Subscriber: “Are kokanee doomed?” Tyler: “Hold my cooler lid open for me, will ya”

I dig how all your videos are educational and unique. Learn something new every time.

Really interesting video. Thanks for sharing! I didn't realize the drought/heat has been so severe in Washington for so long. Also didn't know about the kokanee populations you mentioned fading from existence. Would love to learn more about Kokanee management nationwide.

Very interesting analysis, thanks Tyler. Would be interested in more videos like this. :)

Another great video , thanks so much I've learned a lot from you the past couple of years

Thanks Tyler for these videos I just moved to the PNW and I have learned so much about how to fish for kokanee, I caught my first one a few weeks ago!

Love the fishing and education. I like hearing the biologist perspective. Your videos are really good.

Something you mentioned previously about kokanee hatchery plants is that they are introduced to the target body of water as fry and not catchable weight. This differs greatly from the approach taken with rainbows which go into the water as basically cannon fodder for 6 year olds. However, the cost and retention of these rainbows to production size does not produce a very fit fish for the environment and I wonder if they are not a disease vector for kokanee copepod parasite infestation? Would it not be a better WDFW practice to stock ONLY fry regardless of species? In that way, the hatchery spends less on cat food to feed them, they accumulate fewer hatchery parasites, they enter the ecoystem near the bottom and as an important part of the food chain allowing natural selection to decide which fish are fit enough to grow to 20"

Well, if Kokanee disappear, all that Kokanee gear translates perfectly into trout gear, so…

Lake Sammamish, has lost it's kokanee because of a disruption in the one feeder stream that 90% of the fish were spawning in. That disruption has been corrected and they hope the population will rebound but to date it hasn't

Great video again, I had committed before about no kokanee in NY and started looking in other state near by and low and behold about 1 hour and 10 min away in Connecticut there's 2 lakes with kokanee in them , Than you mentioned them thanks

I was really, really disappointed when I heard what was going on at Wickiup. It used to be a premium Brown Trout lake but it has just taken too many hits. Many years ago poachers were caught with a net strung across Brown Creek which was the Brown Trout spawning water basically wiping out the population. Now with the yearly draw down they are a rarity.

I also am new to your channel and have binged a bit, but wondering if you have shared your favorite ways to prepare Kokanee for eating

Good info on kokanee. Living in Oregon..... and not Washington, I would love to get more on our kokanee lakes. But, all you subscribers want to fish where you are. So, more kokes for me here in Oregon?? That is one nice thing about out-of-state video blogs. Your videos are great, but they are out-of-state videos for us in Oregon. Still very applicable to our fishery.

Thanks for all your info. We have kokanee and macks in Tahoe and Donner lakes. In the fall the kokes congregate around Taylor creek ready to spawn. Tahoe is 1600 feet deep and Donner has deep holes to 500 feet. Lots of people target the macks at Tahoe as you can see them on the finder below the kokes likely eating them. Mack fishing is big in the winter at Donner. The kokes don't get real big probably 13 inches is a good size for both Donner and Tahoe. I don't fish donner much because of waterskis and jet skis. Stampede resevoir used to be a great koke fishery with fish in the 15 to 20 inch range but that was in the 80's and early 90's. Then we had a drought and the water levels dropped a lot. They replanted and a lot of people thought it was overplanted since the fish stayed pretty small for awhile. Boca resevoir gets its water from Stampede and this year Stampede is at 38% capacity while Boca ranges from 40 to 58% depending how much water is let in. Surface temps were 69 degrees last Saturday. The kokanee at Boca this year are fat and 13-15 inches. I do see what are probaly parasites on some of the fish. The deepest water I see there is 70 feet and the fish are between 20 and 30 feet with some deeper. Stampede has macks also and in a good year is 200 feet deep in areas. I'm heading to Odell lake in 2 weeks. Macks and kokanee get along there too I guess since the koke limit is 25 per day. The Oregon mack record came form Odell at 40 pounds and keeper size is 24 inches. Personally I would rather catch kokanee than macks. Hopefully we get a good winter here in the Sierras. I think Bucks Lake has macks too and Kokes but hjaven't fished there in years.

I grew up fishing Wickiup, over thirty years there for Kokanee. The larger fish are almost always blue on their backs and are landlocked coho, where the smaller fish are mostly greenish backed and sockeye. Great channel 🤙

I've been fishing Lake Bosworth here in Washington several times recently and every trout I've caught there had copepods on them. If I remember correctly the lake is only 40 ft at it's deepest so I'm sure the water is overall pretty warm.

Man idk how this guy can be so calm when he hooks on to one. I’d be excited and focused 100% into the fight. I think I’d act like 1rod1reel if I caught one

Our two main Kokanee fisheries in Utah are low but they’re still around seventy five percent capacity over six thousand feet elevation and very deep so they are doing fine flaming gorge that you mentioned is well over one hundred feet deep and a huge reservoir I was there just two weeks ago boat ramps and everything are fine

Blueback Herring, eh? I hope North Caroline does something to revive that population, like get rid of those herring. Although the bass, walleye and northern pike present in Lake Nantahala, may do that for them. I think there is also stripers and wipers in that lake. It would be nice to have Kokanees here in Michigan, but we already have Kings and Cohos and I don't think there's much of an interest for them here, damn it!

All of the fisheries in my area are almost completely dry, it's really sad, there are no more boat ramps for boats to even get into the lake

Flathead Lake here in Montana had a huge Kokanee fishery until the 80's when the mysis shrimp was introduced to the lake. The kokanee population crashed and despite stocking has never recovered. The lake is dominated by lake trout now.

Just curious what your thoughts on hatcheries are Pro/anti for all salmon species? I know this is a hot topic and probably worthy of more than just a simple KZfaq reply but I am curious as to your thoughts. You seem to be more well rounded than most, you have a vast environmental background as well as a sport fishing background.

I finally got a chance to watch this video - well done as always. Would kokanee stand a chance at all in a lake were zebra or quagga mussels to take hold?

I may just be bad at finding the content in the video. Do you have one where you talk about how you choose your colors to start? Or is that somthing I'm probably.over thinking?

Tyler, I just searched Spectacle Lk and do not find a road in. Did you hike in with your kayak from the Pacific Crest Trail? 😅

Lake whatcom is still running their hatchery for koks

Tyler, on a different note I noticed in the WDFW trout stocking reports for the last few years there have been no stocking of Westslope Cutthroat Trout in Okanagan County lakes. Do you know why this may be? It has been a popular fishery in the past.

You should come out to Utah and fish Strawberry Reservoir and Flaming Gorge. I w caught more 4+ lb kokes in 2021 than ever before. It’s a great state for Kokanee.

I noticed you mount your transducer off the side of your Old Town kayak and not on the provided transducer bracket underneath. Why is that? Were you getting interference from the hull on your fish finder?

Where do you buy your cannon ball weights for Kokanee?

One of the reasons that I have invested in Kokanee, IS the decline in salmon runs in the Puget's Sound region. Returns, with few exceptions, have in some years, been dismal at best. Also, in Kokanee fishing, one doesn't have to deal with tides. A bonus. And of all the salmon, even sockeye, Kokanee make the finest hot -smoked salmon.

Awesome! 😀

Very interesting. I live nearish Kootenay Lake BC, it used to be healthy with kokanee. A big cold and deep lake perfect for them. Something happened (debate about what) in 2010-2014 or so, now the kokanee population is hurting. In the main body of the lake you can't keep any. In one arm you can keep some on weekends, another arm you can keep them on 5 selected days of the year. Too bad.

Is American lake in Lakewood, WA a good Kokanee lake? I went this early spring and didn’t catch any Kokanee, lots of rainbow trout.

Surprised they are that shallow, given the temps over there.

I have fished lake chelan 5 weeks and fish 4 to 6 hrs and catch 1 Kokanee a trip . I fish 4 poles at 40,50,60,70, changing depths every 15 to 20 min. Corn maggots shrimp red corn,what am I doing wrong ,very flustered.will you come to lk chelan and fish on my boat and teach me how to catch kooks 14:51

Are you running your lure colser to your dodgers now?

Loon Lake. Eastern Washington

I have never had a problem on lk chelan Nutella this year ,why?

Yup I have noticed an increase in parasites' on the kokanee I have been catching the last 3 weeks

As a way to “ improve “ a Kokanee fishery ( lower population , increase size ) what are your thoughts on introducing Mackinaw trout ?

RIP Wickiup

Chapman Lake, Eastern Washington

Would you consider getting involved in conservation as a career? I’m saying this out of complete ignorance because maybe you are professionally involved, or perhaps your KZfaq following and business would be considered educational and more powerful of a platform for conservation as it is already considering you are educating all of us. However I wonder if you aren’t involved outside your KZfaq platform you are extremely gifted in bringing anglers up to speed. Maybe you could bring fish and game up to speed and mesh the two?

Anywhere you don't have commercial/tribal fishing pressure whipping fish to extinction you'll be okay as it's exceedingly easy to manage a strictly sports fishing fishery. So easy even incompetent state governments can manage them. Salmon and steelhead will likely never return as the state and the commercial fishing industries have set up a monopoly capitalism scheme with hatcheries bogus rehabilitation efforts etc

They were probably asking because of global warming.

Conservatives impaling themselves on the point and still missing it.

Gill lice has devastated many of the kokanee fisheries in Colorado. Almost entirely due to CPW’s mismanagement. Kokanee fishing in Colorado is no where near what it once was.