Flaming Gorge Reservoir – the massive reservoir spanning the Utah–Wyoming border – is famous among anglers for its kokanee salmon and trophy lake trout. Recently, fisheries managers from both states made important rule changes to protect kokanee and manage the booming lake trout population. Starting in 2024–25, anglers can only keep three kokanee per day…
If you’ve ever dreamed of catching kokanee salmon in a remote, high-alpine setting with almost no one around, Blind Lake should be on your radar. Tucked deep in the Boulder Mountains of southern Utah, Blind Lake is one of the newest kokanee fisheries in the state — and one that few anglers even know exists….
As I was preparing for and planning out my 2025 kokanee fishing trips, I reached out to a few different state biologists to learn about the state of kokanee in Utah. The most interesting news from those conversations was around kokanee experiments, some of which have been successful, but some have failed and are being…
During the fall at Lake Tahoe, the kokanee salmon start their annual salmon run, and the Fish and Wildlife host their annual kokanee salmon festival. The Kokanee Salmon Festival takes place on the first weekend in October. This generally aligns with the spawning of the kokanee salmon, and the start of their annual salmon run….
The state of Utah is set to increase the kokanee limit at Stateline Reservoir. I reached out to Chris Penne, Northern Region Aquatics Program Manager, and was able to speak with him about why state biologists were looking to make the change, along with the process of how this change came about. Stateline Reservoir had…
Towards the end of the kokanee salmon fishing season in Utah, a report got to me that a local angler had seen hundreds of kokanee near an inlet channel, turning color and going to spawn. This gentleman had limited out fairly quickly, by his report. Starvation isn’t known for having a good kokanee population. In…
Kokanee Junkies is the most active and friendly Facebook page on kokanee salmon fishing. It’s also one of the biggest groups in terms of members. The group is known for “keeping it Reel” and trying to be a positive and uplifting place for learning and sharing excitement about kokanee. It’s hard to keep up a…
October 1 marks the opening day of kokanee snagging season in New Mexico, and the day dawned with me and some friends on the banks of Navajo Lake, doing our best to bring in some kokanee. It was my first time going kokanee snagging, and I’m here to tell you, it was a lot of…
Have you ever taken over 4,000 fish horseback riding? That’s exactly what happened in the Boulder Mountains on May 25, 2022. State biologists have introduced kokanee salmon to Blind Lake on the North Boulder Slope of the Boulder Mountains. It’s a remote lake, but actually the deepest and the largest lake in the Boulder Mountains….
On April 19, 2022, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission changed the kokanee bag limit back to what it had been for years, allowing anglers at Georgetown Lake to once again keep an unlimited amount of kokanee. The regulation limiting the amount of kokanee salmon a person could keep was passed during the October 2021…
