Fishin' Reports

I had the best day of kokanee fishing on Lake Roosevelt in years on Monday. Fishing with Alan Greenhalgh, owner of Kokabow Fishing Tackle, and Jim Paine, we got into great numbers of big fish at Swawilla Basin. We were on Jim’s boat, and he is an old hand at kokanee fishing. He got us onto fish and kept us on them all morning. We were trolling a variety of Kokabow blades and spinners, changing the combinations frequently as the day changed from heavy clouds to bright sunshine. We found the fish were still very shallow and we got them on downriggers set no deeper than 12 feet or flatlined out the back of the boat. I imagine that the cold spring weather we’ve had has kept the fish in the top of the water column. We had six kokanee, ranging in size from 15 to 20 inches, including one clipped fish, by 10:30, and it took us until after noon to get the last one. We were surprised how few rainbow we caught. We just got three, releasing one wild fish, and keeping an 18 and 20-inch trout. Great fishing for giant kokanee on Lake Roosevelt isn’t over yet!