I have been fishing for 30 years for trout , salmon and steelhead and am interested in trying something new. I am really interested in fishing for catfish and kokanee, yes I know kokanee is a salmon but I have never fished for them. I live in Snohomish county and have fished Lake Stevens the last two weeks using various flashers and different color wedding ring spinners tipped with a worm or spoons, kokanut fly and wee-tad, all suggestions from the store on the lake Greg's Custom fishing rods wich is a good store with lots of info but we fished several times the last two weeks and all we got were two rainbows 11 and 12 inches wich was caught on a crawdad colored flatfish. We fished depths from 12 to 60 feet in 40 to 100 feet of water, varying speeds anything we could think to do. Is it not the best time of year to fish for kokanee or am I doing something wrong???? I am also interested in fishing Lake Roseiger I here it has kokanee also. If any of you could give me some info on either of these lakes or how to fish them I would appreciate it. I am also interested in catching some catfish in the snohomish, king, skagit counties also. Thanks in advance for any help

Let me assist you in your paradigm.

The reason the Kokanee have not been biting, quite simply, is because most of them are DEAD! Try back in the summer and you'll do fine with what youre using.

4tboys -
Big Daddy is partially correct. The adult fish did spawning last fall (November and December) and as with all salmon they died afterwords. However the next years group of fish are coming along. At this time of the year the fish tend to be scattered and difficult to pin down. Often the best concentration of Koks will be right on the surface - especially early mornings or calm days. They tend to be very boat shy so the best bet is troll with very long lines or planner boards.

A better option is wait for the water to warm some and the thermocline forms. This is concentrate the fish in a narrow band of water. On Stevens that usually begins in May depending on the weather (the warmer the spring the early the thermocline forms). At that time of year have to locate the proper depth by watching your depth finders or trail and error. You will find that the fish move deep as the day progresses as well as when the water temperature increases. Your gear selection is fine.

Stevens has larger fish than Roesiger. Other lakes with smallish koks include Whatcom and Baker. Larger but few fish can be found in Shannon, Samish, and American Lakes. Largest kokanee in the State are generally found in Roosevelt (NE Washington).

Catfish (brown bullheads) can be found in most of our bass lakes. Some to try would include Washington, Sammish, Cassidy, Stevens, Roesiger, Terrell, Wiser, and many of the smaller waters.

Good luck
Tight lines
Smalma

Thanks for the info. I was told that Kokanee don't spawn and die every year wich means you would have a mix of smaller to larger is that true or do kokanee spawn every year? And as far as catfish go is there a better bait to use in this area I have tried nightcrawlers and power bait catfish bait. Is the fishing better in summer also for catfish or are they year round??

Kokanee are a land lock form of sockeye as with all salmon they spawn only once and then die. They typically spawn at age 4. For some reason don't enter the fisheries much until their final year of life thus the smaller (younger) fish are rarely caught. The size of the maturing fish can vary greatly depending on the number of fish in a lake and the productive of the lake. The fish maybe only 6 or 8 inches long or in very productive waters up to several pounds.

The most commonly used bait for brown bullheads is nightcrawlers. Most folks fish the them during the late spring/summer period with low light/dark periods being the most consistent. While they can be caught this time of year it can be tough to find a good spot. The only locations where I have consistent good luck are isolated shallow bays that warm quickly. A large bay with a muck bottom (dark) that is only a couple feet deep is the best. This is the one time of year when the best fishing would be in mid-day, especially on sunny days.

Tight lines
Smalma

4tboys-smalma gave you some good advice on the kokanee! Wait for the lake (Stevens) to warm a bit. The bows are right on top and I do pretty well with a single #1 or #2 spinner blade stacked on top of 3-5 red and or green beads. I use a silver for low light and brass in sun. Also try some black blades. Use a tandem worm hook-like a mooching set up and 1/2 a medium crawler. Front hook goes thru the head of worm and trail hook about 2/3 way back. You want the last little bit of worm to wiggle when trolled. No weight! long line! And use scents like dr.juice orshrimp or anise. For catfish you can fish in the bay in front of the boat launch in town-lk. stevens-or you can fish the "middle lake" at Roseiger. Its shallow and warms quickly. Night crawlers work well. Also good trout fishing there w/the mallow/crawler combo. Good luck

over east we chum, and than catch kok,s off the same color eggs to several lbs. brown bullheads bull**** channel cats in gissberg on lver sno. county whatcom county has several.
grew up on lake washington and never caught a brown bullhead but lots a nice cats. good eating too.

Wait till the spring to try stevens for Kokanee, my dad and I fish it quite regualarly and have had some good success in the past. We use a 000 Dodger, w/ about a foot of leader then a wedding ring and small trebble hook in place of the worm harness. On the trebble hook I tie some Chenielle (red or orange) and that seems to give it a little extra attraction. We use the trabble hook so we can load on the bait, we use White Shoepeg corn and Maggots, just put a couple pieces of corn on each hook and your good to go.

2nd favorite lure of mine would be a firetiger Needlefish.

We fish almost exclusively at 35-45 feet in about 80-150ft of water.

Good luck,
~MATT