Anderson Ranch was a late start due to a lingering winter. Then it was hit by a Mormon Cricket infestation mid July. The top of the water was littered with free fish food! Needless to say, the fishing was not so great. However, we went back in late August & managed a couple 22 inch Kokes and 2 more over 19. I feel like 2024 is going to be a better year for Anderson. Our favorite back up lately has been Arrow Rock especially earlier in the season.
@@spiltmilt yeah I’ve seen it happen at lower twin in north Idaho too. It’s been 5 years since I’ve seen them in there but 6 years ago they were bigger than ever.
I hit Hayden last spring and got a 21.75” my PB. We also found an 18”, 17” and 15.5”. Really nice grade of fish. A nice change from my home lake merwin that hardly kicks out anything over 14”
Thanks for sharing. I'm in eastern idaho. I made it over to Anderson a couple times last year. While we did catch fish. I didn't think it was great. I'm hoping for more this year. Kokanee fishing was terrible on the eastern side of the state last year.
Anderson produced some nice fish this year for sure several just shy of 20"! Lucky peak produced multiple 16" for me on new years day, excited to see how big they may get
Its variable by reservoir but I tend to better trolling at slower troll speeds, planers can help if fish are feeding shallow, and don't be afraid to troll near shore.
Thanks for a good list of lakes to hit. Two questions for you: 1 - what is your forecast for Cushman and Baker? 2 - Do kokanee have the same distinct flavor that you get with sockeye?
I haven't seen the Baker forecasts yet but the Columbia River Sockeye are looking great. I know little about Cushman. As for taste they have a similar flavor to searun sockeye but tend not to be as firm but it varies widely by lake, water quality, and diet.
I can possibly touch on Cushman since we have fished this body of water for the last 10+yrs. We started to notice in 2023 the kokanee getting a little bigger than prior years and consistently catching other species with our largest rainbow yet. This may be do to the Tacoma hydro fisheries project that started in 2017 and giving less fish more room to feed? We also released more chinook than average of prior years which have also grown in size. For the meat, the fish produced at Cushman I personally hadn't seen or tasted better before the fishery project started. I expect Cushman to turn into the next Baker lake fishery in the future but that's just my opinion. For big kokanee we fish Anderson Ranch, ID.
Hey Tyler, great content as usual. Question: How do you handle your fish (preserve) when your traveling? If you have a vid that deals with this, maybe post the link. Thanks
As a mid valley person, Detroit is an easy trip for me, glad you mentioned it. Yeah, Green Peter, that's a whole other disappointing story there, what a disaster.
Nice kokanne...what a monster. That net looks perfect for kokanne and light for one handed use. Can you tell me what net it is so I can order one. I lost mine off my 120 pdl last Friday on lake Stevens.
Is the fact that we have no quality Kokanee water on the west side of Washington all due to poor management? So frustrating to have to drive hours to find good numbers that aren’t horribly stunted.
I think most of the lakes there are over-stocked or have high populations due to wild spawners. Western Oregon has a similar issue as well. Its telling to me that you can go just across the border into California and find big Kokanee at Whiskeytown.
@@jessetharp6319 absolutely. In fact the fisheries bio in Connecticut who manages their Kokanee lakes noticed a direct negative correlation between trout stocking rates and kokanee size so he started cutting back on trout to bring the average Kokanee size back up.
@@spiltmilt really interesting. Is by chance any of that info published somewhere? I’d like to start contacting WDFW about some of this and see if it gets any traction. Closed mouths don’t get fed after all. Published material from another state agency would carry more weight than my gripes I would think.
Anderson was good to me this past year, several 19-20" kokes for me. Was at lucky peak on new years day and pulled 2 16" kokes already! Should be a good year in the Boise area. Have a question also... I'm having success in the winter months here but feel like I could be doing better. Any suggestions for the open water winter kokanee fishing?
I was wondering if you had any plans to do a video about locating Kokanee once the lakes ice up? I keep hearing contradictory information on where to find them.
No for several reasons. First is most bass videos I do hardly cover the expense of making the video. Secondly bass are not stocked and the fisheries can be over exploited more easily than Kokanee fisheries so I keep them close to vest
@@spiltmilt sounds good thanks for the quick reply! Someone recommended a Fenwick rod and Shimano 1000 reel for ice. I'd be interested to start looking into some other options for lakes as well, do you have any videos or recommendations on starter gear for that? Cheers - new to the channel but awesome videos with great tips so far 👍
What chronology would you apply to these 10? Like which would you think would be hottest in which months? (Since my RUDE wife decided to get pregnant, and hatch a critter in July, thinking of a trip in April/ May)
Have you read in the news about the Kokanee die off in lake CDA last year? Also, I hit Hayden once last year, got just one. Loon Lake also seemed to have zero kokanee in it for some reason
Loon dropped off the year before last. There were fish around that were big but not many. Not sure of the cause. We've had several Kokanee fisheries in north-central Washington tank in the last few years.
@@spiltmilt Loon has been dropping off, no doubt. I've also heard too many stories of night fishermen pulling 100+ per boat. Anyway, would like to see you try landlocked salmon on CDA
I literally limited out in all those lakes multiple times last year. Pulled 300 out of Hayden alone and cda lake has so many kokanee in it you could kill a couple million and there would still be too many. Loon last year put out bigger kokes than that lake has seen in decades but they took some work to get.
@@spiltmilt I have a retired police/fishing buddy who is new to Kokanee fishing on Holter Lake. I've turned him on to your vids! Are you allowing any anglers to hang out with you in June?
I saw there’s new Kokanee regs for Suttle Lake, have to release Kokanee over 16”, but the limit is still 25 Kokanee. Are they trying to weed down the population to just larger fish?
I've seen publication showing that in other species of fish but not Kokanee. I think food resources and competition for those resources in the lake are the primary limiting factors of Kokanee size
@spiltmilt sure. Phenotype=genotype+environment. But with the continued stunting of fish in lakes that are overpopulated, it makes me think the genotype would tend to change in those lakes.
Its hard to say because not all lakes are stocked with local brood stock. For instance a lot of Idaho's Kokanee come from Deadwood Reservoir. Here in Washington some lakes have local brood stock programs like Merwin and other's depend on wild spawners only, like at Yale. I've seen the same lakes stocked from the same brood stock go from 13" average to 18" depending largely on how many other Kokanee are present, from my experience.
