Fly Fishing Discussion
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Yesterday (Friday 10/13) I was fishing the South Fork about a mile below the dam when I saw a bright red kokanee about 16 inches long cruising upstream. By the time I got my camera out it was gone so I didn't get a picture. I know kokanee are in Anderson Reservoir- is it possible that it was washed through the dam or do you think that this one migrated from Lucky Peak? Anybody else seen kokanee below the dam?
Dan
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Dan,
Your post jogged my memory from two weeks ago when I spotted a kokanee in one of the large pools below Cow Creek Bridge. I also wondered if the fish was migrating out of Arrowrock. Came home and did a quick LexisNexis search and found an article from the Statesman saying that kokanee in Arrowrock spawn in the Middle Fork of the Boise and that the reservoir "also gets kokanee salmon that drift down the South Fork of the Boise River from Anderson Ranch Reservoir, according to Idaho Department of Fish and Game." Never underestimating the power of the Salmonidae, I still would be open to believing that a kokanee could migrate into the South Fork from the Rock.
All in all, a great day on the water. Caught some huge rainbows, and had a bear cub run across a side channel 30 feet downstream of me. Spooky not knowing where Mamma was...
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Hey fellas, I'm quite sure they come up out of Arrow Rock. I usually do a cast and blast down the canyon in late September and usually see quite a few kokanee on the float. I was up two weeks ago and noticed a couple of them just down from the dam as well.
Fishizzle, mentioning the bear reminded me.....3 years ago we were camped out just down from Cow Creek planning to float the canyon the next morning. We had a hard time sleeping that night. We had a bear in camp that could not be persuaded to leave.... He came back 3 times during the night. A shot in the air with a 12 guage was finally enough to keep him from coming back. Made for some fond memories of standing in the back of a pick up at 3 AM watching the bear rummage through camp.
The wade fishing has been fantastic this fall!!
Justin
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I was on the SFB on 9/24 and was suprised by the number of Kokanee near the village. I concur with the others, they are out of Arrowrock, too many to have come through the dam. My buddy and I stopped counting them after 35 and they were not spooky. In fact, you could get a good look at them from a few feet away and some were pretty beat up. On a different note, we fished MFB on 10/6 and didn't see one kokanee at all. They might have been above us though, we only fish to Alexander before turning around.
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The kokanee definitely come up from Arrowrock. When you watch them in the SFB, they are actively making their way up river to attempt a spawn. I really doubt many fish would be flushed from the deep reservoir (bottom release, right?). If so, they'd likely just huddle at the bottom of the dam, hoping to find their way back upstream somehow.
On another note, I had one nail a red yarn indicator the other week and take it for a brief run. Pretty funny. The same fish took a bat at my nymph rig while pulling it back for another drift.
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