Whiskeytown Kokanee report- 6/14/14

Got the greenlight from the war department late Friday night for an early morning Whiskeytown koke trip.  Quick gear prep, a few hours of sleep, and on the water by 545am.  Dropped the line down to 42' as soon as I passed the No Wake buoys and had my first takedown within minutes, a nice chunker that threw the hook at the net.  Re-set the gear, had another takedown within minutes that didn't stick.  Re-set again, this one stuck at 13.25".  With the skunk off and sun coming over the horizon I headed to the bridge to see how the crowd was fairing.  Lots of boats working the bridge these days, including two guides with full loads of clients.   I joined the rotation, made 4 loops for nada and only saw 2 fish caught, decided to head back to my hot spot near the buoys.  Made 3 more passes for 2 takedowns and one to the net, a nice little fatty to join the stringer. 

The wakefleas and patio cruisers were launching by this time, that's my queue to pack it up, home by 9:30am.  Great way to start Fathers Day weekend. 

Really nice grade of fish coming out of the lake this year, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see some 17-19" fish by the end of summer.

Tight lines!
beenfishin

Nice Kokes Ben, that's where Tim was hooking them!!!!
Jeff

Nice fish Ben!  I'd like to get in on some of that action later this summer.  After eating kokanee for the first time a month ago I now know what all the fuss is about with those silvery little dudes.  Is a downrigger pretty much a necessity for Whiskeytown kokanee?  I remember jbaker telling me about kokes on jigs, sounded very intriguing...

Nice work Ben! I've always wanted to fish kokes from this lake.
Chris if you decide to roll up in the next few weeks let me know. Jigging them sounds fun, I believe P-line makes some koke jigs.

Mike

Thanks for the report and pictures Ben.

Very nice fish.

were you jigging?

These guys were taken on the downrigger, but as aggressive and concentrated as they are jigging them is certainly an option.  My FF lit up with mass amounts of fish under the 299 bridge, dropping a pink hoochie down 45' and giving it some shakes should certainly do the trick.  I'll be on Siskiyou tomorrow morning, and then another koke hunt early Saturday morning if anyone is game.

P line kokanators do work but you have to locate the schools. Not too hard to do just follow the guy with the best electronics , or fish under the bridge. Nice fish Ben. I've heard there is a great hex hatch in the evenings right now too, bringing the bows to the surface.

Gonna be there end of July for 5 days of camping.  Save me some bro.  Hope they are where we got them last year.....thanks for report

Allan, let us know what dates, and I am sure you can get a fleet of us out there to show you what we do.
Jeff

Gonna be there July 30 - August 3
Last year we got a bunch just trolling inside the curtain right in front of the campsites...