Must Know Facts About How To Catch Kokanee

Are you planning to catch kokanee to add a new experience in your fishing dairies?

Kokanee salmon were presented experimentally in many lakes and reservoirs in broad numbers in North America during the 1940s.

Since then it has been a huge success that soon developed into a glorious sport for many anglers in West as well as eastern waters. Kokanee is usually found in abundant and even are known to taste great.

Well, fishing Kokanee successfully could be considered as an art, and you would be successful if you comprehend much about their habitats, behavior, fishing techniques, and other aspects.

We have come up with a list of how to catch Kokanee along with some other information that could let you to successful fishing.

Where To Find Kokanee

  • You would find Kokanee inhabiting in the intermediate depths of open water bodies.
  • The fish is known to favor water temperature less than 54 degrees F.
  • Temperature of water probably plays a vital role in the survival and lifecycle of Kokanee. Temperatures more than 55 degrees could become lethal to Kokanee.
  • The ideal temperature for their effective growth and survival would be 50F to 54F. Hence, you would have to find the perfect water temperature in the water column to locate the fish significantly.
where to find kokanee

Kokanees would move to shallow water along the shorelines in spring as it offers the right temperature. However, the fish would move towards the thermocline of the river or lake in summer.

The thermocline is known to be the meeting place of cold and warm waters. This place is fulfilled with dissolved oxygen, and this is vital for all fishes. Hence, you could position your line above or within the thermocline to get a good result.

With the end of the summer, adult Kokanee would begin preparing for spawning. Kokanees would be moving towards shallow water for starting the process.

where to catch kokanee

Spawning ones usually stay in gravel inlets or creek mouths, so these could be the best places to fish for Kokanees during this time.

What You Will Need

Fishing Rod

An ultra-weight bait casting rod would be a good option to use for catching Kokanee. A flexible rod would offer you the best advantage to fight Kokanee.

Well, you won’t use bait casting rod for casting but to troll perfectly.

Here are some products that you could select for fishing kokanee:

Last update on 2018-02-27 PST - Details

Fishing Reel

A bait casting reel with smoother drag would be essential for Kokanee fishing.

Here are two products that could worthy of purchase for kokanee:

Last update on 2018-02-27 PST - Details

Fishing Line

You could use both monofilament and braided fishing lines of about 8 to 10 pounds test diameter for catching Kokanee.

These are some of the products that you could consider to purchase for your purpose:

Fishing Lure

Kokanee is generally known to feed on planktons, but they might enthusiastically hit lures.

Spinners, Bugs, Hootchies, smaller spoons would be some of the standard lures offered to Kokanee. The fish is even known to get attracted to different colored lures.

You could opt for hot pink, fluorescent orange, fluorescent red as well as chartreuse.

However, the popular options of present days would be the lures in the glow-in dark finish.

Flashers & Dodgers

You could run a little dodger of the lure and start your fishing day.

You would get many kinds of small trolling dodgers produced by several companies in the market due to the rising of kokanee trolling.

When the Dodger moves in the water, the side to side, flashy action will attract the fish.

Scent

Adding scent on the shoepeg corn has gained much popularity for many years. These scents would include garlic, anise, vanilla and many others.


Step-By-Step Instructions: How To Catch Kokanee

Step 1: Selecting The Right Spot

You would first have to choose an area where the temperature of the water is lesser than 50 degrees F.

right spot for fishing kokanee

If the water body where you will be fishing is hotter than this temperature, then the Kokanee salmon would likely be found assembled closer the bottom or across narrow, cool bands.

Step 2: Proceeding Through The Converging Waters

You would have to proceed to where streams or rivers run in your selected water body. Such converging body of water more likely could hold Kokanee in a significant amount.

Step 3: Tipping The Lure

Now, you would have to employ the lure, and then will be tipping the lure with smaller pieces of maggots or worm.

You could use any of the commonly used lures of Kokanee like small spoons, bugs, or spinners.

Step 4: Trolling Through The Water Body

You would now be trolling along your selected water body and work your used lure slowly. Kokanees would be hitting slow-moving lures more than others.

However, it doesn’t mean that trolling faster would discount your scopes, but it would be better to troll at 1.5 miles per hour or even slower.

Step 5: Troll In Straight Line

Now, you would be speeding up for some moments time to time. You would have to move your lure in such a way that it looks natural.

Hence, you would have to be slow and shorter burst of speed would have to be carried out at regular intervals.

However, you would troll not in the straight line but curved line. Likewise, your catch would be on your boat.

Pro Tips on How to Catch Kokanee


  • Trolling could be the most efficient way for targeting Kokanee. This process would help you in covering wide area in water in a shorter time
  • It would be better to use electronics for discovering schools of Kokanee and appropriate depth of trolling. You could use sonar to spot the fish quickly
  • If you troll in a straight line, you will not get a good outcome. Hence, you would have to execute the process in ‘S’ pattern
  • Downriggers would help to target the appropriate depths in the rivers or lakes
  • You could use several weights of ½ to 4 ounces in the absence of downriggers. However, while using online weight, you would have to count the number of feet out, and after being successful in fishing, you could repeat the pattern as well as depth
  • Your rod would have to be of light action. The flexibility of the rod would prevent the fish from snagging off
  • Lures such as hoochies would have to be fastened with Dodger as such lures could not produce own action
  • The speed of trolling would have to be about 0.8 to 1.2 miles per hour. However, it would have to be 0.8 to 1.9 miles per hour while employing downriggers.

Conclusion

Well, this was all that we had on our list of how to catch Kokanee. Like we mentioned earlier that you would have to consider all the aspects related to the fish like their life cycle, habitats, feeding patterns and others to attain a consistent outcome.

Many anglers are reported to have failed in catching Kokanee even fishing where the school of kokanee is known to exist.

Fishing Kokanee could sometimes be challenging, but it could turn enjoyable once you present things according to the right conditions.

We hope that our above-mentioned list will provide much valuable information to let you on the right track. Well, if you have any queries or advice, do let us know in the comments.

Ted Thomas
 

Hi there, I'm Ted Thomas, an ardent adventure writer. I write for readers with a genuine interest in enjoying the great outdoors. By sharing my experiences camping, hunting and fishing, I hope to inspire others to fully explore the depths of their passion.

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