Ririe Ice Fishing!

[MMDON]

The Kokanee are on the hard deck at Ririe!

Who's fishing?

 

[wyosledder]

Went over yesterday and caught the three smallest kokanee we have ever caught,about 6-7 inchers.Fortunately they were all lightly hooked and we were able to release them. also caught some nice rainbows closer to shore and a few suckers for the burbot bash. real nice day and we also had a short airshow with a few planes buzzing the hard deck real low. First day out with my new flasher.

 

[MMDON]

A lot of people reporting the same. Very few Kokes being caught. Looks like the Walleyes have finally come home to roost.

 

[gonefishing]

Time will tell how htis is going to shake out. With 200K plants every year, I find it hard to believe that Walley is getting them all. Do we have any reports of some significant catches of Walleyes.

 

[MMDON]

No one said they are getting them all. Still, reports are, and I have friends that are out there every day, that they figure there are maybe only one or two large schools this year in the ice fishing area. Limits are few and far between. Skunks fairly common. These guys never used to leave the ice with less than a limit of Kokes as well as the perch they are out there to catch.

I know of some bass fishermen with good numbers of large Walleye pics on their smart phones. I was kind of bummed to see the size they've reached. These fish were stuffed with Koke fingerlings. If there numbers keep increasing it will be like the Montana lakes whose Koke populations have been decimated.

 

[gonefishing]

This is very dissapointing to hear. I woud like to learn how to catch the Walleys. If they clean up the kokes, then what? Ririe was a very good koke fishery. The question is where to go fish now if Ririe is toast.

 

[SuperD]

Dallas, use the same Koke spinners with a little bigger blade and a worm instead of corn.

 

[gonefishing]

I have tried walleye rigs that I purchased in the past. Struck out on those so far. I'll have to try the worms becuase I have not tried the real ones. The fake Berkly ones did not work. They are suppose to be spawning up stream in the spring, so if the water is clear enough, ill give that a go. Appreciate the info Dave. Hope all is good in Cali for you.

 

[MMDON]

The bass guys are picking them up throwing drop shots along the rocky drop offs.

 

[gonefishing]

Don. What are they baiting their drop shots with. Worms or artificials of some kind.

 

[MMDON]

I'm not sure what kind of soft baits they are using.

To further the report, the ice fishing guys are now reporting that the perch seem to be fewer in number and very hard to find as well.

 

[gonefishing]

It won't be long and they will start eating each other. Ririe is not that big and they will run out of the abundant feed supply that is quickly dissapearing. In a couple years they may have to kill the reservoir and start over.

 

[MMDON]

I'm thinking sooner rather than later. Since it's just water storage they could run it down in the fall to zero pool and poison it before spring time came. The water belongs to the farmers so that could be held for storage in American Falls.

Bucket Biologists are the saddest people I know. They have no idea the damage they do.

 

[gonefishing]

I am with you. This coming fall would work well. Maybe some letters to the game department are in order. Run it down to a pond, let everyone catch what they want from the bank for 30 days and then Kill whats left from spring creek inlet on down. I think this last falls (2012), shows that these Walley got agressive way down towards the dam. I think this is what happened is the S curve fishing area. It went from great to bad in a 3 week time frame.

 

[MMDON]

Yeah, they are spring spawners so any time late summer would work.

 

[wyosledder]

I think if the walleye were aggressive clear to the dam there would have been a lot of guys out there filling their boats with walleyes. I have yet to catch or see a walleye come out of Ririe,nobody has caught one thru the ice that they have mentioned or posted here. I havent seen a pic posted at any time during the year of a walleye from Ririe.I believe something else is going on,a cycle,fish are finding another less accessable part of the lake to their liking, Water temps more to their liking elsewhere,who knows,maybe they dont like 200 people drilling holes overhead.Maybe a farmer dumped to much pesticide and it got in the lake.Probably has a lot to do with the late freeze. I routinely caught a limit of kokes every time I put a boat in the water there so they were there until fall.If someone has caught any eyes out of there lets see the pics of them. I hope to find them this spring as soon as the ice is off ,I thinks its a little early to poison the lake because fishing hasnt been hot every time we hit the lake.I would definately like to see a push to allow anglers access to the whole pond year round.It would be simple to control the access to only the ice surface and a hefty fine for any travel on shoreway 50 feet past edge of ice. Anglers would help police it and report violations.They run tourists right thru the herds in Jackson on sleigh rides,it won't bother the elk to let us fish the other end. I for one would love to catch a mess of walleyes. I am not ready to give up on it,I bet the fish start biting again over there.

 

[MMDON]

The problem is a good size Walleye such as I've seen pics of coming out of Ririe can each eat 3 or 4 baby Kokanee a day. If you do the math that will always be a problem and becomes more of a problem as they begin to completely wipe out the perch and baby bass. Ririe doesn't have the biomass to support a large population of fish to start with. Kokanee being plankton eaters were the perfect fit. The trout have always been a bust as they look starved with large heads and snake like bodies after a few months of being in there. The Walleye will simply eat themselves out of house and home and then starve as well. You have to consider how very little shallow areas there are in this lake to support the plant life needed to sustain any population of fish outside of plankton eaters.

I think it will take the IF&G a year or two to make the date for poisoning but after this last year you will start to see even a larger decline in mature Kokanee then we already have and that should be enough to make them move forward. I'll be pushing for the eradication of this noxious invasive species.

 

[gonefishing]

I sure did not want to present a completley negative view, but am concerned. Likewise, I wish we could fish the upper end ealier also. We will certainly find out what impact that Mr Walleye is making. I will go after them this spring for sure. I have been purchasing tackle just for the task.

I would also like to see some of the pictures to get a handle on the size that they are. I am not sure we could keep up with catching enough of them to have an impact. But what ever, I still think the reservior will need to be eradicated of all species before to long.

 

[wyosledder]

I called the Idaho Game and Fish and had a good conversation with them.The fish managers would like to open up a section of the reservour on the south similar to the open area on the North. This is an internal dicussion in the works at the dept. They will not ever be able to open the whole reservour in the winter because of the deer and elk wintering in or near the canyon.If they have no undisturbed place to winter they will be pushed into town. I was also told if killing the reservour was an option it would have been already done. They also believe that fisherman could have a good impact on the walleyes if they were allowed access.They have not yet reached a point in this conversation internally for public comment. This will take some time.Public pressure on the discussion could be helpful. They will also be bumping up the stocking number of kokanee to over 300,000 this year so that is positive for the koke fisherman. We need more folks to call and show interest in opening the south end.It sounds like it may take a couple years but I believe with some effort it could happen next year.Hopefully we can have a mile of both ends and a good buffer in the middle for the deer and elk.There are some real challenges to all of these issues,lets work together to get that south end opened up.

 

[MMDON]

They can't poison it at full pool. At zero pool it's a no brainer. Who ever you spoke to must not be a biologist familiar with the process.

As for opening the South End in the winter. They have a lot of barriers to jump. The area is closed quite a ways from the water so they would have to get some kind of easement for the refuge land going to the res. not just the res itself.

Fishing pressure never helps anything concerning species control. Biologists first started giving this information out regarding 'trash fish.' Removing one from the water simply creates more smaller ones. The biomass dictates self replenishing species. The rest is just some 'feel good' effort that has little or no impact according to Dr. Lee Weber, a noted UNLV Reno fish biologist and the man who was responsible for certifying west coast university fish studies for quite some time, recently retired.