Jigging for Kokanee Salmon at Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is one of the deepest lakes in the world, and the deep water provides an excellent environment for jigging for kokanee salmon. Jigging for kokanee is a hot and cold fishing experience. When the bite is on, its really on, but when its off, you need to adjust your gear, location, or strategy. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned kokanee fisherman, this article will provide you with the information you need for making those changes and having the best chance at success when jigging for kokanee salmon at Lake Tahoe.

About Lake Tahoe

The elevation is 6,224feet and the depth of the Lake is 1,644 feet. Lake Tahoe is located on the border of California and Nevada, with part of the lake in either state. This reservoir is a popular place for all sorts of outdoor activities. It’s a popular destination location for anglers, water sporters, and vacationers. Lake Tahoe is one of my favorite places to fish because it offers a wide variety of species and types of water. Kokanee love these deep lakes, and it provides a lot of livable and fishable waters for kokanee. Fishing for kokanee is popular at Lake Tahoe is popular both by trolling and by jigging.

About Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee salmon are landlocked sockeye salmon, which means they don’t return to the ocean and live their entire lives in lakes or reservoirs before spawning in rivers, streams, or gravel close to lakeshores. These salmon are delicious and are really strong fighters, making them a prime target for anglers, and the popularity of this fish is growing. Kokanee are a schooling fish that feed on zooplankton in the water. They tend to find where these plankton are at and then they congregate and feed all in that one area. These plankton, and the kokanee that feed on them, like to hang in water that is around 50-55 degrees, so these salmon are usually only able to survive in deep alpine lakes and reservoirs, and can be found from depths of 10 feet, all the way down to over 100 feet deep.

Jigging for Kokanee Salmon at Lake Tahoe

Fishing for kokanee really isn’t complicated. You find the school of salmon, and you drop the jigging lure set up down on them and you jig. Essentially, you raise and lower your jig, spoon, or lure in front of a school of kokanee salmon, trying to entice a bite. You’re trying to get the kokanee to strike out of aggression. You’re not going to really imitate their food source, plankton, but you can bring out that aggression to net a fish. There’s a little more that goes into the technique for kokanee jigging, but that’s about the gist of it.

Kokanee Jigging Setup

If you’ve tried trolling for kokanee, you can actually use your basic kokanee trolling setup for jigging as well. A kokanee dodger and a lure or hoochie 8-18 inches behind that, tipped with shoe peg corn or a gulp maggot. When I’m jigging, I like that leader to be closer to 8-12 inches, keeping it closer to the dodger and where the fish are seeing the most flash.

As I’ve done my writing and research, I’ve gone through several forums and groups to see what people are reporting having success with. The most popular rig for ice fishing is a Pink dodger, wedding ring lure about 12″ below the dodger, with the hook on the lure tipped with a single pink gulp maggot. I’m not saying this is the only way to have success, but its what most guys are saying they catch kokanee with more often than any other setup.

Mack’s Lure Wedding Ring

Mack’s Lure Double D Dodger 4.4 Inch – Pink

Berkley Gulp! Alive! Waxies Fishing Soft Bait

Where to Jig for Kokanee at Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is really big, and there are a lot of places where you can find kokanee. I usually go through all the fishing reports and find where people are reporting having the most success. As I was going through the reports, I kept reading about people out for multiple days, and they’d catch nothing on day one, then they’d limit out in an hour or two the next day in the same spot. I can’t stress enough the importance of a fish finder at Tahoe. There are a lot of places to find fish, and they can be everywhere and nowhere. If you’ve got a fish finder though, you should be able to find schools of kokanee throughout the lake in deeper water, as long as you know what kokanee look like on a fish finder.

But, to get you started, I tend to have success in areas where there are elevation changes on the bottom. Cliffs, ledges, and slopes have always produced well for me. Again, your fish finder will be critical here.

Most Common Depth for Finding Kokanee on Lake Tahoe

As it gets warmer, kokanee salmon go deeper. They can be hard to find, but depending on the water temperature, you can find Kokanee salmon from 30’ to 150’ with an average being around 80’. That doesn’t mean you’ll be able to consistently find them at 80’. Electronics are very important, and especially at Lake Tahoe where the water is REALLY deep and kokanee depths can vary so drastically.