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Todd Martin photos
Kokanee Crazy
Guide Rod Hennig with two nice kokanee from Okanagan Lake
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Todd Martin photos
Kokanee Crazy
A collection of the authour's favourite kokanee dodgers. They are now preferred over willow leaf lake trolls for ease of use
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Todd Martin photos
Kokanee Crazy
Some of Todd Martin's favourite kokanee lures
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Todd Martin photos
Kokanee Crazy
Ice fish for kokanee in the same spots you find them in the summer months
Story & photos by Todd Martin
A crash course on B.C.’s prized land-locked salmon
Who doesn’t love catching kokanee? They are plentiful in most regions of British Columbia, and are prized on the dinner table. Kokanee are now second only to rainbow trout as the province’s most sought-after game fish. And they’re a great year ’round sport fish – still actively feeding when trout are off the bite during summer’s heat, and B.C.’s most popular sport fish through the ice in winter. Naturally reproductive, they are also stocked where necessary to ensure that our fisheries remain healthy.
What is a kokanee? Let’s start with a crash course on kokanee; once you understand some basics, you can have great success catching them. Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka) are a land-locked sockeye salmon that spend their entire lives in fresh water. Kokanee, like their sea-going cousins, share the same silvery colouration; bright red flesh; and tasty flavour. They prefer bigger, deeper lakes, which give them room to roam and the cooler water temperatures, in the range of 10°C to 12°C (50ºF to 55ºF), that they favour. They occasionally eat aquatic insects and shrimp, but most of the time feed on tiny zooplankton known as Daphnia.
So how do you replicate zooplankton that is roughly the size of a needle point? Simply, you don’t. Kokanee’s most useful attributes for anglers are that these fish are curious, aggressive, and territorial. You want to provoke them into striking, not fool them by the subtlety of matching the hatch. This is a completely different way of thinking for most anglers who chase rainbow trout.
Kokanee are also notoriously moody, changing colour preferences hour-to-hour and day-to-day. Sometimes you can troll through massive schools of them without a hit, then something flicks their switch, and you get a limit in an hour. It’s all part of the kokanee learning curve.
Another maddening trait about kokanee is their notoriously soft mouths; you will often lose 25% of the fish you hook because of this. Most of your fish will be lost because kokanee have a tendency to come to the boat quickly, and then begin to thrash about wildly. Experienced kokanee anglers often use an in-line rubber snubber, or a kokanee-specific softer-action fishing rod, and retrieve in a slow, steady fashion. They also keep the reel’s drag set very light to combat this soft-mouth syndrome, and improve the ratio of hook-up to landing.
Trolling from a boat is the best way to pursue kokanee in spring, summer, and fall. A good fish-finder is absolutely crucial to locate the depths at which kokanee are schooling – if you are fishing at 9 metres (30 feet), and most schools of are at 14 metres (45 feet), you are simply going for a boat ride. And since kokanee are usually found at deeper depths, other noteworthy gear is a downrigger or lead line set-up to get you down in the water column to the kokanee’s kitchen.
Because kokanee are notoriously territorial and competitive, they respond well to attractants like vibration, movement, scent, and bright colours. Colours like pink, red, and purple are tried-and-true preferences of kokanee, but on some days they may want green, blue, and yellow. Willow leaf lake trolls are used as attractants, but are now being superseded by smaller, lighter, kokanee-specific dodgers which add flash and movement to your trolled offerings. When looking for kokanee, don’t troll the shoreline. Start out in the deeper, middle portions of the lake. If you don’t find a few schools of fish in a short while, change locations often until you do. If you are on top of some kokanee but can’t get them to bite, change colours before changing anything else. Sometimes even a small change in lure colour makes all the difference. When ice fishing in winter, try the same locations as you would in summer.
For lures, smaller, kokanee-specific hoochies have become very popular recently. Their wild action and dangling tentacles are quite effective. Kokanee hoochies from Mack’s Lure, Shasta Tackle, Silver Horde, and P-Line all work well, and come in a myriad fish-catching colours. For more traditional lures, think small in size and bright in colour. Some of my favourites are the Kokanee King and Needlefish lures by Luhr-Jensen, the Kokanee Special Apex lure by Hot Spot, the FST by Yakima Bait, and Wedding Band lures by Gibbs-Delta. For ice fishing, brightly coloured glow-hooks from Jesarin Tackle and Mack’s Lure are the most popular. In both winter and summer, tip your hooks with kernel corn or maggots for more hook-ups.
Now let’s get down to the meat and potatoes! Where are the best producing kokanee honey-holes in the province? They are most abundant in the Thompson-Okanagan, Cariboo, and Kootenay regions, but with some research you can find them in all corners of B.C. Let’s discover these by region, starting with Vancouver Island.
Vancouver Island is not known as a kokanee hot bed, and they are not stocked here, but there are a few lakes worth a try that hold small resident populations. Try Alice near Port Hardy, Muchalat in Gold River, and Cameron and Lowry lakes in the Port Alberni area. Horne Lake in Qualicum Beach and Brannen Lake in Nanaimo are also worth a try.
The Lower Mainland is home to some surprisingly good kokanee fisheries. The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC does not stock kokanee in this region, but several lakes have thriving resident populations. The best known is Alouette in Maple Ridge. It has a large population of smaller-sized fish which can be great sport for kids and families. It’s one of my favourites since it’s close to home, and when the water temperature warms up in late May, you can have non-stop action all day long. Stave in Mission can be good, but Chilliwack has the most lakes with kokanee in the region. Try Cultus, Jones, and Chilliwack Lake itself. Kawkawa in Hope has the biggest kokanee in the region.
The Thompson-Nicola region is where you’ll find bigger and more plentiful kokanee. The best places to wet a line include Dutch and Machete lakes in the Clearwater and Little Fort area, Nicola Lake near Merritt, and Monte, Paul, Stump, and Shuswap lakes near Kamloops. My personal favourite in this region is Monte Lake, which has easy access right beside the highway, and holds good numbers of kokanee in excess of 1.4 kilograms (three pounds).
Kokanee fishing can be amazing in the Kootenays. Here you’ll be fishing larger bodies of water, like Kootenay and Arrow lakes. But be mindful of the regulations, since the kokanee population in Kootenay Lake has been in decline in recent years. Stocked lakes include Monroe, Moyie, and Rosen near Jaffrey. Whatsan and Wilson lakes are also good spots.
My preferred region to chase kokanee is the Cariboo. I troll for them in summer, and ice fish for them in winter. Try hot spots like Ten Mile, Ruth, and Chimney lakes. On the famous “Fishing Highway” 24, lakes such as Bridge, Deka, Horse, Hathaway, and Sulphurous all have highly productive kokanee fisheries.
My favourite body of water in the Cariboo is Timothy Lake near Lac La Hache. It has been well-stocked in recent years, the fish are getting bigger, and it has lower angling pressure compared to other lakes in the region. Bridge Lake gives up a few lunkers in the 2.2-kilogram (five-pound) range every year, while Lac La Hache itself has a strong population of kokanee as well.
In northern B.C., there are ample opportunities to angle for kokanee. Camp, Eena, Nadsilinch, Ness, Peculiar, and Stoney lakes near Prince George are good bets. Finger and Tatuk lakes near Vanderhoof, and François Lake near Burns Lake are also popular.
The Okanagan is the premier region for kokanee angling. There is probably a world-record kokanee lurking in the depths of Okanagan Lake. Four-kilogram (nine-pound) kokanee have been caught here in recent years, and the current kokanee world record is just shy of 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds). If you want a trophy, Okanagan Lake is the place to go. Other great lakes to visit are Skaha, Kalamalka, Wood, and Mabel. Wood Lake has had water chemistry issues in the past, but has made a strong comeback in recent years. Other good locations to try in the Okanagan are Alleyne, Missezula, and Otter lakes.
Summer or winter, kokanee are eager biters and great table fare. If you want to take your kokanee angling to the next level, two books that I would recommend are Kokanee: a Complete Fishing Guide, by Dave Biser, and The Kokanee Obsession: How to Catch More and Larger Fish, by D. Kent Cannon.
So now that you’ve completed your crash course in kokanee, pick a location, gear up, and best of luck!