Northwest Fishing Reports

So, I bumped into kokanee at Lake Bosworth. I'm interested in catching more of them, preferably above 10 inches which was the biggest we saw.

Then this morning I was reading reports from Clallam County, where my father lives. Apparently there's heaps of kokanee in Lake Sutherland. It would be a bit of a drive, but whatever.

Is there a good season to fish for kokanee? I know they will bite now to some extent, as we caught them in Bosworth last weekend. But is now the right time? Will they bite into November and December? What is the best time of year? Because if I do go out there, I want to make sure we get 2 limits to justify the travel time and expense.

As a basic game plan, just motor around until you see returns on fish finder, drop down riggers to that depth, little dodgers + mini squids / wedding rings + shrimp scent = success? Yes? I also noticed in Bosworth they seem to enjoy a piece of nightcrawler. We caught one kokanee just on a drifting piece, no lure. So maybe a piece of nightcrawler on a wedding ring.

Any kokanee expert willing to weigh in on this and offer any other valuable advice would be appreciated.

I've never fished for them myself, but hopefully you'll get feedback from many of the experienced anglers on this site. In the meantime you might check out the "video" section that has at least a couple videos on Koke fishing as well as look at this article. http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReadArticle.aspx?id=582

FWIW.

Thanks, that's a good article for the technicals. I'll have to figure out what shoepeg corn is.

I'll wait and see what we get in terms of commentary on time of year.

That's a great article. Yes, you can catch them now. You may run into some that are/will be spawning. And some that aren't. Kokanee gotta eat too, lol. Check the lake regs beforehand so you don't go all that way for nothing.

Shoepeg is white corn. Look to see it says shoepeg on the can.

I've caught and released kokanee in Lake Sammamish on a nightcrawler. Not sure it's their preferred food, but they will bite on nightcrawler sometimes.

I use regular corn treated with "Kokanee Killer Korn Magic" and do just fine "shoe peg" corn is supposedly better because of some amino acid of something, but I haven't really noticed a difference between the 2 when getting these fish to bite.

Thanks for responses guys.

If kokanee are spawning, are they like salmon? Rot, spawn, rot more, and then die? So no good to eat?

whorde wrote:Thanks for responses guys.

If kokanee are spawning, are they like salmon? Rot, spawn, rot more, and then die? So no good to eat?

They are land locked sockeye salmon. Spawn and die. Toni has caught and kept spawners, calls em "vampires", like any changing salmon just depends how far along they are in the end of life cycle.

http://www.blm.gov/id/st/en/environment ... almon.html

ok cool. thanks.

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Very nice synopsis.

This is shoe peg corn. Look up the lake on the site and read the past post of what people have used and you can follow what months were the most productive. Play with sents. For me I have only had luck on Lake stevens koks with shoe peg corn. There are many articals, posts and blogs that cover the topic Kokanee. Good luck

If you have the premium membership you can run a historical report for the lake as well.

You can fish for Kokanee in Lake Sutherland from the 4th Saturday in April to October 31 as it is not a year-round lake.

Ok thanks for advice guys. Looks like I missed the boat for this year. I'll either be fishing for little kokanee or nothing till next spring.

On the general kokanee note, they are landlocked sockeye ... then how the heck are there kokanee in Lake Bosworth? Google maps tells me it's directly connected to the Pilchuck river via Coon Creek.

Same question for Lake Sutherland, which is directly connected to Elwha river via Indian creek.

Neither of those options seem very landlocked to me.

WDFW have planted kokanee throughout the state in various lakes.

so kokanee have totally lost the urge to go to sea?

I think for every sockeye population there is an accompanying kokanee population. I also believe when there is a sockeye population along with a kokanee fishery, size limits often apply. Thankfully I don't live anywhere near any of these places

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