Kokanee - Sustainable wild salmon in our back yard!
Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Jim White, an aquatic biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, who manages the fish in Vallecito, Lemon, Pastorius, and other local lakes. Jim's a helluva nice guy and had an abundance of great information. It was difficult to keep the conversation focused on the matter at hand: Kokanee Salmon.
The Kokanee Salmon is a landlocked version of the Sockeye Salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka. They exist naturally in lakes on the West coast, where at some point or another they were likely trapped in lakes by a landslide, earthquake or some other naturally occurring damming of a river. They travel in large schools feeding on Zooplankton, who in turn feed on Phytoplankton, who feed on sunlight and nutrients in the water. Kokanee are pretty close to the bottom of the food chain, and they taste like it... delicious!
As Mr. White explained, Vallecito is a great place for Kokanee because of the abundance of food available to them. The shallows breed the plankton that feed the Kokes. During the recent survey, approximately 21% of the fish netted were Kokanee, from an average of 8%. There will be Kokanee stocked in Lake Nighthorse in Durango. Dinnertime!
I had once been told by someone, somewhere, that Kokanee can not reproduce naturally in our lakes. I was very pleased to learn today that this is not true and there are self sustaining populations of Kokanee right here in SW Colorado. Lemon and Williams Creek Reservoirs are not routinely stocked with Kokanee, and haven't been for years, but both lakes have fed me Salmon dinner recently. Vallecito, with its abundance of other fish species (many of them predatory), is routinely stocked to help the naturally reproducing population. In Lemon Reservoir the steep and deep nature of the lake doesn't produce as much food and the Kokes are smaller on average than at other area lakes, but they are delicious nonetheless. I asked Jim what was the largest Kokanee he's ever seen in Vallecito and he reported 21 to 22" but added that this isn't necessarily a good indicator of school health in these lakes, showing that there might not be a lot of competition for the available food.
This process of learning to catch this abundant and sustainable fish has been fun. I'll be frank, they're not all that exciting to catch. They certainly won't give you the fight a trout, bass, or pike will, but it's still fishing! Trolling can be boring, sure, but it's a great time to catch up on thinking... or drinking! Like catching Pike? Not a problem, Kokanee and Pike coexist just fine together, preferring different water depths. As our conversation shifted away to Bluegill, Walleye and Bass I was left thinking about this wonderful resource we have right in our backyard. As relatively short lived plankton eaters, Kokanee do not concentrate mercury like an old Pike or Walleye. They've shown that they can reproduce naturally and in large numbers in lakes such as Williams Creek and are a great food source for at least one top predator, US. In a world where more and more fish from the seafood counter are on threatened or endangered lists, this is a tasty and environmentally friendly way to eat very tasty and healthy fish. I'd encourage any of you to give it a shot, learn the freakish rituals necessary to target Kokanee and try a few over the fire. Eat just one and you'll be hooked (pun intended.)
The Kokanee Salmon is a landlocked version of the Sockeye Salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka. They exist naturally in lakes on the West coast, where at some point or another they were likely trapped in lakes by a landslide, earthquake or some other naturally occurring damming of a river. They travel in large schools feeding on Zooplankton, who in turn feed on Phytoplankton, who feed on sunlight and nutrients in the water. Kokanee are pretty close to the bottom of the food chain, and they taste like it... delicious!
As Mr. White explained, Vallecito is a great place for Kokanee because of the abundance of food available to them. The shallows breed the plankton that feed the Kokes. During the recent survey, approximately 21% of the fish netted were Kokanee, from an average of 8%. There will be Kokanee stocked in Lake Nighthorse in Durango. Dinnertime!
I had once been told by someone, somewhere, that Kokanee can not reproduce naturally in our lakes. I was very pleased to learn today that this is not true and there are self sustaining populations of Kokanee right here in SW Colorado. Lemon and Williams Creek Reservoirs are not routinely stocked with Kokanee, and haven't been for years, but both lakes have fed me Salmon dinner recently. Vallecito, with its abundance of other fish species (many of them predatory), is routinely stocked to help the naturally reproducing population. In Lemon Reservoir the steep and deep nature of the lake doesn't produce as much food and the Kokes are smaller on average than at other area lakes, but they are delicious nonetheless. I asked Jim what was the largest Kokanee he's ever seen in Vallecito and he reported 21 to 22" but added that this isn't necessarily a good indicator of school health in these lakes, showing that there might not be a lot of competition for the available food.
This process of learning to catch this abundant and sustainable fish has been fun. I'll be frank, they're not all that exciting to catch. They certainly won't give you the fight a trout, bass, or pike will, but it's still fishing! Trolling can be boring, sure, but it's a great time to catch up on thinking... or drinking! Like catching Pike? Not a problem, Kokanee and Pike coexist just fine together, preferring different water depths. As our conversation shifted away to Bluegill, Walleye and Bass I was left thinking about this wonderful resource we have right in our backyard. As relatively short lived plankton eaters, Kokanee do not concentrate mercury like an old Pike or Walleye. They've shown that they can reproduce naturally and in large numbers in lakes such as Williams Creek and are a great food source for at least one top predator, US. In a world where more and more fish from the seafood counter are on threatened or endangered lists, this is a tasty and environmentally friendly way to eat very tasty and healthy fish. I'd encourage any of you to give it a shot, learn the freakish rituals necessary to target Kokanee and try a few over the fire. Eat just one and you'll be hooked (pun intended.)
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