Unconfirmed rumor of Kokes in Hagg

[mkwerx]

The other night while at the hospital visiting my mom, I was talking with one of my sisters and her husband. They said they caught five kokes from Hagg - all around 12-14 inches, along with the typical rainbow stockers. B-i-L was said to have contacted ODFW in regards to the kokes, and ODFW was surprised to hear of them in there.

That means that either a stocking truck was misrouted a few years ago, or some backpack biologist released some fish ino the lake. Kind of hard to mistake kokanee for rainbows.

Has anyone else seen or heard of kokes coming out of Hagg in the last year or three?

[Wild Chrome]

I haven't heard of that, but I'd think they'd be in spawning colors right now and up the creeks, wouldn't they?

[fisher guy]

Put 8 fish in the boat yesterday and none of them were Kokes. Been up there several times this year and have not seen any kokes.

[Tulley]

I wish they were in there..

[fishnlady]

Fished there a lot this year, and no kokes. Did finally catch one of those alusive cutthroat though. :)

[Wild Chrome]

The bows do tend to be very silvery there with few spots (just cooked 2 of them up for dinner). Could they have been mistaken for kokanee?

[TTFishon]

I've fished Hagg one time and we caught a couple of kokes. That was two years ago.

[snowplow]

i would fish there a lot more.

[mkwerx]

The bows do tend to be very silvery there with few spots (just cooked 2 of them up for dinner). Could they have been mistaken for kokanee?


I doubt it - rainbows have a more squared tails vs. the more deeply forked tail on a koke, not to mention the fall colors of the fish would be a dead giveaway. Since I didn't see the fish, and they didn't take pix, I have only their word. Doesn't seem like something someone would falsify though - I mean, kokes are fun to catch, but they're not really something you'd outright lie about I think.

Given that Hagg has been a target for bucket biologists before, it wouldn't really be a surprise to me if there were kokes in there. Heck, I wouldn't be shocked if there are sturgeon and carp in the lake. I've hooked big fish on the bottom in deep water that never got more than about 4 feet off the bottom before busting the line - could've been anything from big brooder trout to big catfish or bass or maybe even a sturgeon. Never will know, unless they drain the lake and round up the fish in nets I guess. That won't happen.

What I have caught from the lake is a pretty decent list itself - cutts, rainbows, gillies, pumpkinseeds, crappie, smallies, largemouth, yellow perch, one odd little warmouth sunfish (really neat fish), bullhead, and channel cat. I'm really surprised no one ever stocked brown trout in the lake, since they tend to get bigger than rainbows. Who knows, maybe there's some in there?

[wilsonriverfisher]

There is no way kokes can survive in hagg lake because of enviromental and temperature conditions to name a few. Absolutely false there is warm water fish, cutts, and rainbows and most likely some cutt bows. cold water fish species illegaly introduced into hagg would not make it without severe supplementation. So there COULD be a koke in there if somebody tried to introduce them, but as far as a self sustaining population of them I would think not a chance...

Mike

[Tulley]

Why would they be able to survive in Green Peter but not in Hagg....seasonal temps?

[mkwerx]

There is no way kokes can survive in hagg lake because of enviromental and temperature conditions to name a few. Absolutely false there is warm water fish, cutts, and rainbows and most likely some cutt bows. cold water fish species illegaly introduced into hagg would not make it without severe supplementation. So there COULD be a koke in there if somebody tried to introduce them, but as far as a self sustaining population of them I would think not a chance...

Mike



I'm not sure I buy the whole temps issue - hagg has plenty of cold water in july/august when it's hot. There's lots of deeper water that gets cool enough for the trout to hold over and survive - why would the kokes be any different? Surely they're not that sensitive to temps? Also - if they are there, they wouldn't necessarily have to have been illegally introduced - could've been a boo boo on ODFW's part, in that case it wouldn't have been illegal, just unplanned. But we don't know that.

There's also 2 good size streams they could spawn in - along with the smaller spring fed feeders only a couple feet wide. If the cutts can survive the temperature swings - kokes shouldn't have a problem at all in the heat department.

They might not be best in the competitition for food department though - given the already established populations of trout species, catfish, bass, etc.

What will definately be interesting is to see how the water conditions and the lake itself change when/if they actually build the new taller dam out there. They might just stock kokes regularly if enough people show interest. The thing that saddens me about making that lake bigger - more and more of Sain and Scoggins creeks will be flooded - meaning less natural habitat for the cutts that inhabit them. Right now some of my favorite fishing on flowing water is within a mile of the bridges there, and a 30' vertical rise would easily flood most of that...

[Wild Chrome]

Rainbow or kokanee?

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/Copy_of_029.JPG

[fishnlady]

I think Rainbow. Do I win a prize? :D

[fishN-4-Alimit]

Rainbows for sure. The spots in the tail are a give away, kokes don't have spots in their tails.

:meme:

[TTFishon]

I say rainbows too.

[fisher guy]

Rainbow.

[Wild Chrome]

Yeah, they're Hagg Lake bows from this past sunday. I wonder, though, silvery as they are and with a bit of a forked tail, if some might take them for kokanee?

[mkwerx]

Yeah, they're Hagg Lake bows from this past sunday. I wonder, though, silvery as they are and with a bit of a forked tail, if some might take them for kokanee?


That could be. Those tails do look a bit more forked than most other rainbows - and there's not much of a red stripe on their sides. Of course - this time of year adult kokes should be showing spawning colors, shouldn't they?

Either way - those rainbows could very well be mistaken for non spawning kokes. nice fat looking fish you got there though. Tastey looking.

[Dullhook]

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks the reservoir with rainbow trout along with excess steelhead fingerlings.

Found this while researching the lake. Steelhead resemble Kokanee very closely in coloration. If there are kokes in the lake it would sure be a nice bonus. They survive just fine in Wickiup which is a lot shallower and really warms up in the summer. Both reservoirs do have good influxes of cool water. Since they're primarily plankton eaters, food competition from other species shouldn't be too much of an issue. A nickels worth from someone who knows little about fish biology but loves those kokes! :wink:

[TTFishon]

Maybe what I caught were rainbows. They sure looked like kokes to me but I haven't caught too many kokes either. I've caught enough baby steelhead to know they weren't steelhead. We caught rainbows that day too and there was definitely a difference in appearance.

[dog501]

Don't think there is much difference between baby stealhead and baby rainbow's.

[Cliff D.]

Don't think there is much difference between baby stealhead and baby rainbow's.
Tend to be more silver with less spots. very basic breakdown. I'm not a biologist. Lot of people on here who could give you a much better explanation.

[TTFishon]

I'm pretty confident I can tell the difference.

[Pelhament]

Don't think there is much difference between baby stealhead and baby rainbow's.


Pretty sure I could tell as well.

[Cliff D.]

I'm pretty confident I can tell the difference.
From your post i doubt it.

[TTFishon]

I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but in all fairness to Cliff D I posted this question in another thread in the all fishing section.
http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?p=2288610#post2288610