# Odd find in the Uintas....



## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

So my buddy and me hit a favorite secret spot of mine in the Uintas. It wasn't so hot I caught 14 rainbows all 10-15" and then I caught a surprise. I caught a 17" kokanee. Seriously. I have been salmon fishing in Alaska a lot, but never caught a Utah koke, but I'll get a picture on here in a bit. Super silvery, losing scales, deeply forked tail, no spots, long pointed pectoral fins, etc. Kept it, cleaned it, and meat that was definitely darker than a rainbow. So that leaves a question for the general public, I cannot find anything about kokanees in any part of the Uintas......so what the heck was it doing up there?!! Maybe it got mixed up with some planter rainbows? Anyhow, my buddy wasn't doing to well at my secret spot so we headed over to mirror lake, fished it for another hour and he was just slamming them! He caught rainbows, brookies and tigers one after another! I only managed 3, two tigers and a nice fat 14" football brookie to join my salmon for tomorrow's breakfast!


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## Bscuderi (Jan 2, 2012)

I know there are several uintah lakes that received Kokanee. But since ur not saying where it can't be verified with the ones reported. My friend has caught them up there too and u can seethem in the water during the spawn I can't remember where though


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Hmmm, I've checked stocking reports for the last several years, and there were no kokanees in the surrounding lakes....do you have a link that shows which lakes have received kokes in the past?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Lake that have historically been stocked (pre-2002) could still have good populations of them that naturally recruit.

I know of a couple that I sent you a message about, though they've been publicized quite a bit on these forums.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Here's a pic of the kokanee...the brookie is sorta in the pic, but what say the experts? Koke? not?


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Looks like a koke, they have very sharp pointed noses. Does it have teeth?


-DallanC


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## wyoming2utah (Sep 12, 2007)

I know that Stateline Reservoir in the Uintas has Kokanee in it...kokanee, also, are not stocked very often. Usually, when Kokanee are stocked it is in hopes that they will naturally reproduce on their own and establish a viable fishery.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Yep, it has lots of teeth.....It wasn't in Stateline or in any of the other Uintas reservoirs that I have been told hold kokanees. I got a message from the uintas fisheries bio and we'll see how that turns out...needless to say, he's interested and confirmed that this fish should NOT have been where I caught it....


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## stevo1 (Sep 13, 2007)

Thats interesting that it is not in one of "those" lakes. I wonder sometimes if they hitched a ride in the stocking truck?


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

I have had that thought, the bio is also wondering about somebody illegally transferring some fish? They might come take a sample from the fish and if so, I am very curious as to where this fish originated!


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

When you cleaned it, did it have a large liver and a small swim bladder? 

The belly meat looks right but something about the pectoral fin in the picture doesn't. Any spots on the tail?


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## HighLakesDrifter (Sep 13, 2007)

Moon Lake has 'em, and has for many years.


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## Jacksonman (Jan 16, 2008)

I agree that something aout it just doesn't look kokenee to me. A better picture would help. It seems to be green tinted while koke's have the blue tint and that fin just does not look like a koke fin. Almost looks like a very pale tiger or a juvenile bow. Hard to tell though.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

No spots on the tail, I didn't pay attention to liver/swim bladder. but hopefully these other pics will work....
Full body shot








Tail shot








top shot








head shot








And at 17" in this spot where a 9" bow is full of color, I don't think it could have been an immature bow.


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## Nambaster (Nov 15, 2007)

I know that there are a lot of Kokes that spawn underneath the bridge in China meadows in the Unitas. Which means that they have access to the surrounding lakes and ponds. My guess is that they were planted right off of the bridge and therefore go back to the bridge when they turn colors. There are also a lot of darters in that water. Definitely a fun spot to fish.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

I do not think it is a kokanee. I don't know what it is but I don't think it is a kokanee.

In picture 1, the adipose fin is elongated. Kokanee adipose fins are little round fins. You can see it again in picture 2. The fin is too long. Also, in picture 2, I don't think the tail has a deep enough fork in it. The kokanee at Flaming Gorge have a fairly deeply forked tail, much more than the picture shows here. 

In the last picture, the jaw looks too bony. The lower jaw in kokanee is extremely soft and easy to pull a hook through. This fish looks like it has an actual lower jaw bone. 

The dorsal fin also looks like it has the wrong shape.

To be fair, I guess I should say that this doesn't look like a Flaming Gorge kokanee. There could be other kokanees with which I am not familiar that have longer adipose fins, shallower forked tails, bony jaws, and dorsal fins with a different shape. It could be a kokanee but not one that shares traits similar with those I've caught.

Let us know when/if you find out what it really is.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

By that body shape, and with the mouth as well, it resembles a lot of tiger trout that I've caught. I've also been surprised by how shiny and washed-out, as far as color and pattern can be with them.

I haven't personally caught a lot of kokanee, but to me, it looks like a shiny tiger. How about the anal fin?

That would be really interesting if it turned out to be a koke.


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## Jacksonman (Jan 16, 2008)

I agree with Loah and Dodger, and would bet that it is likely a tiger; but the big eye and lack of marks really does hint at koke. 

Hope someone who knows what this is chimes in!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Hmm, the bio thinks by the pics that it is probably just an odd rainbow...but I am not 100% convinced. based on what Loah just posted, I counted the rays on the anal fin, and there are 12, no spots, loss of scales(like crazy loss of scales) and so super silver. I know that a lot of the red salmon I have caught in AK haven't always had a terribly deep fork in their tails. the one fillet I took off(it was just too tempting to keep sitting around!) cooked up much more pink than any rainbow I have ever cooked, it was even darker than the brookie that I caught( cooked fillets side by side). So I am sitting on the fence. A really good point against a koke that the bio brought up is that the life span for Utah kokes is 2 years, and in those lakes it reaching the length it is would be very unlikely. Fair enough. As for the tail, that pic it has already dried up quite a bit, but I honestly don't recall perfectly how it was prior to that....meh, no matter what it is, tasted good and was a cool catch! I still have the other fillet/carcass remains in the fridge. Anybody have any ideas how much it would cost to run a tissue sample and gets some hardcore data? If it weren't too much I might convince the wife to let me pony up the cash....


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## ktrout (Jun 19, 2008)

johnnycake said:


> Anybody have any ideas how much it would cost to run a tissue sample and gets some hardcore data? If it weren't too much I might convince the wife to let me pony up the cash....


You might ask the biologist you communicated with if they have any ideas. DNA sequencing is very inexpensive. However, it is not like paternity testing where you can just mail in a cheek swab with 50 bucks and get an answer. There are no commercial labs offering fisherman DNA testing to confirm what type of fish they caught, well if there is, that would be news to me. There may be research labs you can contact that may have an interest in this. But you also have understand that in order for this to work they would have to have a DNA reference sample to compare your sample to other known fish species (kokenee, rainbows, tigers, brooks, splake) and given some of these are crosses between species, they may not exist, or be that reliable.

I do applaud that you are interested enough to cough up a little dough to figure this out. Let us know if you get anywhere with this.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I'm thinking it's a rainbow.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Hey now, that's a crisp, refreshing brew on a hot day.


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## stevo1 (Sep 13, 2007)

Fukishima rainbow??


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## Nambaster (Nov 15, 2007)

Teapot, Lily, and Butterfly lakes all have had Kokes planted in them... Whether it was by the DNR or not I have seen them in their red spawning skins under a bridge and along the shorelines.... I wonder if this is something that I should have reported back in 2009.


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## uintahiker (Jan 19, 2012)

I think the big question is what did it taste like?


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

sauteed with bacon, cremini mushrooms and some garlic....so in other words, fantastic!


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## KennyC (Apr 28, 2010)

I have caught many Kokes and through pictures you could deffinately make a case for Koke. However when you ate the filet there should have been a distinct difference in taste and the color should have been slightly further to reddish than pink. Even in the early season. How was the fight on that fish? He does appear to have a sturdy jaw and that is not a trait of kokes. I would call one of the colleges and ask if there Bio Dept would be interested in running some test. Might be free that way. I have to side with Trout but that is mearly a guess.


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## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Looks like a rainbow lacking spots to me.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Yeah...so the final fillet of that fish hit the frying pan this morning, alongside the final fillet of the brook trout, the meat was definitely darker pink than was the brookie. As a chef, it was definitely not the same as a typical rainbow, but then again I haven't had the pleasure of eating a certified kokanee before, and it was definitely NOT identical taste/texture/etc to a sockeye salmon but that would be understandable. At this point, oh well, I'll never know for sure...but I am starting to lean towards the fukushima rainbow philosophy...


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