Kokannee on the Barbee
June 19, 2008 at 8:15 am
When fishing Hidden Lakes you may occasionally hook into a fish that does not look like a Rainbow. It’s typically small (8-12 inches), has large eyes, nice a silvery and has firm, red meat. What you have is a Kokanee. This is a landlocked Sockeye salmon put into the system through the stocking program. They tend to school together so when you get into a pod of them you may catch a bunch. The limit is 5 so bring home a couple for the BBQ. They taste great and are proportioned well for one per person. They also spawn and die, like other salmon, so this may help with any ethical questions you have with catch and eat fishing for these beauties. The have smaller mouths so little mepps spinners or flies (dry or wet). When actively feeding, sometimes in the shallows you’ll see a ton of rises and dimples in the water. You may think these are just little fry, but they are in fact tasty Kokanee.
I have attached a picture of Kokanee simply with a little brush of olive oil, herb de provence and garlic. No need to fillet, descale or anything...just clean them. BBQ’d until the meat is cooked through and voila!
Mmmm, and served with shrimp and portabellos, I see. There’s nothin’ like truly fresh fish.
Fawn on June 19, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Hi, just found your site. Nice stuff so far of what I’ve read.
Ok, here is why I am really posting a comment. I have lived and fished in the yukon for 25 yrs. Unfortunately, i fish Hidden Lk a lot, but in all these years, Skunked...... lost plenty of lures, been frustrated and often swear I’ll never waste my time there again..... (lost count of how many times I’ve said that) The being established, I have recently gotten into fly fishing and will give Hidden another try. My question to you is:
What patterns of wet and dry flies work there? I’ve heard shrimp patterns, and nymphs, but i have little experience on the local bugs and the times of the various hatches. I also haven’t a clue what the patterns look like for an emerger or a nymph of the local species of our bugs.
Can you name off a few, or direct me to a source of info so that I may do some of my own investigating?
Thanks and have a great summer.
arctic_front on June 25, 2008 at 1:44 am
Great questions. I’ll get back to you on this as I want to have some more time to think about it. I’ll also post in the blog to see if any readers can help as well. Stay tuned, I’ll reply in the main section of the website. I am pleased that you asked!
Dennis @ Fishonyukon.com on June 25, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Post a comment
Sorry, comments are disabled 10 days after the publication date.
Preview of comment
Subscribe
Like what you're reading? Subscribe to updates via RSS.
3 comments so far