Spawning Kokanee

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This fall it seems like most of my smallmouth fishing has been centered around fish feeding on this little landlocked salmon. I have been keying on smallmouth eating them on lakes throughout Washington and Idaho and this last trip I got an up close look at the Kokanee that the bass have been eating.

I went out with a buddy to Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho and it was rough fishing for bass. Cold temps and heavy winds made it hard for us to fish the offshore humps so we went to a protected area. The seagulls and eagles were swarming everywhere and eating kokanee. I had a blade bait tied on so started fishing it and hooked several kokanee salmon.

Since they are spawning, they look much different than they do most of the season. Instead of looking like a trout, they are a deep red color. This was a male with a hooked jaw.



This was a smaller female.



It was cool to see them up close and it is easy to see why smallies love them. They are pretty small (7-11" mostly) and look to be easy to eat compared to spiny perch and small bass. After I left the lake I went to the local baitshop and noticed this swimbait matching a spawning kokanee. A pretty good match!



So even though I didn't catch a single bass and shivered in the wind and rain, I still learned something about the forage of bass in my area. Next time, I'll have a reddish swimbait ready to go!