Great Kokanee Salmon Fishing In the Macman Report: 5/23/2012
By Kjel

Posted: May 23, 2012

Tuesday, May 22, I spent a half day with Mark Ward, Captain Catch’em of the Montana Outdoor Radio Show and montanaoutdoor.com, and Don Beasley from Missoula.  We were targeting kokanee on Lake Mary Ronan.  Though I don’t consider myself particularly well-versed for these land-locked salmon, I was in company that filled in my ignorance gaps.  We anchored close enough to Jens Gran that there was plenty of male conversation singeing the immediate atmosphere. 

We were using a variety of attracters with the common denominator being a glow hook baited with uncooked shrimp.  These fish are as high energy as any I’ve ever caught.  From multiple aerial acrobatic to runs at you so fast that you think you’ve lost them is the norm which makes catching them great fun.  We all limited out on Kokanee with a rainbow trout and several perch thrown in for good measure. 

We were fishing a depth of about 24 feet keeping our baits close to the bottom.  Of all the setups we were using the Zimmer Salmon Ready to Go with both the ¼ oz and 1/8 oz Attract-a-Fish caught the most fish. 

Last weekend I spent some time on the East Side of Polson Bay searching for perch.   We found perch on both the extreme North East and South East sides of the bay with not much in between.  Even though they were a little tougher to find than earlier this spring we managed to bring in a nice mess of perch up to 11 inches along with  3 lake trout.  We used combinations of perch meat and night crawlers for bait on Zimmer Ready to Go Perch setups. 

For catch and release fly fishermen there is now a good opportunity for cutthroat trout both on the North West side of the Polson Armed Forces Memorial Bridge and at Bigfork Harbor where the Swan River empties into Flathead Lake. 

For more information contact us at Ph. 406-675-0068, my personal cell number 406-250-0241, or email us at: macman@ronan.net.

We’d also like to see any fishing pictures or read any fish stories you’d like to send our way.  Check out our tackle line at: www.zimmertackle.com.   You can order from us online with Paypal or with credit card by phone or visit our Pablo store. 

Good Fishing,
The Macman
(Dick Zimmer)
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