Well its official, Whiskeytown Lake is already kicking out easy limits of Kokanee salmon. I had been hearing some good reports, but hadn't been out to see for myself until today. I had a chance to get out with a good friend and fellow fishing guide, Anthony Cox and his friend Terry. We launched at Whiskey Creek at about 8:30 am and started fishing by 9:00. We started trolling near the mph buoys and immediately had a rod go down.

The first takedown didn't stick and we continued to troll toward the 299 bridge. There was a slight lull in activity until we made it out past the bridge. Thats when the flurry of bites began and we experienced some double hook ups and even a few triples. Kokanee were breaking up on the surface and it became obvious that we were in for another great season of Kokanee fishing. At 10:45 we had 15 fish in the cooler and were packing it in for the day.

Anthony and Terry playing a double Kokanee hook up!

The Kokanee were located on the surface down to 20' where we caught the majority of them during the 1 1/2 hour trip. It should be no surprise that the hot color was pink, but we did manage to hook several Kokanee on orange baits as well. We used the Crystal Basin "wild thing" dodger in the chrome finish and as always it produced many bits as did the Spin N Glo rigs Anthony tied up for the trip. Of course, none of these baits were sent down without a few kernels of shoe peg corn marinated in a garlic scents. 2017 will be another year to remember and with Kokanee already taping out at 16", this summer will be providing a lot of delicious Kokanee fillets for the dinner table. I will start running my guided Kokanee fishing trips on Whiskeytown Lake June 1st, after my striped bass season comes to a close. If you want to experience some of the finest Kokanee fishing in California give me a call and we'll set something up for you!