Flaming Gorge Kokanee

[Ryno]

Ryno, we'll be at the Gorge next week fishing from Lucerne.  We generally fish both south and north - south for the scenery and north for generally larker kokes.  Is that holding true this year?  Is there any biology of why the north holds larger kokes, at least by what seems to be common wisdom?  

BTW, one of the largest kokes I ever caught was on a double spoon set up I dropped down below the schools for lakers.  He must have followed that down to depth because the hit was fierce and instantaneous once depth was reached.  The second small spoon on that was about 4", probably enough to keep the year class kokes off although limits may be tough to come by ;-).

Based on the reports I've received, that middle portion of the reservoir near Lucerne has been pretty devoid of Kokanee this year anyways.   I would do like you suggested and run north or south.  If you go south, I would definitely look at the canyon on both sides of the cut-thru,  the open water north of Kingfisher Island, and also in Hideout along Beehive Point.  I've heard some spotty but good reports from those areas.  

In terms of larger fish on the north end versus south, that's a pretty common trait for all species in the reservoir.  There's higher growth rates up north and lower down south.  The north end of the reservoir has two large tributaries, the Blacks Fork and Green Rivers, which are a large sources of nutrients.  Those inflows are basically a huge source of fertilizer, that greens up the algae, which supports higher densities of zooplankton, and provides more food for kokes, rainbows, cutts and small lake trout.  Once the water gets down into the Canyon Region and closer to the Dam, those nutrients are depleted, and therefore less fertilizer to go around.  We have some tributaries down lower too, but they don't size-up in flow or nutrients compared to the Blacks Fork and Green Rivers.

Hope it helps and good luck, Ryno