Kokanee Junkies: The Story of the Most Active Kokanee Salmon Facebook Group

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 group like that, and I was able to talk to one of the admins, and founders of the group, Shawn Nickles, to learn more about the group and what goes into managing such a community.

How Kokanee Junkies Got Started

Shawn founded kokanee junkies, 4 or 5 years ago. He’s been on Facebook like everybody, and he’d been fishing all his life. He was tired of all the people who were negative in other Facebook groups. Then, one day, he was meeting up with a group of friends to go fishing at Lake Chelan. It was early in the morning, and there was a miscommunication with some of the people he was meeting there on time. So he and a few other guys were there just waiting. 

Then he said that he’d been wanting to start a Facebook group on kokanee fishing. “Hey, you’re crazy. Nobody is going to follow your hillbilly ass,” was their response. But he went for it anyways, and started the group, and called it Chelan Kokanee Junkies.

The first 2 years were a struggle. There was a lot to compete with. The powerhouse group had always been northwest kokanee addicts. The problem was that it was just him and his friend Scott Wilson really posting anything. People weren’t active. He was about ready to quit.

About that time, they decided to change from Chelan Kokanee Junkies to just Kokanee Junkies. Some wanted it to stay small, but Shawn wanted it to grow and be a good, active community. As soon as they changed the name, he brought in a guy from Idaho, and started to see some real growth. Then, about 3 years into it, he started having people post organically. From there, the group has just snowballed.

The Goal of the Kokanee Junkies Group

When he first got started, that first year, he wanted to put a lot of time into it. His goal was to be what the other groups weren’t: to keep it positive and keep the advertising out of it. “Our standard was- we’re not better than the next guy, even if we fish all the time,” Shawn told me. “If someone goes out and caught only 1 fish, we don’t say- you suck. We say congratulations.”

They don’t do advertising, no ripping on a guy, and no politics. “It hasn’t always been easy, but we don’t put up with bullshit. We don’t let people argue it out.” Their goal is to have a good, uplifting, and positive community to learn and get excited about kokanee fishing.

Shawn’s Fishing Guide Service

Shawn actually runs a fishing guide service, and some people ask, why do you give so many pointers? Doesn’t that hurt your business? His response- “I want everyone to catch fish.”

He’d worked for the government for 20 years. He was an accomplished fisherman, and after running the group for 2-3 years, he decided to try getting into guiding, and he’s seen some good, quick success. He’s doing part time, and did 80 trips. He works 4 10s year round at his full time job, which leaves a longer weekend for fishing and guiding. 

The cool thing about his guide service is that he hasn’t advertised at all in his Kokanee Junkies group about his business. He’s got his own guide page where he talks about his guiding and promotes that business. Honestly, I don’t think anyone would fault him for talking more about his guide services. It’s his group after all, but his dogma is that, as a leadership, it all starts at the top. He doesn’t advertise, and he doesn’t allow others to advertise. 

What he does is post pictures. He’s posting pictures from all over. Pictures will advertise for you, he says. He’s gotten probably half of his clients from the pictures he posts in the group. He guides at Lake Chelan for kokanee, and for kings on the Columbia river. I’ve never fished with him, but based on his character alone, I’d recommend him.

Kokanee Junkies Fishing Tournament: The Lake Chelan Kokanee Shootout

Shawn also told me that the group put together a fishing tournament- the Lake Chelan Kokanee Shootout. The derby is in the last weekend in February. There are 65 2 man teams, and they have 7 hours. The tournament fills up fast. It’s harder than a lot of other kokanee fishing tournaments. This contest is pretty much the only one that takes place in the winter. It’s tougher fishing, and you’ve got to compete with the elements on top of things. Shawn wanted his tournament to be different, and to be more similar to the more competitive bass and walleye tournaments out there.

The Future

Shawn looks forward to the future of the group. His goal is to get the group to 20,000 members. Also, they’ve toyed with the idea of expanding into other social media platforms, like Reddit, but just haven’t gotten into that. Shawn, himself certainly plans to stick with the page. He’s seen a lot of other groups that have had founders lose interest. He doesn’t anticipate that happening. He likes it. He’s a self described social bug, and enjoys his time in the community. It’s a lot of fun, he said, but he loves it.

I personally look forward to the continued support and community of Kokanee Junkies. It’s a great group, and definitely worth checking out.