Went up yesterday to watch the kokanee run. the size surprised me. Much larger on average than I would have thought. There were 4 or 5 that were very large .Saw many in that 15" range and those 4 or 5 dwarfed them.
I fished Porcupine 6 times this summer. We limited out twice (20 fish for 2 anglers). We caught 15, 16, and 18. Then we caught 4 on the last trip in late August. In fact, I’m smoking a batch as I type this. The kokes were really good this year, but you had to get on them early. By about 10am the bite was over on every occasion. I felt we had to keep it hush since if there are 5 boats on Porcupine trolling, then it becomes crowded. Our last trip there were at least 10 boats and it made the fishing difficult, thus we only caught 4 kokes. Ice fishing should be good up there this winter.
i would say those 4 or 5 were 20" or a tinch over. I was maybe 10 ft away and they were in a foot or so of water. When they ran up thru a 10 yard section of shallower water their backs were out. I think the church left the gate open so people could go up a little further and get parking.
So Scott, you mentioned that you expect ice fishing to be good… Don’t the kokanee die after spawning? If so wouldn’t we expect the big fish class to be gone? I hope not, but I’ve been afraid that we will be back to smaller fish…Also, I’ve heard there are two types of Kokes one bigger like Strawberry/ Flaming gorge and then a smaller strain is that correct? or is there only one stain and it depends on conditions for size of the fish? Reason I ask, is if they are seeing 20" fish that is really incredible and I’d like to hope that we can see bigger fish up there… Anyway just checking your professional opinion… Thank you… Jeff
At the end of my original post I said I was leaving for Lake Mead. 15 to 17" stripers non stop. 4 guys and 4 on at a time. Anywhere from the surface early then to 40 to 110 ft. Went on for 4 days. Fish tacos for all.
It’s always a good time when you can get the stripers riled up!!