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Ok trollers pay close attention: You think you know what’s going on down around your downrigger? Think again! I shot this video last summer and fall while chasing rainbows, king salmon and kokanee in various lakes around Nor Cal. Interesting stuff…
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Kokanee: Not just mackinaw food anymore!
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(AP Photo)
Black kokanee salmon supposedly went extinct 70 years ago, but a Japanese scientist has just found a population of the rare salmon still living in a lake near Mount Fuji.
Tetsuji Nakabo, a professor at Kyoto University, said his team of researchers found the species in Lake Saiko recently and there appears to be enough black kokes or “kunimasu” still hanging around to make up a viable population.
Read the whole story at the JAPAN TIMES
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Back when I used to run a 6-pack charter on Lake Tahoe, I always liked the late season kokanee salmon fishing. The fish would be stacked up for a few miles in either direction of the mouth of Taylor Creek, the lake’s main spawning tributary. The fish would usually be out in 350 to 500 feet of water and 75 to 90 feet below the surface. Often, the kokes were so thick that the fish finder couldn’t get a signal through ‘em and would show a bottom depth of say 84 feet when the actual lake bed was 200 plus feet below that..
The late fish always looked cool…in various stages of coloring up. As you can see, some would be chrome bright, while others were a little blushed up. Others still would be in full-fledged river spawning dress. Anyway, I just always thought this was kinda a cool pic. If you’d like to see photos of the fish up inside Taylor Creek, take a look at this Photo Essay I did last year.
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Ron Campbell with Kokezilla
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Trolling for kokanee salmon on Montana’s Lake Koocanusa with an ultralight rod and 4-pound test, Jeff Gould hadn’t planned on nearly getting his ass handed to him…but that’s exactly what happened when this 10.6-pound bull trout came calling.
Gould said that the fish nearly spooled him and there was even some talk of backing the boat up and chasing it like a big blue marlin. Eventually, however, he was able to slip the net under the huge char. After a quick photo session, the fish was released…much to the dismay of the kokanee population of the lake! As the latest entry into our Hawg of the Month Contest, Jeff will have a chance to compete for a free fishing trip.
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On March 24, a giant, king kong sized kokanee that weighed 8.23-pounds (yes, that’s pounds, not ounces!) was taken from Wallowa Lake in northwestern Oregon by Wan Teece of Enterprise, OR..and I swear this is not an April Fool’s joke!
Teece hooked the ridiculously large koke while trolling a flasher and blade rig. The 26.25 x 16 incher crushed the Orgeon state record by over a pound and is believed to be the largest kokanee ever taken in the U.S. (the world record 9-pound, 6 ouncer was caught in Canada).
For more details on the story, check out Northwest Wild Country
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Okay, so maybe California’s Pacific salmon have gone into the tank…but at least there’s one population of salmon in the state that seems healthy — the kokanee of Taylor Creek. I was there a week or so back and snapped a few pix… [click to continue…]
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