, which are the biggest silver kokanee.  When talking about kokanee, "big" is a relative thing - on most lakes in Montana, if you catch a 12 inch kokanee while ice fishing, you should report it to Boone and Crockett.  Kokanee which are going to spawn in two years will be pretty small.  In the early winter you may catch some Kokanee which spawned last fall, but haven't died yet.  These "spawners" will be a mottled brownish maroon color, will have a long hooked jaw and a humped back, and will be bigger than the silver kokanee.  They aren't very tasty either cooked or smoked, and most people throw them back.

[BK_Fisherman]

Pmmpete,

Yes, Georgetown is somewhat of an anomaly, with an average lake depth of approximately 16 feet it certainly holds a large population of kokanee. Most lakes that support large kokanee populations are much deeper, and therefore finding where they are stratified at in the water column on that particular day can often be the hardest part. Personally, a sensitive rod with a light tip and/or spring bobber is key on the light biting days. The setup you described earlier in this thread should work fine, I just do slow 6" to 14" lifts of the rod tip and it seems like the majority of the bites come on the "drop/pause" between lifts. I prefer use light mono line, but the deeper you go some guys prefer to use light braid spliced to a fluorocarbon leader. Kokanee have soft mouths, so while you will feel more bites with braid, it's far less forgiving on the head shakes. Your flasher is the most critical piece of gear for deep water kokanee, altering cadence and watching how they react to different colors is key. It always seems like if you can catch that first one, you can duplicate what you did and catch a limit. Some the best kokanee fisherman I have seen have an uncanny ability to "anticipate" the bite due to experience, luck, or both! I will also add that as with any salmon, kokanee have an incredible sense of smell so adding some sort of scent to your maggots makes all the difference some days.

Additionally, here is the link to a well written synopsis of how the introduction of opossum shrimp (Mysis diluviana) led to a trophic cascade in the Flathead Lake ecosystem. IMHO, a case of good initiative, bad judgement:

http://mtprof.msun.edu/Fall2012/ellis.html