Kookatsoon Lake in Whitehorse: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Within Whitehorse, Yukon, you have Kookatsoon Lake. Everything around it is dry rangeland. Roughly 19 hectares: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. The bank runs about 1.8 km all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. On size it sits at the modest end of our Whitehorse list. Nearest place of any size is Whitehorse, 20 km away. For a city, Anchorage is 814 km off. This one is safely inside the county line.

• Where to Fish on Kookatsoon Lake

  Depth went unrecorded, which puts the reading back on you. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Reported across Whitehorse: Chinook salmon, Arctic grayling, round whitefish, longnose sucker and least cisco. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. On Kookatsoon Lake the first feature you find is usually worth a session.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Between January at about -19°C and July at about 14°C, the water has a wide range to work through. The window is narrow, and fish feed hard while it lasts. Once it clears, about early May, the fishing comes on quickly. On the long-run averages the water opens up around early May and starts locking again about early November. The first weeks of open water and the last are the ones to plan for. Plan around that when you fish Kookatsoon Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. You can leave the car about 230 m from the water. Mapping shows a picnic spot within 230 m. Public toilets are recorded roughly 260 m off. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Swamp Lake, 3.2 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Treat access at Kookatsoon Lake as something to verify.