While most fishing around our area consists of varieties of trout—such as rainbow, cutthroat, and brown—or bass—small and large mouths—there is a unique opportunity just a short distance away: kokanee salmon. Kokanee salmon are the land-locked cousin of the ocean-dwelling sockeye salmon.
Even though kokanee are freshwater fish, they live the classic saltwater salmon lifestyle by spending their first years of life out exploring the nooks and crannies of their lake home, then maturing into hook-jawed crimson adults, crawling upriver to spawn and start the life cycle over for the next generation.
Kokanee is mostly found in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, but chances to fish these unique creatures are opening up in Utah and Colorado. Utah lakes housing kokanee include Flaming Gorge, Strawberry Reservoir, Fish Lake, Jordanelle Reservoir, Electric Lake, and Causey Reservoir. Kokanee can also be found in Colorado at Lake Granby, Chatfield Reservoir, Blue Mesa Reservoir, and Lake Nighthorse.
Since the kokanee resides in the deep, cold waters of the lake, there are two preferred techniques used for fishing: trolling and jigging. Trolling requires the use of a motorized boat and either a long line technique with a dodger, or down rigging. Jigging is simply baiting a hook, slowly lowering it to the lake bottom, and doing a little “jigging” in hopes the kokanee will latch on.
I have trolled for kokanee several times at different lakes and had varying levels of success. Many variables play into the whole picture of actually catching a fish, including water temperature, time of year and day, the types of lures that are in the tacklebox, the depths being reached, the speed of the boat, and more. I have also jigged for kokanee with basically no success, but the experience itself was still fantastic.
I went jigging for kokanee at Blue Mesa Reservoir in Colorado. While out on the lake, every fisherman I encountered shared their secrets and attempted to aid me in my quest for a salmon. The main recommendation was to use shoepeg corn for bait. The corn didn’t help me catch any fish, but I watched many people pull fish after fish onto their boats. The stories people shared, the trade secrets they were so excited to divulge, and the support everyone offered up were more than enough to make up for the lack of fish I caught.
Here’s one idea of how to prepare the salmon: in cioppino, a type of seafood stew.
Cioppino kokanee salmon with tarragon pesto
Ingredients
- Four filets kokanee salmon, deboned and skin on
Cioppino base ingredients
- One fennel bulb, diced
- One medium onion, diced
- One medium shallot, minced
- Four cloves garlic, minced
- Two tablespoons olive oil
- One cup white wine
- 28 oz. can stewed tomatoes
- Two cups seafood broth
- One bay leaf
- One to two teaspoons of allspice (taste and add more if needed)
Tarragon pesto ingredients
- 1/2 cup cashews
- Two cloves garlic
- Handful fresh parsley
- Handful fresh tarragon
- One lemon, juiced and zested
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- Two tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Cioppino
1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, drop in the diced fennel, onions, shallot, and garlic. Cook for ten minutes, watching that the garlic doesn’t start to brown. Onions should become soft and translucent.
2. Deglaze the pot with a cup of white wine. Let simmer for two to three minutes.
3. Add two cups of seafood broth, stewed tomatoes, a bay leaf, and allspice. Let simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes.
Tarragon pesto
1. To a food processor, add two cloves of garlic and pulse a few times to chop it up.
2. Add cashews and pulse a few times.
3. Add parsley and fresh tarragon. Pulse.
4. Add a ¼ cup lemon juice, lemon zest, and red wine vinegar.
5. Let the food processor run and slowly stream in the 1/3 cup of olive oil. The pesto should be a creamy texture. Add more oil by the tablespoon if desired consistency is not reached at first.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Fish
1. Prepare a grill for high heat.
2. Season the filet kokanee salmon with salt and pepper.
3. Drizzle a little olive oil over the filets and seal tightly in aluminum foil packets.
4. Place the packets directly on the grill and let cook for about seven minutes. The packets should puff up when finished.
5. Carefully remove the fish filets from the skin.
To plate
1. Add a large scoop of cioppino stew base to a shallow bowl. Lay a piece of grilled fish on top of the stew base. Top with a heaping scoop of the pesto tarragon.
2. Enjoy!!
Lindsey Bartosh, an eighth-generation Moab girl, loves hiking, hunting, fishing, cooking, writing, photography and working on her website www.huntingandcooking.com.
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