Kokanee Flies: Best Flies for Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee are a tasty and strong fighting fish, making them a popular target for sportsmen. There are a few important things fly fishermen need to know when selecting the best flies for kokanee salmon. 1. kokanee strike out of aggression at bright colors. 2. Pinks, greens, reds, oranges, and flashy materials are best, regardless of pattern. 3. You can’t imitate plankton, a kokanee’s food source, so you must instead think about what irritates kokanee without scaring them. Putting all of that together can help you make the best presentation and successfully net a kokanee on the fly.

Best Fly Patterns for Kokanee Salmon

• San Juan Wet Nymphs
• Bead Head Flies
• Girdle Bug Flies
• Bead Head Nymphs
• Kokanee Tube Flies
• Egg Paterns
• Doc Spratleys
• Arctic Fox Flies
• Mayfly
• Damselfly

San Juan Wet Nymphs Flies

These flies look like shiny, sparkly, worms or caterpillars. They’re simple, brightly colored, and are proven producers. Fly fishermen really should have some san juan wet nymph flies in their tackle box.

Girdle Bug Flies

The rubber legs on this fly flutter and move around in the water. This makes an action kind of like kokanee hoochies. That particular action and pattern is proven to catch kokanee.

Bead Head Nymph Flies

Bead head nymphs generally have extra flash. These flies look like a lot of other kokanee lures that people use while trolling. Beads are a major component of a lot of the most popular kokanee lures. Additionally, the beads used for the head are often also a bright flashy color, making them ideal. Bead head flies are one of the most popular choices for kokanee salmon fly fishing.

Lately, I’ve been using the Bassdash Nymph fly kit. It has bright colors and flashy material. Additionally, this kit has some pinks, and pinks just seem to connect will with kokanee. Whether its dodgers, hoochies, lures, or flies: pink is just the magic color for kokanee. That doesn’t mean its always the color for kokanee, but I’ve certainly caught more kokanee with pink than with any other color.

Bassdash Nymph Fly Kit

Kokanee Tube Flies

Tube flies are made from a plastic tube and a variety of bright colored feather strands. Bright pinks, oranges, and greens are some of the very best colors for kokanee. What you do is slip the eye of a hook up into the tube and you’re set to go. The benefit with this is that you’re able to use the very best kokanee hook in your fly, and you can adjust sizes up and down as needed. It opens up a lot of versatility for your fly.

12 Pack Assorted Colorful Tube Fly Set for Salmon Trout Steelhead Fly Fishing Flies

Egg Pattern Flies

Do kokanee eat eggs? No. They primarily eat plankton. None of the other patterns imitate a plankton. Primarily, kokanee strike out of aggression. Lure and fly patterns essentially irritate the fish enough to get them to strike. The bright colors of the egg pattern flies are perfect for this purpose.

Doc Spratley Flies for Kokanee

Doc Spratley flies are another popular choice for kokanee, and the more colorful the better. Bright colored doc Spratley’s are popular all across america with most fly fishermen. Color is key for kokanee, so make sure you’re using bright pinks, greens, reds, and flashy materials.

Arctic Fox Kokanee Flies

Arctic fox flies have been growing in popularity for kokanee. The theory behind them is that they arctic fox fur used in making the flies doesn’t freeze, making it a popular choice for ice fishing for kokanee. People report the best success using pinks and greens.

Kokanee Trolling Flies

Anglers can replace the lure or hoochie with a trolling fly when targeting kokanee. When trolling for kokanee, you usually have a dodger creating action for your fly, lure, or bait. The goal is to look like a little critter that a kokanee might think of a competition for its food source. Kokanee primarily eat zooplankton, so you’re not going to be able to imitate that with a fly, but your nymph, worm, or other fly will entice the fish to strike out of aggression, Essentially, you’re annoying them into striking. Your best option for trolling flies are your worms, your nymphs, your tube flies (tied with 2 hooks preferably), or an arctic fox fly.

Spawning Kokanee Flies

Targeting kokanee during the spawn is one of the best time for fly fishermen to catch one of these landlocked salmon. They usually spend most of their time in deep, cold water in lakes or reservoirs. They move to shallow water pretty much only to spawn.

What Flies Catch the Most Kokanee Salmon

There are many different styles of flies available for catching kokanee salmon. You can choose from traditional dry flies, like wooly buggers, or wet flies like nymphs and streamers. Wet flies are generally more effective than dry flies when it comes to catching kokanee salmon because they provide more movement and flash underwater.

When fly fishing for most species, its important to understand the diet of the fish you’re targeting, but this isn’t entirely true for kokanee salmon. Instead, you want the kokanee on attack mode. Kokanee seem to be most likely to strike things that are pink, red, orange, or green (generally in that order), and things that are shiny. Egg pattern flies and nymph flies do really well for kokanee fly fishing. The San Juan Wet Nymph Flies are probably among the very most popular for fly fishermen specifically targeting kokanee salmon. These are the right color, and have the right shine and flash in the water to entice a kokanee salmon to strike at these out of aggression.

About Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee salmon are sockeye salmon that are landlocked in fresh water. They primarily feed on Zoo plankton and are generally found in larger lakes that can maintain a cool temperature, or have enough depth to maintain a cool temperature. Kokanee are native to many lakes in the western United States and Canada including Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho in the United States and British Columbia and Yukon in Canada. Populations of kokanee salmon are also found in Japan and Russia. 

Additionally, kokanee have been introduced to many other lakes in the United States including in those states mentioned above as well as in Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico in the west, as well as in New England, New York and North Carolina in the east. Kokanee have also been introduced to lakes in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada.

Best Flies for Kokanee Salmon

The best flies for targeting kokanee salmon are your nymphs and bead heads. Fly patterns with bright colors and flashy materials tend to work best in getting the kokanee to strike. Look for your pinks, reds, chartreuse, oranges, and silvers.

Do Kokanee Flies Work for Other Fish Species?

Yes, various species of trout are also known to strike at kokanee flies.