I fished Flaming Gorge with my parents, brother and his family from July 16th to July 20th. We fished from Buckboard to Lucerne, but fished the Buckboard / Holmes Crossing areas the most because the fishing was better. The fishing was much slower than in June, but the fish averaged about a pound heavier.
We caught 20 to 30 fish a day, most being kokes, with a few mack pups here and there. For three days, we caught all fish were from 50 to 75 feet. But on Sunday, we couldn’t catch a fish deeper than 50 feet, most being between 35 and 45 ft. I have yet to figure out why they were shallower than previous days, but the fish were still averaging 3 to 4 lbs at that depth. We caught most fish using RMT and FWG dodgers, apex’s, RMT hoochies and ospreys.
The weather was great, except for one evening when the wind was blowing about 30 mph. The rest of the time, the water was like glass.
Very nice report, and it looks like you had a very enjoyable and successfull trip.
How do you like the FWG stuff? I purchased a variety of his best patterns early in the season hoping to try them out on the Gorge, but we haven’t made it over there yet. It’s been very difficult breaking away from the awesome Walleye action at Starvation to make the trip, but I’m about ready for a change in the action and a new challenge to boot.
If you have time to respond, I’d like to ask a couple questions? I’m a total greenhorn to Kokanee fishing and any advise you can offer would certainly help us make the most of our time on the water.
How do you know where to start looking for the kokanee? Do you look for the other boats, drive around looking for schools on your FF, or toss the gear in and start trolling?
How do you zero in on the best depth to fish?
When does the kokanee fishing start to taper off at the gorge due to spawning and other factors?
I like the FWG dodgers. I used them quite a bit at FG this trip and had great success with them. I caught one fish on FWG spinners, but I am not as confident with those yet and I revert back to the lures that I have normally caught kokes on.
To answer some of your questions, I have figured out where to find kokanee by trial and error and also looking for large quantities of boats trolling back and forth. This last trip, the boats were thick in the kokanee areas that we normally fish and the fish were easy to find. Also, after fishing a lake for a while, you figure out patterns of the fish and where they are at certain times of the year. If you have a color fish finder, you can find the kokanee by color. They show up orange or yellow depending on brand of FF. My Eagle shows them in yellow.
For depth, we guess at where they will be and troll. If nothing produces at a depth, then we move up or down depending on the time of year. They are shallower earlier in the year and go deeper the hotter it gets. They are usually 15 - 35 ft deep in the spring/early summer and are now at 55 - 75 ft deep. Once we start catching “shakers” we move deeper to get the bigger fish.
The fishing generally gets better the closer to the spawn and the males get more aggressive. We typically do much better in June than in July and even better in August. By September and October, the fishing slows down due to the actual spawn itself.
I’m heading out to the Gorge next weekend and would like to give the kokes a try. Any luck with them while jigging? I haven’t got the riggers or lead core to get down deep for trolling. Will they take jigs? Any particular flavor?
Your feeback was excellent, and greatly appreciated. I’m going to go to strawberry next weekend to check out my new Mag20 downrigger installation before I make the trek to the Gorge next month. I tried this two weeks ago, and used a older trolling battery I had held onto. Unfortunately, it had a couple bad cells, and died on me early on so I ended up running RMT dodgers with snap weights to get down somewhere, but there were no Kokanee to be found that day. Hopefully next week will be a better trip with my brand new dedicated Trojan Battery to run my two riggers. I’ve also purchased emergency crank handles so I’m not left High_n_Dry again.
I’m heading out to the Gorge next weekend and would like to give the kokes a try. Any luck with them while jigging? I haven’t got the riggers or lead core to get down deep for trolling. Will they take jigs? Any particular flavor?
I have never jigged for kokes at the Gorge. I know guys who use buzz bombs and 1/2 oz and 3/4 oz kastmasters for them. We only saw two schools of kokes on the FF and they were at 110 ft deep near the pipeline.
kokes at a 110ft dont think so try small lake trout…or cliffs
I personally know several guys who have caught kokes over 100 feet at the Gorge, especially in July and August when traffic is heavy on the lake. Ask any California fisherman how deep they troll for kokes and you’ll find out how deep they will really go. No mack will show up in color on my fishfinder either, so I know these were kokes.
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