Kokanee Salmon - June 8, 2013 and June 15, 2013

West Hill Pond, CT. 

Earlier this month, I made a day trip to West Hill Pond in CT to target kokanee salmon. Kokanees are landlocked sockeye salmon. Since they are Pacific salmon, they have a three year life cycle and die after spawning during the fall of the third year. Kokes are a western fish, and the vast majority of kokanee fisheries are west of the Rockies. There are only four kokanee fisheries east of the Mississippi. Two of these fisheries are in Connecticut, one in upstate New York, and a prolific fishery in North Carolina.

New York discontinued their kokanee program during the recession for budgetary reasons. The kokes only caught on in the remote Bug Pond in Hamilton County where a self-sustaining population exists today. Prior to discontinuation, several ponds in the Adirondacks had stocked populations of kokanee.

Connecticut continues their kokanee program and the fishery is on a rebound after alewives were illegally introduced to the kokanee lakes. Kokes are primarily plankton feeders and the alewives competed with them for plankton. As a result, the kokanee population went down and the alewives became overpopulated. Connecticut solved this problem by stocking larger brown trout that forage heavily on alewives. It looks like the population of alewives is down and the kokanee are making a good comeback.

Kokanee are one of the smallest salmon, and rarely exceed about 18" in length. They become big enough to catch during the third year of their life cycle. At this time, they start the spring at about 12" and will grow to as big as 17" by the end of the summer. Since all fish are from the same year class, they will generally all be the same size.

June afternoon on West Hill Pond. 

Like all salmon, kokes are quirky and this is a niche fishery in the truest sense of the word. Since they are plankton eaters, they only strike a lure out of anger or reflex. This makes flash and vibration two very important components to your arsenal of weapons. Flash is crucial to get the attention of the salmon. As such, trolling with flashers or dodgers is usually necessary. Niche lures are also a must, and bright Wedding Ring spinners were very productive for me. I also trolled Kokanee Killers, which is a plastic spoon. I had some hits on the Kokanee Killer, and even caught a nice brown trout on it, but it didn't produce any kokes for me.

Speed is another issue in this fishery. Kokes like a slow troll at approximately one mile per hour.

Most importantly, you need to tip your spoon or spinner with shoepeg corn. The scent is a huge attractor for the kokanee. Like I said, salmon are a quirky fish. Landlocked Atlantics are a very nuanced-based fishery as well.

Managing the leadcore at a slow speed was important. I estimated that my line was dropping about 12' per color while trolling at 1 mph. As such, I was trolling at 3 colors and my lure was in approximately 35'.

My first kokanee salmon. 

During my first trip, I started trolling two leadcore rods. One rod was rigged with a Kokanee Killer behind a Mack Double D dodger. The second rod was rigged with a wedding ring spinner behind a Luhr Jensen Flasher. I hooked into a fish almost immediately that I didn't land or see. Soon after, I caught a nice brown trout. After this, I hooked into another fish that started to fight me differently and harder. As it came to the boat, I thought that it was a rainbow trout, but as I got it closer, I saw different hues - silver with a dark blue mixed hue fading into bright purple. I noticed the different body type and realized that it was my first kokanee and I was extremely happy. It was a beautiful fish and looked very similar to some of the landlocked Atlantics that I have caught. The big difference was the lack of spots and a rounder, stouter frame on the kokes. My wife was kind enough to take a picture and I continued to fish.

I picked away at brown trout as bycatch the entire outing and caught 7 total browns to 16". These fish were not silvery in appearance and didn't look like they had been in the lake for too long.

Near the end of the day, I had just released a nice brown. I had left my other leadcore line with the dodger out. As I reeled it in, I noticed that I had a fish. It was fighting me differently than the brown and when it got near the boat, the fish went airborne. After jumping 3' in the air, I was sure it was a salmon and carefully brought it in and landed it. It was my second salmon of the day caught and was also caught on a wedding ring spinner. This time, it was behind a dodger.

On a three hour trip, I caught 2 kokanee salmon and 7 brown trout.

I returned the next week solo for a morning outing. The fishing was definitely slower. But, I got into my first fish of the day fairly early. Soon after hooking it, I saw it leap far behind the boat high into the air. I knew it was a salmon! After a final tussle next to the boat, I netted my first salmon of the day. For the rest of the morning, I lost several fish and caught 5 brown trout (all released). Near the end of the outing, I caught a second salmon that I lost next to the boat. This time, the dodger outproduced the flasher for trolling. But, all fish were caught on the wedding ring spinner again.

By August, these fish will be around 17", and I am looking to return to West Hill at that time to try for one last shot at these beautiful fish.