Thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. And I’m Tonya Kieffer. You know Tonya, we are up at Strawberry today. We have got some friends with us, some special guests. We are going kokanee fishing. We are going kokanee fishing Adam. I didn’t bring bananas today. I know everybody is expecting it. But, due to having guests and having witnesses to the incident I figure it’s better not to bring them. About time. Hey we’ve got Paul Phillips helping us out today. We are hoping to show you how to catch some kokanee, maybe some rainbows.
We really want kokanee today. Are going to be able to find some? I hope we’ll give it our best shot. They are there. That’s actually the best fishing right now is kokanee.
Ok so 75 feet Paul? Yeah, that’s what I’m doing.
We are going to troll some Rocky Mountain Dodger with some pink squids behind them and shortened up our leaders on them to about 8 inches so we have some better action and see if we can just entice them to bite.
Tommy is excited he has never caught kokanee. Good I hope we can get one in the boat for him.
and this is Tommy. About a week ago, I received a phone call from Clover and Alba with the Utah Adoption Exchange. They told me about Tommy and his desire to be adopted by a family that enjoys the outdoors.
We want to go about 25 feet right here.
So, I called my good buddy Paul Phillips and he didn’t hesitate to offer his assistance.
I work with Tommy personally and he’s such a great kid, he’s so much fun to be around and he always talks about how he loves fishing and hiking and the outdoors.
Like I was telling you earlier. They have really soft mouths so when you hook one, you have to play them because they can get off real easy. So we are going to drop this back.
Then we are going to attach the line to the downrigger.
and now we are just going to slowly drop this to 25 feet.
the fish are going to hit that lure and sometimes they’ll pull it out of that release and sometimes they won’t. So if they don’t you reel down on it and you give it a quick pop and that releases it and then you fight the fish. Ok?
Yeah I’ve never tried kok, kokan. Kokanee. Yeah I’ve never tried Kokanee.
Alright just to increase our odds we are going to throw another line right off the back about a 100 feet and then we are going to attach a banana clip weight. Banana. It’s a banana day.
hey is that it? That’s a fish oh yeah. Oh that might be a koke dude. Look at that thing dance. Ok, take your time with this one. The way that is acting it could be a koke.
First fish of the day.
Oh wow! I think it’s just big.
what is that?
It is… I think it’s a…. Kokanee baby. Dude he didn’t jump at all. Nice koke.
dude that is a kokanee, that’s what we came for. Let me guess he’s too big? No we are going to keep him. He’s perfect. Yes! that is a silver bullet, see how he’s silver. Whoa, that was intense.
banana, banana! don’t listen to her. Don’t listen to her.
High five. I was just hoping you would do that.
Oh fish, fish, fish! Over here buddy.
Oh wow, this guy is big, HOLY COW! Are you sure this is a fish? Yeah. What would that be. Oh that’s a kokanee! oh my gosh. take your time with him. Oh my gosh he’s huge.
I cannot believe that is a fish. that’s a koke.
nice, that’s a good one. That’s bigger than the first. It’s beautiful.
Normally guys will use downriggers and that’s usually the best way to catch them, but today it’ been long lining. So all we are doing is we’ve got a Rocky Mountain dodger, a real short set behind that maybe 11 inches behind that we’ve got a Rocky Mountain squid and make sure you put those gulp maggots on there. Those definitely help. then long lining it’s pretty simple you don’t need downriggers. You just let it out. We are lettting it out 50 feet today and then we are putting on this banana. It’s a three ounce weight and then we are putting out another 100 feet past that. So we are out 150 feet total. We are guessing we are getting out about 25-30 feet and that’s how we are catching all the fish today.
That’s a koke.
yes! nice dude. Three kokes. nice job.
You are in for a treat. Some of the best tasting fish right there. Kokanee and walleye in my opinion. You have got some awesome fillets right there buddy. I sure hope so. Those things are huge. They are aren’t they. Aren’t they beautiful fish. Now you can see why they call them silver bullets.
Oh yeah, another koke. Koke to the boat. Alright I like fishing with these girls.
Welcome back to Strawberry Reservoir. Paul was telling us the kokanee fishing was really good right now and our success was proving him right. Somebody get it off!
You really can use any method and catch kokanee. I have renters of our pontoon boats all the time that come in that have a cooler full of kokanee and were just throwing spinners on top. It’s just a matter of finding those plankton clouds and throwing some spinners at them, throwing some stuff that is threatening their plankton and they are going to hit it.
In the morning, we found kokes shallow, between fifteen and twenty feet deep. As the day progressed we lowered our gear to forty five feet and found them again.
Ok he’s off, now he on the rod. Go ahead and reel.
I’m guessing kokanee. I think we found the depth.
Yeah that’s a kokanee. Look how he’s running. Oh my gosh! that’s a good koke. That’s a big one Adam. Wow, we are on fire. On fire. That’s a chunk. That’s one of the bigger ones too.
Ok wait, Alba, I’ve got to get a picture. Oh hold him out here in case he falls. I’m not going to kiss him. What?
Strawberry is also home to the rainbow trout tagged fishing contest we’ve been telling you about all summer. It’s easy to participate, there’s no registration, it’s free. All you do is catch a tagged fish and you are going to win a prize. Everything from rods and reels to cash from the One Stop in Heber, and the grand prize this 22 foot Crest pontoon boat. There goes your first fish of the contest. To give you better odds at catching a tagged fish, the DWR put 200 tagged fish in the lake back in May and another 200 at the first of July.
And my son’s the one who reeled it in.
This is our third year of doing the contest and we’ve seen a pattern if we put all of those tags at the first of the year. The catch rates just are smaller so we wanted to try…
Here you go…
200 in the early season and 200 in the mid season to see if that catch rate would go up. And it seems to be successful right now in having a greater catch rate in those tags.
One hundred yellow tagged fish have already been caught, along with two red tagged fish. Biologists even tagged a few kokanee.
We are excited about it, lots of good prizes to giveaway and then of course all of those yellow tags will be put into a drawing at the end of the year if the red ones don’t get caught.
I’ll net this one. Adam. it’s a koke too and it’s a big one. Come here fish, freak out, freak out. yeah!
The fishing is so good today.
Pull it up, pull it up.
even Tonya’s boyfriend Jake and I got into the action.
He’s a big one. This is important tommy. Ok, get under neath it. yeah tommy! Way to go dude. Kept the streak alive.
He’s still hooked!
But it was outdoors producer Jared Hargrave who ended up with the biggest koke of the day.
Just lift up your tip slowly. Lift up slowly. slowly, slowly, boom! that’s a big fish. That’s a four pounder, don’t you think?
Turn around, look over at them. Woo! hugs, hugs all around. Nice. Please don’t bite me.
Welcome back to KSL Outdoors. Earlier we told you a little about Tommy and his desire to be adopted by a family who loves the outdoors as much as he does.
someone that is there for you. Someone you can count on if you ever need…
Oh there he goes…
somewhere to go. Just someone that is there for you.
Good job dude.
the adoption exchange we work on connecting families with children in the foster care system, especially children that have been lingering in the system longer.
Do I have it right this time?
You’ve been in foster care or a child of the state for a long time it sounds like. Yes.
it’s difficult. In what way? Well you think you find people that are going to be there for you and then like, they just boot you out. it’s like hard. So you are looking for something a little more permanent. Yeah hopefully, but I don’t know.
Doesn’t that look like a kokanee? Yes!
A lot of times you think teenagers, they are very self centered, but I think he is just very… cares about other people.
It’s a cutty.
How everything is going with them. yeah he’s just a really kind hearted kid. he’s really positive too. he’s always wanting to build up other people. yeah he’s fun to be around. he’s always telling different stories. You know I see him every month and we have a great time together,
Nice. That is amazing!
and he’s doing really well at his placement currently. So he’s a great, great kid.
Tommy loves football, especially his Utes.
Fish! There’s a fish.
and he also runs cross country. Most of all he wants a family. He’s approaching a critical age and could use some direction.
Oh it’s a good fish. Oh wow!
If you think about it, we’re adults, but we still go to our parents for certain things.
Nice fish. Oh yes!
So those relationships are crucial to our well being as human beings and everybody deserves to have that.
You know we only spent about four or five hours with Tommy today, but you really could tell this is a really nice, genuine, kid. Fun to be around. He really needs some guidance in his life. Someone that hunts and fish and maybe in a small town like they were saying would be great for this young man. Help guide him into his adult life. If you are interested, would like more information. Check out utahadopt.org or call the number there on our screen and you can get ahold of Clover or Alba.
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