When the bite is on, there's nothing like hooking a kokanee
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/369119_koka [2008-7-4]
Tag : Squid Ring
There are a few reasons why. If you use light tackle, kokanee aresuperb fighters when they get up over 12 inches, jumpingrepeatedly, taking short runs and even slack-lining an angler byrunning straight at the boat. A fat kokanee of 15 to 19 inches,ranging from 1.5 to 3 pounds -- the state record is a 6.25-poundertaken in Roosevelt Lake in 2003 -- sometimes will fight like amini-king salmon.
"If you gear down to them, they're a very fun fish to catch," saysEd Manary, retired state salmon program manager and avid kokaneeangler.
But the most outstanding thing about these fish is theirout-of-this-world flavor. They are sockeye, after all, arguably therichest, tastiest of all the Pacific salmon, and kokanee areperhaps even higher in oil content than sea-run sockeye.
"They're as tasty as any of the salmonids we catch -- they're rightup there with spring chinook," Kraemer says. "But the nice thingabout kokanee is, you can catch them for months at a time."
Says Uehara: "Oh man, they are so good. If kokanee didn't taste asgood, I don't think you'd see the level of enthusiasm you see."
In Western Washington, however, the state's kokanee program couldbe in jeopardy. In the near future, the main source of kokanee eggsfor planting in westside lakes -- the huge Lake Whatcom kokaneepopulation -- likely will be lost due to a plan to introducechinook salmon to the watershed. Millions of eggs annually aretaken from Lake Whatcom kokanee, and they then are reared inhatcheries to fry size before being planted.
Part of Lake Whatcom's water comes from the Middle Fork NooksackRiver, where wild chinook are blocked by passage barriers and wherethe Nooksack Tribe wants to introduce them from other forks of theriver. These chinook, of course, are listed as threatened under theEndangered Species Act, and the state has agreed to the tribalplan.
The problem is that the Nooksack chinook carry some naturallyoccurring diseases not presently found in the middle fork or inLake Whatcom, and the kokanee might pick them up. It is againststate policy and is bad environmental policy in general to plantfish that might carry pathogens into other watersheds.
"Some of the guys who fish kokanee a lot are concerned about it,"says Kraemer.
Uehara says the agency is actively studying new sources of kokaneeeggs and vows that a viable one will be found. But the biologist isconcerned. "We're doing everything we can. This is a very importantfishery. We recognize this as a priority in our program."
The tribe could begin moving chinook into the middle fork thisfall, Uehara says, if they acquire funding for the project.
In the meantime, anglers have been enjoying a decent season forkokanee this year, although a bit less consistent than many years.
"The lovely spring weather we had kept the fishing in a state offlux," Kraemer says.
Usually by April, anglers in Washington are catching kokanee, whichcontinue to bite through September, when they take on a colorfulspawning appearance -- like migratory sockeye -- and seek outplaces to spawn. Most kokanee anglers consider May the best monthbecause most years lakes have warmed on the surface by then andschools of kokanee begin to concentrate at levels with theirpreferred water temperatures of the mid-50s.
An angler can then fish at that specific depth and do very well. Itis not unusual for an angler to catch his or her limit in an houror two, depending on the limit. In most lakes the limit is fivekokanee per day, the same as the general trout limit. But somelakes that produce naturally spawning kokanee grow so many that thefish tend to remain small, so the state increases the limit to cropthe population and boost the size of the fish.
Lake Stevens, for example, has a limit of 10 per day and for yearshas sustained a quality fishery for kokanee of anywhere from 10 to17 inches.
The bite has been inconsistent this year due not just to theweather, but also to the unpredictable nature of the fish. That'sanother thing that makes them fun.
"Almost every day they present a fishing puzzle," Kraemer says. "Ilike solving those puzzles. And with these guys, the puzzle canchange hour to hour. Seems like you can be dialed into the fish forhalf an hour or 45 minutes, then all of a sudden they're gone.Where did they go?"
When you do solve the puzzle, however, fishing can be fast.
"One of the things I enjoy about it is using different lures undervarying light or other conditions to figure out how to get them tobite," says Manary, who showed me his bag of kokanee tricksrecently on American Lake. "One of life's greater mysteries is thatthese things are plankton feeders, so why would they strike on thisstuff?"
Kokanee will strike on all manner of gear: bait, spinners, spoons,plastic squid or "hootchies," flies, even strings of beads. Almostalways, however, these offerings are tipped with either maggots ora type of corn known as shoepeg corn -- and nobody knows why eitherhelps. Most of the time these bait-tipped lures are fished behind avery small nickel- or brass-finish metal attractor blade like adodger or wobbler, or a series of wobblers known as pop gear.
Back in the day the standard method of fishing kokanee, thenusually referred to as silver trout, was still-fishing from a boatanchored at both ends so as not to sway with the breeze -- keepingthe lure dead still -- using a single red salmon egg tipped with amaggot or corn. That remains the preferred technique in some lakes,such as Shannon, and it's a fun way to fish.
But today people on most kokanee lakes generally troll withdownriggers. Probably the most popular lure is a wedding ringspinner. But very avid kokanee fishermen will have in their tackleboxes all those lures mentioned, in various colors, mixing upofferings until the fish bite consistently.
In addition, a kokanee fishermen with any sense never forgetsscents. Intense debate can rage over a dizzying variety: KokaneeLunker Lotion, Kokanee DNA, Super Gel, Smelly Jelly, herring oil,shrimp oil, anise oil.
"A lot of those scents work really well, but there are days whenone will work better than the other," says Kraemer, who keeps a fewon hand and hedges his bets by mixing his own secret sauce.
Why the kokanee bite on any of that stuff is, as Manary says, thebig mystery. They are primarily filter feeders, straining the waterfor zooplankton like daphnia, an aquatic crustacean, and alsoeating freshwater shrimp in lakes that have them, as well asinsects.
Perhaps because they feed this way, they have soft mouths, andanglers lose a lot of the kokanee that become unhooked.
"I was out here once and went one for seven," says Manary. "Youwonder, what they hell is going on?"
Some anglers use a dampening "rubber-snubber" just behind theirdodger to reduce the loss of fish due to its soft mouth. But thepreferred way to reduce losses is to use a soft and limber rod, 6to 8 feet, that bends along its entire length, from butt to tip,rather than mostly in the tip. Line weights need not be tiny, sincethe fish do not appear to be "leader-shy," so you can go with 8- to10-pound test.
But the fish do appear to be boat-shy, so most anglers pull out 60or more feet of line before clipping into the downrigger.
Time of day also is a factor in angling success.
"You can catch these fish throughout the day, but there's noquestion there's a definite early morning bite," says Manary.
It's not unusual for kokanee anglers to start at 5 a.m. Anotherreason is that in summer, jet skiers, water-skiers, wake boardersand inner tubers run rampant on many lakes well before noon. Thatinterferes with trolling patterns and maybe more.
"I do know kokanee do not like jet skis. There's something aboutthe pitch or whine," says Manary.
That was another positive thing about my recent day on Stevensfishing kokes with Kraemer. The only people crazy enough to be outin that miserable morning rain were kokanee anglers -- and what afine misery it was. IF YOU GO Two good online resources for Washington kokanee anglers are washingtonlakes.com and gamefishin.com . The former has basic details on many kokanee lakes, an activereports page where anglers relate recent catches, and discussionforums. The latter offers more active forum pages, often withdetailed discussion of kokanee fishing as well as catch reports. You will need a Washington freshwater or combination fishinglicense to fish for kokanee. The basic resident freshwater licenseis $21.90; for details see fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov . You can find limits, season dates and other rules here: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing . The Department of Fish and Wildlife also offers an informativeannual pamphlet listing lakes by county, the species they containand how fishing should be in them; you can download the pamphlet asa PDF file (1.4 MB) at goto.seattlepi.com/r1513 .
There are a few reasons why. If you use light tackle, kokanee aresuperb fighters when they get up over 12 inches, jumpingrepeatedly, taking short runs and even slack-lining an angler byrunning straight at the boat. A fat kokanee of 15 to 19 inches,ranging from 1.5 to 3 pounds -- the state record is a 6.25-poundertaken in Roosevelt Lake in 2003 -- sometimes will fight like amini-king salmon.
"If you gear down to them, they're a very fun fish to catch," saysEd Manary, retired state salmon program manager and avid kokaneeangler.
But the most outstanding thing about these fish is theirout-of-this-world flavor. They are sockeye, after all, arguably therichest, tastiest of all the Pacific salmon, and kokanee areperhaps even higher in oil content than sea-run sockeye.
"They're as tasty as any of the salmonids we catch -- they're rightup there with spring chinook," Kraemer says. "But the nice thingabout kokanee is, you can catch them for months at a time."
Says Uehara: "Oh man, they are so good. If kokanee didn't taste asgood, I don't think you'd see the level of enthusiasm you see."
In Western Washington, however, the state's kokanee program couldbe in jeopardy. In the near future, the main source of kokanee eggsfor planting in westside lakes -- the huge Lake Whatcom kokaneepopulation -- likely will be lost due to a plan to introducechinook salmon to the watershed. Millions of eggs annually aretaken from Lake Whatcom kokanee, and they then are reared inhatcheries to fry size before being planted.
Part of Lake Whatcom's water comes from the Middle Fork NooksackRiver, where wild chinook are blocked by passage barriers and wherethe Nooksack Tribe wants to introduce them from other forks of theriver. These chinook, of course, are listed as threatened under theEndangered Species Act, and the state has agreed to the tribalplan.
The problem is that the Nooksack chinook carry some naturallyoccurring diseases not presently found in the middle fork or inLake Whatcom, and the kokanee might pick them up. It is againststate policy and is bad environmental policy in general to plantfish that might carry pathogens into other watersheds.
"Some of the guys who fish kokanee a lot are concerned about it,"says Kraemer.
Uehara says the agency is actively studying new sources of kokaneeeggs and vows that a viable one will be found. But the biologist isconcerned. "We're doing everything we can. This is a very importantfishery. We recognize this as a priority in our program."
The tribe could begin moving chinook into the middle fork thisfall, Uehara says, if they acquire funding for the project.
In the meantime, anglers have been enjoying a decent season forkokanee this year, although a bit less consistent than many years.
"The lovely spring weather we had kept the fishing in a state offlux," Kraemer says.
Usually by April, anglers in Washington are catching kokanee, whichcontinue to bite through September, when they take on a colorfulspawning appearance -- like migratory sockeye -- and seek outplaces to spawn. Most kokanee anglers consider May the best monthbecause most years lakes have warmed on the surface by then andschools of kokanee begin to concentrate at levels with theirpreferred water temperatures of the mid-50s.
An angler can then fish at that specific depth and do very well. Itis not unusual for an angler to catch his or her limit in an houror two, depending on the limit. In most lakes the limit is fivekokanee per day, the same as the general trout limit. But somelakes that produce naturally spawning kokanee grow so many that thefish tend to remain small, so the state increases the limit to cropthe population and boost the size of the fish.
Lake Stevens, for example, has a limit of 10 per day and for yearshas sustained a quality fishery for kokanee of anywhere from 10 to17 inches.
The bite has been inconsistent this year due not just to theweather, but also to the unpredictable nature of the fish. That'sanother thing that makes them fun.
"Almost every day they present a fishing puzzle," Kraemer says. "Ilike solving those puzzles. And with these guys, the puzzle canchange hour to hour. Seems like you can be dialed into the fish forhalf an hour or 45 minutes, then all of a sudden they're gone.Where did they go?"
When you do solve the puzzle, however, fishing can be fast.
"One of the things I enjoy about it is using different lures undervarying light or other conditions to figure out how to get them tobite," says Manary, who showed me his bag of kokanee tricksrecently on American Lake. "One of life's greater mysteries is thatthese things are plankton feeders, so why would they strike on thisstuff?"
Kokanee will strike on all manner of gear: bait, spinners, spoons,plastic squid or "hootchies," flies, even strings of beads. Almostalways, however, these offerings are tipped with either maggots ora type of corn known as shoepeg corn -- and nobody knows why eitherhelps. Most of the time these bait-tipped lures are fished behind avery small nickel- or brass-finish metal attractor blade like adodger or wobbler, or a series of wobblers known as pop gear.
Back in the day the standard method of fishing kokanee, thenusually referred to as silver trout, was still-fishing from a boatanchored at both ends so as not to sway with the breeze -- keepingthe lure dead still -- using a single red salmon egg tipped with amaggot or corn. That remains the preferred technique in some lakes,such as Shannon, and it's a fun way to fish.
But today people on most kokanee lakes generally troll withdownriggers. Probably the most popular lure is a wedding ringspinner. But very avid kokanee fishermen will have in their tackleboxes all those lures mentioned, in various colors, mixing upofferings until the fish bite consistently.
In addition, a kokanee fishermen with any sense never forgetsscents. Intense debate can rage over a dizzying variety: KokaneeLunker Lotion, Kokanee DNA, Super Gel, Smelly Jelly, herring oil,shrimp oil, anise oil.
"A lot of those scents work really well, but there are days whenone will work better than the other," says Kraemer, who keeps a fewon hand and hedges his bets by mixing his own secret sauce.
Why the kokanee bite on any of that stuff is, as Manary says, thebig mystery. They are primarily filter feeders, straining the waterfor zooplankton like daphnia, an aquatic crustacean, and alsoeating freshwater shrimp in lakes that have them, as well asinsects.
Perhaps because they feed this way, they have soft mouths, andanglers lose a lot of the kokanee that become unhooked.
"I was out here once and went one for seven," says Manary. "Youwonder, what they hell is going on?"
Some anglers use a dampening "rubber-snubber" just behind theirdodger to reduce the loss of fish due to its soft mouth. But thepreferred way to reduce losses is to use a soft and limber rod, 6to 8 feet, that bends along its entire length, from butt to tip,rather than mostly in the tip. Line weights need not be tiny, sincethe fish do not appear to be "leader-shy," so you can go with 8- to10-pound test.
But the fish do appear to be boat-shy, so most anglers pull out 60or more feet of line before clipping into the downrigger.
Time of day also is a factor in angling success.
"You can catch these fish throughout the day, but there's noquestion there's a definite early morning bite," says Manary.
It's not unusual for kokanee anglers to start at 5 a.m. Anotherreason is that in summer, jet skiers, water-skiers, wake boardersand inner tubers run rampant on many lakes well before noon. Thatinterferes with trolling patterns and maybe more.
"I do know kokanee do not like jet skis. There's something aboutthe pitch or whine," says Manary.
That was another positive thing about my recent day on Stevensfishing kokes with Kraemer. The only people crazy enough to be outin that miserable morning rain were kokanee anglers -- and what afine misery it was. IF YOU GO Two good online resources for Washington kokanee anglers are washingtonlakes.com and gamefishin.com . The former has basic details on many kokanee lakes, an activereports page where anglers relate recent catches, and discussionforums. The latter offers more active forum pages, often withdetailed discussion of kokanee fishing as well as catch reports. You will need a Washington freshwater or combination fishinglicense to fish for kokanee. The basic resident freshwater licenseis $21.90; for details see fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov . You can find limits, season dates and other rules here: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing . The Department of Fish and Wildlife also offers an informativeannual pamphlet listing lakes by county, the species they containand how fishing should be in them; you can download the pamphlet asa PDF file (1.4 MB) at goto.seattlepi.com/r1513 .
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