There is a lot of attention being given to Lake Roosevelt kokanee fishing this season. It seems that the really big kokanee are showing up most often in a four-year cycle. Good news is that the Colville Tribe has launched a project for the next two years to catch and tag kokanee in Lake Roosevelt to track their movements. The goal of the project is to protect and enhance the wild populations above Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams in an effort to support tribal subsistence and recreational sport fisheries. Hopefully, researchers will be able to get more kokanee to spawning areas and provide for more consistent kokanee fisheries in the future. Anglers should be aware that kokanee are being caught and released with acoustic transmitters that will send signals to the 100 plus receivers out on Lake Roosevelt. The tags are black and cylindrical in shape. If you find one in a fish you catch, call the Colville Tribe with instructions on what to do with it. On other news about the kokanee fishing on Lake Roosevelt, the fishing is good but will get better when the water level stabilizes.
Colville Tribal fish tech Daniel Monaghan with a Lake Roosevelt kokanee to be fitted with an acoustic tag.