With the recent article in the local paper about F&G finding juvenile Walleye in Ririe reservoir and the worry they will start reducing the kokanee population. The best they can tell is that walleye must have been illegally introduced to Ririe. I don't quite understand how that happens, but anyway.. Can anyone give some helpful hints on how to target walleye? I plan on fishing Ririe this year if it ever freezes up, that is, and would love to target and catch a walleye.
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I have never really targeted walleye threw the ice But intended to this season and have been doing a little reading. Most of the same tactics apply as when you are fishing warmer water those being
Target underwater structure Points, breaks, drop offs rock piles
Jig but use pauses as the colder temps keep the fish pretty un active.
Stay within 2 ft of the bottom even letting your jig hit from time to time
Fish deep the fish will hang there because its warmer
I'm my experience walleye love leaches, minnows and perch strips if you have access to them they will produce walleye in the above situations.
To bad about the illegal introduction sure hope they don't decide to kill off the lake [:/]
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I lived in Nebraska for ten years and am a big warmwater fishing enthusiast. I love walleye...and frankly I don't see any impending disaster by having them there...unless they kill the lake. The truth is more than fishermen target fish...a lake kill would impact a lot of creatures which would be more detrimental to the environment than having walleye swim around Ririe eating kokanee...(they would also eat perch, bass, trout and chubs.....some of which are a bit over populated)....and in truth, as good as kokanee are to eat, walleye are better.
My big question to the Gov't is: why is it OK for non native wolves (wolves from canada) to run around in Idaho forests eating native elk, moose and deer but it is not OK for for non native walleye to swim in Ririe and eat non native perch, chubs and kokanee?
We have plenty of opportunity to fish for trout in eastern Idaho. Personally, I would love a close opportunity to catch walleye. Finally, if God forbid, they get into the South Fork, the State's precious cutthroat trout are mostly safe....walleye will not hang out in the cold river for long before seeking warmer water downstream. This was exactly the habits of walleye in Nerbaska. The North Platte River below Lake McConaughy in western Nerbaska is among the finest of all tailwaters for trout....and the lake above is one of the finest walleye fisheries in the US....yet the two are close.
At the last TU meeting I attended (I still support the org.), I made it clear to them I live 10 miles from Ririe and I fish it alot. One day, it is just a matter of time, I will hook and land a walleye with my fly rod...I will photograph the fish so all will know where I caught it and then I will photograph me releasing it and submit the photos to all anyone who will publish them. I feel that strongly about walleye...especially in a lake where none of the fish that swim there are native (even the fine spotted cutthroat are not native...they just are close).
My .02
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If they thinned out the baby bass that would be good. I love the koke fishing so I say if it ain't broke don't fix it. I don't know if the walleye would eat the same thing as cutthroat but they are starving and don't have enough food to get to the minnow eating size.
Windriver
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I've seen some large Eyes come out of Ririe this year. When they are cut open the Kokes and Perch come spilling out. Ice fishing takes place on the wrong end of the lake to catch many however.
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[quote MMDon]I've seen some large Eyes come out of Ririe this year. When they are cut open the Kokes and Perch come spilling out. Ice fishing takes place on the wrong end of the lake to catch many however.[/quote]
Hmmm, I better come up with a good streamer pattern that resembles a kokanee. As for ice fishing taking place at the wrong end, Ririe happens to sit as part of the TEX Creek wildlife management area for wintering elk, moose and deer....and snowmobiles and wintering game don't mix.
Personally, I think the state of Idaho dumped them in there - they just don't admit to it....just like they put Splake in there years ago, and before than Brown Trout...trying to gain control of over populated chubs and perch. They put smallmouth bass in there too, only to find the bass preferred snarfing crawdads off and around rocks to chasing minnows all over the place.
But, all this aside, for those who catch fish to eat (I release most trout but warmwater fish are for dining on)...there is no better eating fish flesh than that of walleye.
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I am originally from S. Dakota and have chased walleyes year round there. For ice fishing, we did alot of jigging...
Swimming lures like the Jigging Rapala or the Nils Master worked either tipped or not with a minnow head. Jigging spoons like Swedish Pimples, Kastmasters, Crippled Hearing and numerous others seemed to work best tipped with a minnow head. Both of these lures worked near bottom consistently hooked fish, especially during dawn and dusk. My favorite was a Northland Airplane jig tipped with a whole minnow. It has an action that is similar to the jigging rap in that it will dart up and to the side when jigged up, but will then circle as it is dropped back to rest.
In S. Dakota, we were allowed 4 lines per person. We usually fished live minnows under a float anywhere from 6 to 18 inches off the bottom in holes that we were not jigging in. Unfortunately, no use of live minnows in Idaho!!!!
Open water consisted of pulling plugs or crawler harness/spinner combos, tossing crankbaits or jigs tipped with minnows, crawlers or leaches to structure or even using slipfloats tipped with minnows, leaches or crawlers if they were tight to structure. If live bait was not available, using plastics such as power bait, gulp, etc worked as well.
Hope this helps,
Paul
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Excellent info! Thanks for your insight Paul!
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That is some info I was about to start looking for. It would be nice if they would open the Blacktail area for Ice fishing as well. I have herd they are more on the south end so we could be closer to them. Maybe they could sell more parking passes then. Did you hook the minnow heads through the lips or does it matter?
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When hooking the minnow heads on the jigging lures, I usually hooked them through the middle of the head so that the hook goes through the bony part and thus stays on the hook longer. Either that or put the hook into the minnow's mouth and bring it out the top of the head, again through the bony part to help keep it on the hook longer. One other tip, do not feel as if you need to pinch the head off right behind the gills. Having a little "meat" dangling will not hurt anything at all.
As far as the Blacktail access being opened for ice fishing, I do not think that is going to happen since that area is critical wintering habitat for big game. One thing to note though is that the paper said that the majority of the eyes that were captured during the test netting were done so in the North part of the lake, between Meadow Creek and Juniper access. If the population continues to grow, they should expand their range and become more accessible in the area that is open to ice fishing.
Paul
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It doesn't suprise me most of the walleye were near the deeper, cooler water towards the dam. In Nebraska, this is exaclty the locations I would target those fish on res. I am thinking May 1 would be a good time to fish the rocks....and I mean right in the rocks with small offerings too, small black leech patterns and white patterns cast parelel to the rocks about 5 feet deep.
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