04/08/26
As we move into Spring with some April rain keeping things green a little longer, the promise of fair weather fishing approaches. Some are enjoying the spring striper fishing and others are starting their spring chasing little silver bullets, aka Kokanee. My schedule hasn't lined up with the linesided yet, but I did get a chance to chase Kokanee at the Bullards Bar Kokanee Power Derby last weekend. I have been fishing some of the KP events with Jon Swaney, the proprietor of Glitterbugs tackle, and an excellent Kokanee fisherman. He is also the proud owner of a beautiful North River Seahawk with all the bells and whistles, a great platform for derby fishing.
The routine Jon and I have fallen into for the Bullards Bar event over the last few years is to pre-fish Friday, in hopes of establishing a plan for Derby day. Having done respectably well in the past at Bullards Bar, we felt confident that we had options that would reveal a pattern for success. There was some concern going in as reports from fellow BB regulars were downright discouraging. Small fish that do not want to bite was the expectation. We hit all our spots, marked a lot of fish, both shallow and deep. Ran through fish, as was proven by the Garmin Panoptics, only to watch them run away from the gear. In one of our regular spots we found a few fish that actually followed the gear but wouldn't commit. After 7 hours of dropping on fish, making a few fruitless passes, and pulling up to do it all over again, we called it a day with our heads hung low.
We spent the evening going over our day and recalling what we had relied on in past years. Nothing added up. We decided to stick to our guns and hoped tomorrow would bring better results. Returning to the spots that had always produced at this time of year, we spent the first hour doing figure eights on schools of fish the we had located the day before. Same result, not even a tap. We popped the lines of the downrigger releases and prepared to make a move. While reeling in I noticed a little flash behind my gear, a 7" Kokanee that we had been dragging around hit the deck DOA. We asked ourselves, so this is what it has come to? Having very little to go on except the few followers from Friday, we made our way to locate those fish again. After seeing fish run from the gear we made the call to change our downrigger weights to flat black pancakes, hoping the stealth approach would help. That and a change to bigger dodgers and secret weapon lures, resulted in two adult Kokanee over the rail in short order.
We were sure we had cracked the code. Trolling circles around these fish was going to fill the box. Not another bump. In 2 hours we had a little one and two run of the mill BB Kokanee and that was the extent of it. Five more hours of working every spot and piles of fish for not. We were sure others had figured something out and we would be lucky to weigh in close to the bottom of the pack. This is where things got interesting. It turns out that several teams had struggled with only of 14 of 32 boats weighing in fish. There was another twist, it turns out there are Kings in BB now. More on how that happened to be. Many teams attempted to weigh in juvenile Kings in their bags, thinking they were small Kokanee. I know most know the difference between Kings and Kokanee, Kokanee tails are more deeply forked, Kings tails have spots, Kings mouths have black gums and tongues, Kings are a more like footballs. All this is true but, the differences are much harder to discern when the Kings are juveniles and the Kokanee are stunted. There were a lot of 6 to 8 inch fish presented at the weigh in.
The KP weigh master, a past customer of mine, who I have fished with several times, conferred with the KP board members and the decision was made to reject Kings by the presence of dark gums and tongue. Many did not agree, but I respect the decision and the fortitude to stand by it, during a challenging course of events. With the criteria set, the fish were weighed and Jon and I, to our surprise, found ourselves in fourth place with two and a half fish weighing a total of 0.76 lbs. The 2023 big Kokanee at BB was 1.00 lbs and would have taken 2nd place in 2026.
Now back to how Kings got into Bullards Bar. DFW has been experimenting with planting fertilized spring run Kings in the Yuba above Downieville for the last two years, 300k in 2024 and 350k in 2025. They also relocated 42 adult springers into the same area hoping for a natural spawn. The plan was to catch down migrating fry in spiral traps and relocate them down to the Yuba below Englebright. Well many of those fry made it past the traps and into BB. Juvenile Kings and Kokanee compete for the same food source until the Kings get big enough to forage on other fish. That combined with an overabundance of Kokanee resulted in stunted Kokanee. The 7" Kokanee that we caught was developing eggs. The two bigger fish had no signs of spawning. There is no telling what the future will bring for Bullards Bar, but based on my recent experience there, I don't have a lot of hope for the Kokanee fishery to rebound in the next few years. However, if you like fishing for landlocked Kings, BB might be the ticket next year.
Going to try to fit in a few striper trips before heading up to Shasta in early May for the next KP event. Hoping to crack the big trout code at Shasta. Tight Lines.
