What do Kokanee Look Like on a Fish Finder

Fishing for kokanee takes a certain level of precision, both to find the fish, and to stay on the fish. No matter what type of device you have, this article should help you determine what kokanee salmon look like on a fish finder.

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.

Kokanee tend to be in a band that can range from 5 feet to 20 feet from top to bottom, depending on the school of kokanee, and on how deep the water is. There can also be multiple schools at different depths. Kokanee fishing at Flaming Gorge for instance, I mark most kokanee at 30-50 feet, and then smaller schools at around 80 feet on the fish finder. I tend to target the bigger schools of kokanee.

Know What Other Fish Live In the Lake

Different fish live at different levels in the water column. Kokanee are a schooling fish, but they’re not the only schooling fish. Lakes with kokanee salmon often also have trout populations. Trout can also group together in small groups. You can also find herring, perch, bass, or other fish in the same waters, so its important to look at the relative size of the fish you’re seeing on the fish finder, and note the depths and patterns of the fish you’re seeing, and the water temperatures.

What do you do when you’re marking fish all through the water column?

If I’m seeing a view like that, first off, this is the problem that every fisherman wants to have. What do you do? Celebrate. You’re living the good life. That said, which ones are kokanee salmon on the fish finder? Lets look at the image below. If I’m fishing this, I’m starting at about 40 feet deep. The fish are a bit smaller and are schooling tight at that level. The red lines in the fish finder below are downrigger weights. Smaller lines, like those at about 30 feet and 25 feet are likely either secondary lines on a downrigger, smaller weights, clip weights, or divers.

What Kokanee look like on Side Imaging

When looking at kokanee with side imaging, its much easier to get a rough idea of numbers and where a school of salmon starts and ends. A school of salmon certainly isn’t immobile, but they will often hang out in one general area, feeding on zooplankton in that spot, so being able to get a wide view can be extremely helpful.

Another option is a 3d view, which combines both down imaging and side imaging technology, and presents a much wider view. The image below uses Garmin’s Live Vu Down technology, which is great for finding the kokanee below you and around you.

What Kokanee Look Like on Down Imaging

On the image above, this Garmin device is showing both down imaging and 3d Live Vu imaging. The mass of fish on the left shows everything that sound is bouncing off of. Down imaging shows a 2d view. Down imaging just shows you a cross section in the water, with a sort of log of what is directly beneath you at any given moment. What is currently beneath you is usually shown on the right, and what you’ve passed goes to the left.

Fish in this type of fish finder imaging can often look like an arch, or a curve. It looks this way because, even with down imaging, the fish finder sends out a cone, and fish are further away from your transducer at the furthest reach of the sonar than they are directly below the transducer, even though the fish is at the same depth. Because of this, the fish’s precise depth is generally at the height of the arch. Because kokanee school together, kokanee can look like a series of arches, or, depending on how tightly packed the salmon are, or on the precision of your fish finder, it may just appear as one giant mass on your fish finder screen.

Comparing Fish Finder Brands for Kokanee Salmon Fishing

Most of the major fish finders all utilize the same technology, but present the sonar information in different color patterns. There is some debate over which is better quality wise, but all of the top 3 fish finder brands are more than capable of finding kokanee salmon. I personally prefer Garmin or Hummingbird over the Lowrance options, but that’s just my personal preference.

Don’t Confuse Obstacles for Kokanee

If kokanee are schooling at the bottom, its possible to confuse them with trees or other obstacles on your fish finder. If you look at the image below, from about 80 feet down to the bottom, there is some mass there that the fish finder is picking up on. This mass could be a school of kokanee, and it does look similar to the group that is from about 45-65 feet deep, but it could also bee submerged trees or other obstacles in the water. Having multiple types of imaging technology with your fish finder, such as down imaging, side imaging, and mapping features, allows you to better determine what you’re looking at. If I only had the image below, because there were 3 separate masses of things all along the bottom, I would suspect that these could be trees, not kokanee.