Cracking The Kokanee Code at Hidden Lake - Report

Disclaimer: This is not an instructional post for catching kokanee for all you Western States anglers who are experts already. 
June 22, 2021
Blue Bird Skies
Light wind at 9am building to 25kt gusts in afternoon
Surface temperature at peak wind: 49°F (lake turnover).

Hope this might stimulate some Alaskan kayakers to give Hidden Lake a shot for kokanee in the future. Its a great fishery under the ice but few open water anglers are successful for them except as a "by-catch" while trolling for Lake trout.

I've never caught an open water kokanee in this lake although my previous efforts were minimal, being only two attempts last year, and following advice of an ice fishing friend.  So I spent a lot of time this spring on Youtube since there is no shortage of Kokanee 'advice' offered because of the widespread popularity of this fishery in all the western states. Alaska F&G does not have sockeye/kokanee stocking programs in landlocked lakes; coho and chinook are what they stock for enhanced sport fisheries.

Hidden Lake on the Kenai Peninsula is unique because it has a huge productivity index yet there is an extremely limited amount of spawning area available for 35,000 returning adult sockeye. So Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association (they run several commfish hatcheries) dumps 700K - 1.2 million unfed sockeye fry into this lake each spring. They are allowed to grow and the following year the majority find their way to the outlet stream as smolt and head for the ocean. But a very significant portion of these smolt either fail to find the stream outlet leading to the ocean or they 'choose' to remain in the lake as kokanee for the remainder of their life cycle.

In the wintertime under the ice a small leadhead jig tipped with salmon roe is the ticket to success. That does not seem to be a successful approach for summer fishing as I found out previously. After watching a number of uplandsandpiper's Spilt Milt videos on kokanee fishing PNW lakes I reviewed my inventory of necessary components that would "make do" as a first effort.

My can of Shoepeg corn had an expiration date of 2018. Hmm, they always are conservative on those dates...aren't they? But my corn was in sad shape. No stores open at midnight, this will have to do.

I have many scents - all the ones suggested by my YT guides - but none of the water-soluble variety. Go with what I had. My only garlic scent was a 20 year old bottle of garlic powder in the spice rack I had never used. That'll work. I had acquired a variety of micro hootchies a few years back so I made up some double hook rigs in various colors.

Bait:
Garlic powder flavored shoepeg.
Sardine flavored shoepeg.
Shrimp flavored shoepeg.
Salmon roe flavored shoepeg.
Plain shoepeg.
Pea-size pieces of cured salmon roe.

Tackle:
Thin wire spreader on main line with a 2 oz canonball sinker on the bottom snap.
6 feet of mono to a #4/0 dodger with chartreuse prism tape.
8 inches of leader from dodger to the hootchie rig with both hooks baited.
Running 20# tufline braid (6# mono diameter) on my trout rod.

The wind was a bitch to say the least. Running down wind I was pushed up to 3.5mph without peddling. Way too fast. Against the wind and waves I was slowed to 1-1.5mph depending on gusts. Way too slow.

During periods of relative calm I was able to determine by my rod tip action that the optimum trolling speed for a #4/0 (Luhr Jensen) dodger was 2.0-2.2mph. And during my 10 hour long odyssey slower speeds and faster speeds over marked fish and schools produced very few hookups. When the speed was on the mark, I could 'call the shot' on the next hookup as I passed over a target.

Where Are The Fish?
My first surprise was while traversing across the lake to a spot a mile away and in 150 feet of water I caught my first kokanee at a trolling depth of 20 feet.  Throughout the day most of the marked fish on the finder that were 25-50 feet down responded to my offering. I lost perhaps 8 or 10.  Most of my targets were found 50 to 200 yards out from shore with bottom depths 100-150 feet. But I took fish far out also.

That's A Wrap!
There is no doubt I'm going to be returning to Hidden Lake in search of those mythical 20 inch kokanee that are infrequently caught under the ice. That would be a 220 point fish in AOTY. And its only 50 minutes from the house.

What I discovered was there are some locations, seemingly out in the middle of nothingness that I marked a Waypoint on the finder when I hit a fish and each time I returned I nearly always got another strike in 100 feet of water with no structure. So mark your hookup locations on your GPS in case it is one of those honey holes. Something was causing these fish to hang out in a specific location.

Another observation was each time I was stationary taking a break and a school of kokanee passed under the boat, right below and behind them was a big Lake trout shadowing them. There are some big lakers in Hidden that live on a diet of sockeye fry and larger kokanee. Many ice fishermen will use a kokanee head on the bottom to hook up some nice fish.

Lastly, I only tried Garlic corn, salmon roe, garlic corn on one and roe flavored corn on the other. Unscientifically, it sure seemed like they preferred the garlic flavor!

Looking North at the 2019 Swan Lake Fire aftermath that burned 177,000 acres.


Looking West towards the Narrows.


Not bad for an absolute newbie to kokanee fishing, especially in Alaska where its rare to find them in this concentration.

Nicely done and great report!

You should try having a light jigging rod ready with a buzz bomb, Nordic jig or something of that nature, but actually go with a buzz bomb product since they sponsor us!

I would also have a little heavier jigging rod ready with a larger version of the same thing for those Lakers that follow the schools.

You should be able to see your jig on the fish finder so you can see that you are at the right depth. Hard to do when windy though.

Wow, great report, thanks!

Speaking of Buzz Bombs, Sportsmans last year had a red tag sale on the white Polar Bear in 2 1/2" that is a killer jigging for staging coho out at Pony Cove before they enter Resurrection Bay proper. Even better than mooching or trolling herring (cheaper too).  So I loaded up with them and then cut various patterns of prism tape to attach to make my own custom flash. I believe these would be too big for kokanee but might be good on the lakers. [Hint: They will get a workout at Resurrection next month! ADFG report this week said the first silver scouts are poking their heads into the mouth of the bay out at Pony. That also means pinks will soon be in the mix for a second species. ]

One of the bummers about having to do a lot of experimentation is Alaska regs only allow one rod per angler. So you are restricted to 'testing' only one lure or bait at a time. That does slow down the discovery process.