LOCATING KOKANEE
find your catch
Kokanee can be challenging to find. Follow these tips and you'll find the school of Kokanee in no time!
Find the right lake
Even the best anglers can't catch a kokanee in a non-kokanee lake. Start your kokanee fishing adventure off right by choosing your lake from our list of Kokanee lakes in the Kamloops area.
Find the right temperature and the feed
Kokanee, like all salmon, are a cold-water fish. One crucial thing to know about kokanee is that their prime water temperature is 12 C (54 F), and they can generally be found in water ranging from 6 C to 15 C (44 F to 59 F). As you can probably imagine, deeper water is colder than shallower water, and so on hot summer days, kokanee are typically deeper. In the winter, they may be at any depth.
Finding the fish
Kokanee primarily feed on zooplankton that are normally found in deep water. Kokanee feed by raking the zooplankton through fine tooth combs on their gills, called gill rakers. You may find that often as the day progresses the kokanee's staple diet, the zooplankton, may move into deeper water.
Fish finders can help you to find deep waters, but you can also use the old-fashioned way: check out depth charts for the lake you're hoping to hit and study any pockets of deep water. Sudden drop-offs or shoals can also provide ideal hangouts kokanee and other fish.
Take note of the wind direction and the wind direction from the previous day. The wind will often push the feed of the lake to a certain bay or one end of the lake. If you can find the 54 F water column and where the feed is concentrated, then you are most likely to find the greatest concentration of kokanee. Another way to potentially find schools of fish is to watch for birds that are flocking and swooping to the water. This may mean that there is a invertebrate hatch in that specific area and the fish are likely below.
Using a fish finder will definitely help with locating the location and depth of the fish. If you haven’t marked fish on your fish finder or you are not using one, try starting at 20ft and if you aren't getting any action, lower your line by 5ft every 20 minutes until you find the fish. Remember to always count how much line you are putting out, whether it is by counting pulls of line, or the number of revolutions reeling in reverse. When you start catching you will want to know how far to let your line back out.
