An Inkom fly fisherman with a knack for catching big fish has done it again.
Rob Mackesey recently set a kokanee salmon length world record for catch-and-release fly fishing. He caught it while fly fishing near Irwin.
He’s had the state record since 2018 and the world record since 2019. His new world record is 55 centimeters, which beat his previous world record by 5 centimeters.
“I was confident going into this,” Mackesey said.
But he says nothing always goes as planned, and it’s just great when the stars align.
“I was blessed to put a record down,” Mackesey said. “Definitely it never gets old.”
And the topper is that there’s only about three weeks out of the year to make it happen. That’s the amount of time the fish spend spawning.
“So it’s a lot more meaningful to me than going out and lucking into a fish,” he said. “It’s definitely more special than any other catch.”
Mackesey said he’s been interested in kokanee practically since he came to Idaho in 2017, when he attended Idaho State University as both an undergraduate and graduate student.
“I would occasionally see pictures of an ominous red creature that supposedly you could catch somewhere here in Idaho,” Mackesey said.
It was in the fall of 2017 when he caught his first kokanee in a stream that was all but turned red by the spawning salmon in it. And that was the beginning of his obsession with catching them.
Mackesey said they were far more challenging to land than he expected.
“I grew more and more impressed by these fish,” he said.
Then he stumbled across the Idaho Catch & Release Fish Records that highlight the top catches across the state.
And in 2018 he caught a kokanee salmon that made it into the Idaho record book.
That got him interested in chasing a world record for the same kokanee species, which is a freshwater version of the sockeye salmon.
So he caught and released a kokanee in November 2019.
Then he sent in the necessary information to verify it as a record to the International Game Fish Association headquarters in Florida.
Using a photo of the fish on an official measuring device, the Game Fish Association certified it as a length world record.
“My dream became a reality as I entered the world record book,” Mackesey said.
So when 2020 rolled around, he was eager to see what the kokanee salmon run would bring. But it wasn’t looking good at first on the stream.
“As midday neared and my trip was coming to a close I noticed a seemingly misplaced orange flash,” Mackesey said. “Among a pool of red salmon this stood out and immediately caught my attention.”
But he wasn’t having much luck getting anything to bite. Then it happened.
“I couldn’t see what fish took my fly, but the strength at the end of my line was formidable,” Mackesey said. “… It took a minute into the fight to realize that I had finally hooked into that mystic orange flash that I had been looking for.”
So he landed it and shot some photos and took some measurements before releasing it.
The fish gave him the Idaho state catch-and-release record and the International Game Fish Association’s length world record for kokanee salmon.
“Thankful doesn’t begin to express my gratitude for the opportunity to bring this fish forward, granting her the stage she deserves,” Mackesey said.
Now, during the 2020 pandemic, fishing is his release from the world. And he hopes other anglers will join him on the streams.
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