First kokanee of the season

Published 2026-05-05 · Dennis Barnes

Water's warmed to 11°C and the kokanee turned on overnight. Here's how the week went.

The setup

Pink micro-hoochie, 4-inch chrome dodger, 12-lb fluorocarbon leader, 1.4 mph over 180 ft of water. Fire Corn tipped on a #6 Gamakatsu.

Fish are at 45 ft down right now — higher than they'll be by July. Set the rigger at 40 ft, screen marks at 35–50 ft confirmed it was right.

Three kokanee in the cooler by 9 am, released another four smaller ones. Typical first-week-of-May pattern.

Ready to put this into practice? Book a Kelowna fishing charter.