Kokanee at Strawberry

[ZugBug]

We spent the week end at Strawberry, the fishing for the cuts
was OK. Every trip out ( between rain storms ) two of us would catch 2-3 fish a piece, all cuts except for 2 rainbows. We were trolling needle fish and tripple teasers down 10 to 15 feet with down riggers.
When we were out in open water we marked quite a few fish at 30 to 40 feet. I assume these were kokanee. We went down and tried for these fish but had no luck. Does anyone have any sugestions on how to catch the kokes at the berry???

Thanks Zug Bug
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[PREDATOR]

I decided to give the kokanee fishing at strawberry a try this year. We made a couple trips up there and heres what I have learned so far. Those fish down at 30 - 40 ft should be trout. At least thats where we were catching all our trout. From all the reports I have gathered and all the guys I have talked to, the kokanee will be even deeper than that. 60 ft range. sometimes even 70 ft. We caught a ton of fish in the 40 ft range but never a kokanee. However, with the kokanee spawn aproaching, the bigger, ready to spawn fish will be on the migration and moving into the shallower water near the inlets. So areas traditionally popular for kokannee may becmoe less effective. It beats me though. I havent figured them fish up there out yet. I knows theres lots in there, and theres some real big ones too. I will be danged if I can find an effective method to catching them though.

Areas where I have talked to guys who have caught them are the narrows, and the soldier creek side near the island and south end.
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[neveronsunday]

[#ff0000]We were up there Friday night and Saturday. The weather was great by me, camp grounds were 2/3 empty, few folks on the water, water surface temp was 70-71 degrees, and the Cutt's were biting. The downrigger was hot in the morning with small cuts at 20 feet, and big thick bodied 18-22 inch cuts at 30-35 feet. Never even a hit with anything below 40 feet. In the morning we launched at Strawberry point and trolled up around Haws Point, the meadows, Renegade Point and back for lunch. Most of the fish seemed to be where the water went from 70 feet deep to 30 feet deep although we did pick up a few nice ones in the shallow water. In the afternoon we made the north loop around Mud creek, towards the ladders, and back by dinner. We had our best catching after lunch about 1/2 mile north east of Mud creek at the 70/30 foot margins again. The leaded lines picked up more fish in the afternoon. We were basically just exploring as neither one of us had been up there for 15-20 years. We caught fish on size 2-3 needlefish, 2-8 inch rapalas, 2-8 inch flatfish, spinners, dare devils, tasmanian devils, crocodiles, and small crawdaddys. No hits on big crawdaddys, superdupers, or kokanee kings. We didn't find any Kokes either but heard after we were done to do the deep waters of the narrows for them. Didn't even think about going that direction - catch it next time. [/#ff0000]
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