Lake Koocanusa BC

[jjstar]

Hey guys found out I am going to be heading to lake koocanusa end of July. Never fished it before and I usually do not target Rainbows in a large lake. I have downriggers and lots of coho gear. would I be trying the samethings? If so what size spoons and colours would be best for this fishery, also is there a best time of day? I was thinking run flashers off the downrigger balls and the spoons 6-8 feet behind..
thanks for any tips!

[lds]

I’ve only fished it on the Montana side for Kokanee and there are so many it’s ridiculous. Aloud to keep 50 per day max 100. They bite all day on whatever you give them. Never tried for rainbows but I hear it’s similar just troll faster and use bigger stuff. Sorry I can’t help more. This is just what experience I have with Koocanusa

[IronNoggin]

I am not familiar with that particular lake, but am familiar with fishing larger rainbows in lakes that have Kokanee as the feeder base.

If bait is allowed, run small teaser heads with either anchovies or medium/small herring. Standard tight roll.

If bait is not allowed - look at Baitrix products ( http://baitrix.com/ ) and run them in the teaser heads instead.
Bucktailing and / or dragging larger flies will work.
Spoons that look like Kokanee will often SHINE!!

When running bucktails or spoons, we very often clip a dummy flasher (the small size) below the offering to entice them in.

In July they may be a little deep - watch your sounder and target the depths of the bait.

Mornings (first light) and evenings will likely be best.

Good Luck & Have FUN! :)

Cheers,
Nog

[TROLLER]

I don't think the limit in BC is 50. Buddy of mine fishes the lake a lot. Has trailer parked there. He fishes 25FOW small troller blades with a small Dick Nite usually green or pink with a maggot 4-6 ft. behind. Catches some nice 4 5 lbs all the time.

Good luck and have fun.

[jjstar]

Thanks guys. I know the limit for kokanee north of the border is 15. I have heard of big kamloops strain rainbows so will bring some coyote spoons and baitrix to try 🍻🍻

[Dweb]

Dick nite spoons in UV paint

Depending on water temp get your presentation in the thermocline or just above

[raw outdoors]

I was just down there for the first time. I am new to this bug lake downrigger stuff but learned many lessons. First off I didn’t catch any trout or salmon off the down rigger I don’t inderstand why. My two thoughts are #1 they hit and the hook pulled out of there mouth before I noticed anything on the line as the fish are quite small. #2 they where spooked off by my downrigger ball. Not I did catch some kind of silver whitefish looking thing I actually couldn’t keep them off so I moved locations scrapped the down riggers and long lined. now this started to produce fish. I am sure I was doing this incorrectly because I didn’t have all the proper terminal tackle but I was running a flasher not a dodger, on the fin of the flasher I put a 2 oz weight on the bottom hole of the rudder I don’t know if this is correct. I assume that what the hole is for. I googled it and it looks like guys use sliding sinker rigs in front of the flasher or a trolling weight in front. I don’t know what would be best. So Weight then flasher them wedding ring rigs. Silver pink gold all worked. I had them set back at least 18” from my flasher but google once again said closer is better on Kokanee so like 10”. Then we tipped the hook with pink maggots. Get bait before you go knobody has bait down there. I guess garlic soaked corn works also?? We had a hard time and lost many fish I think because all the stuff we had strapped to the line maybe if the guy ran the flasher on the downrigger then had a good release so you could release the fish and just fight the fish and hook not 2oz and flasher and fish gives a lot of weight and wiggle for fish to get off/ man all the stuff gets tangled especially with two kids in the boat. I had Scotty hair trigger releases and I am not sure but I was having issues once agin I am new. I am going to order some Shasta tackle ultra Releases seems better for trout and Kokanee.




Guys that have done this with success please respond and let me know some diffent tactics and downrigger setups that you think would work better.

[stein]

Been trying for kokanee's but not having much luck, caught 4 the first time out, 1 the next day and skunked last 3 times out. We watched a boat pulling them in every 5 minutes, pretty sure they limited out...we were trolling willow leaf with kokanee killers and wedding bands tipped with maggots and worms, 50-80 FOW with downrigger set around 30-40 feet, going just fast enough to make the spinners spin, any tips?

[Dave P]

You have the right set up, get rid of the down rigger, set line out about 100ft.

Should be slaying right now! I know we are. They are a way better size this year as well.

[stein]

You have the right set up, get rid of the down rigger, set line out about 100ft.

Should be slaying right now! I know we are. They are a way better size this year as well.

100 ft out, will try that, thanks!

[stein]

Trolled all day with the elec motor going various speeds, nothin, battery died so started idling with the big motor, boom, slaying them, go figure, elec was just too slow

Now that we have the speed dialed, going to add a line out there for whatever those huge marks we are finding, lakers, bulls or rainbows i guess?

[barbless]

Speed 1.4 to 1.7 mph. 2ounce weight all the flashing small spinner stuff for the kokanee works for us and lot's of "S" turns no straight line driving. If you spot on sonar and catch circle around. No catch still come around and put engine into neutral and let it drop. The Rainbows early morning shallow troll, speed it up to about 3 mph and a good size fat plug 4-5 inch long will get ya into a few. Pink or yellow. Even a watermellon Apex different sizes will get you both. Long lining will work better than a downrigger at times. Love those tail dancing, aerobatic Big Bows. That's just what we do on the BC side.

[stein]

Good stuff there, no big bows yet but we limited out on kokanee by lunch time, great day!

[raw outdoors]

Bringing this back up. I will be going last week of July with the family. Last year I didn’t do well on the Kokanee but this year I feel more prepared did a shwack of reading. How is the fishing so far anyone have any advise?

[Dave P]

Lake is a couple weeks behind on filling up. As of Canada day we still couldnt use our boat slip.

Hoping it should be full now. Have heard there are Kokanee running now, but fishing has been slow.

[raw outdoors]

If it’s still filling up there is probably no thermocline and that means fish could be spread all over and makes it harder to get into schools of fish consistently. Guys aren’t having trouble launching boats are they?

[Bjoe]

I have caught a lot of them in this lake and it is easy once you get on to it.

From my experience speed is key, 1 to 1.4 mph works best in my boat anyway. If you troll too fast you won’t catch much if anything

We then fish a small gang troll and wedding ring about 15 to 20 feet behind the boat. Red or green seemed to be the best color. For weight we run a 2 ounce moon weight about 18 inches in front of the lake troll.

For bait we use corn or maggots, maggots seemed best but put lots on as the Kokanee hit frequently.

Unlike the trout Kokanee seem to hit all day. But if you aren’t catching much don’t be afraid to move. If you are in the fish and running at the right speed you should be getting lots of bites.

Also keep turning your boat. Good luck

[raw outdoors]

I have caught a lot of them in this lake and it is easy once you get on to it.

From my experience speed is key, 1 to 1.4 mph works best in my boat anyway. If you troll too fast you won’t catch much if anything

We then fish a small gang troll and wedding ring about 15 to 20 feet behind the boat. Red or green seemed to be the best color. For weight we run a 2 ounce moon weight about 18 inches in front of the lake troll.

For bait we use corn or maggots, maggots seemed best but put lots on as the Kokanee hit frequently.

Unlike the trout Kokanee seem to hit all day. But if you aren’t catching much don’t be afraid to move. If you are in the fish and running at the right speed you should be getting lots of bites.

Also keep turning your boat. Good luck

Your running long lines 15-20 feet behind the boat? No down riggers? People are always saying 100 feet behind the boat because the boat spooks them 20 feet behind would be right in the propeller wash. I will give it a try anyway.

[Bjoe]

Your running long lines 15-20 feet behind the boat? No down riggers? People are always saying 100 feet behind the boat because the boat spooks them 20 feet behind would be right in the propeller wash. I will give it a try anyway.

Yup we always do well close to the boat for Kokanee. If anything they might be attracted by the noise of the motor. We grab the occasional rainbow on the same set up but only on windy days when there is a bit of chop. If you try for rainbows you have to get way out behind the boat. We also caught a few trout running Rapala off down riggers but that seemed to be a very slow way to catch fish and the ones we did catch were too small to warrant the effort.

If you want pm me and I will try and send you a pic of our exact set up.

[Parker Hale]

My dad and I always did well on Koocanusa. Go to set up was a gang troll, Jack O' LLoyds or Ford Fender and a Wedding Ring with maggots. A rubber snubber between the gang troll and wedding ring helps in the hook up as kokanee have soft mouths. No down riggers, not sure exactly how much line we ran out but definitely more than 20'. At least 100 I'd guess.

[lds]

I run a dipsy diver with dodger and snubber and wedding ring. I just have a clip on line counter and run 25 ft of line. Not sure on speed but pretty much as slow as I can go

[Unregistered user]

How's camping availability in August near Kokanee hotspots?

[raw outdoors]

There is free camping around the lake but I guess it can be sketchy with interesting characters sometimes. I camp at surveyors lake but it books up way back early in the year. Maybe some of the more seasoned guys in the area know of more camping spots. It would be cool to launch boats and boat camp along the beach away from people but I don’t think you can leave your vehicular at the launch over night.