Went out to Ririe with a buddy today who had never caught a koke before. Intended to find him some and also look for some perch that have been eluding me all year. We headed out and got started right at daylight, immediately started picking up perch, it was non-stop for a while, then the kokes started coming through, that also was non-stop action. We were out for 5 hours and we landed 50 perch and about 25 kokes between the two of us. Biggest perch was 10.5" and the biggest koke was 16". Ice was great and it was pretty nice after the sun came up and the breeze died down. Needless to say my buddy is hooked.
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Very cool..thanks for the report...I had been wondering about how the ice was.
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I fished Ririe this morning and one thing I can report is it was bitter cold there. People were showing up and leaving after only an hour. If you fish on Sunday take precautions. I literally saw ice hanging off peoples faces today and for the first time all year I had to keep covering my nose so the skin could warm up. The holes would only stay open for two minutes and after jigging three times you had to remove the ice from the line. [img]../../../images/gforum/dumb.gif[/img]
On the upside the Kokes were on the move and my Ice Machine showed a lot of fish coming through between 12 and 28 feet. The ice is the thickest I've ever seen it at Ririe, 24 to 30" and we should have good ice for another month to come!
The crowds seem to be gone as well. Maybe only 10 to 12 groups of people on the ice in the morning. Much nicer with a few less people.
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This is good news about the ice...I have already put my ice gear away after reading in the paper last week that the ice was only 3 inches in some spots..I should of known better...I'll be pulling my gear back out along with a few extra gas canisters for my heater[
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The only place you have to worry about the ice in the first mile from the dam is on the opposite bank from the ramp about 1/4 mile from the 1 mile line there is a place where a creek and some springs dump in. That is where the thin ice is located at. It's also where the DFG located a bunch of Christmas trees attached to cinder blocks for an underwater reef for perch. The two being so close together can cause some thin ice dangers late and early in the ice season.
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No need to worry about the Ice I have been going up there every few days and the ice is 15"+ . There was a little slush but with the recent cold weather it should be ok now. There should be a lot of good fishing still to come.
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