Have there really been walleyes caught out of Ririe or are all you people believing in a myth? Belasko has challenged all, to post a picture that has enough background of Ririe or at the boat launch! I am doing the same! The challenge is on to all ! Not sure what the prize will be except for bragging rights maybe! If it is indeed a fact, that they are in there, I know several people over in that area that would be fishing for them! However, most of the people that are from Preston, malad, Pocatello, Blackfoot, Idaho Falls etc: fish at Salmon Dam! I see them every weekend!!!
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I don't fish for them anywhere normally, I've only tried once last year. Marked fish but couldn't get anything to bite....have yet to see any proof too
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The next time you see a bass tourney style boat at Ririe ask them to see their Eye pics. Those guys catch them on a regular basis bouncing their baits down the rocky shores.
The pics I've seen are pretty nice size as well.
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Maybe ur post answers ur question?
Once u seen pix everyone from everyplace u mentioned would be thr. Do you want that many ppl at ur local SECRET fishing spot if u had one no one knows about?
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Mr. dma, like I said, they are ALREADY there. It is called
Salmon Dam!!! You are missing the point. I have read several posts about KILLING WALLEYE out of Ririe! The WALLEYE are going to kill all the other fish, mostly the Kokanee! Some Bucket biologist has ruined Ririe!! Blah blah blah and etc.! If you want them all killed so bad, then someone better start producing some proof that they are in there with some tips to the normal public to catch them! PROVE that they do exist and the guys that actually know how to catch walleyes will go there and help the lake out. Supposedly there is a IDFG officer over there that is telling everyone they are in there but even they cant produce a picture! If all the Kokanee fisherman are so worried about it, then put together a weekend where everyone tries to catch and kill some of them. If indeed they are in there, the Kokanee fisherman have every right to be pissed and concerned about this body of water. There used to be plenty of Kokanee in Salmon Dam but not anymore. The IDFG said they wouldn't put them in there anymore because all they were doing was feeding the walleyes! Get with the IDFG and put a bounty on them!
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Actually it's not the koke fishermen that have an issue with them. A bigger issue has to do with cuttys that run up willow creek and have their fingerlings ate by the walleye and the bass that were put in there. Willow used to be a good fishery and in the last ten years the lower end has gone to crap due to pulling water out of the top end and all the predatory fish on the bottom end.
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Truthfully, that is exactly what I have heard! A friend of mine live over there and said it is full of bass and you can catch tons of little ones! Pretty much like the rest of the waters in Idaho! Bass are way more aggressive than walleyes and apparently way more prolific too! They IDFG changed Magic to a no length limit on smallmouths because of this same thing! Which they need to do to several lakes as far as I'm concerned! Never understood why the only fish this state protects is, Bass UNDER 12 inches! This is an oxymoron if I have ever heard one!!! Yeah the bass produce minnows for other fish to eat but they also will eat themselves out of house and home! There are a few weeks in May at Salmon Dam when they move shallow, that a you can catch 100 bass per day, per person if you want to!! Problem is, out of those 100 only 10 of them will be over 12 inches!!!
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I talked personally to one of fish and game that did the gill netting on ririe this last fall. He mentioned to me what was mentioned in the paper that he caught walleyes up to 27 inches long. It was coming up to ice fishing season and I wanted to know if there was anywhere I could go after them through ice. He said not worth messing with till end of April. Said that those fish were found spawning up to a hundred yards into willow creek and to target that area. I asked what they were feeding on and he said they were stuffed full of kokanee. Just pulled my boat out of storage today and I am going to give all my attention to that area from the 15th to the end of month. Only hangup is that the only walleye I have caught have been on accident and not in Ririe. So what would you guys suggest to use for these fish? I live only 15 minutes from Ririe and right now there is no limit on these fish. You guys set me up with the right gear and I will give you an honest opinion of what's in there.
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In the spring walleye come shallow to spawn. Try a 3/8 OZ jig head with a 2-3" curly tail grub bounced off the bottom. They love it.
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[quote Tazasorus]I talked personally to one of fish and game that did the gill netting on ririe this last fall. He mentioned to me what was mentioned in the paper that he caught walleyes up to 27 inches long. It was coming up to ice fishing season and I wanted to know if there was anywhere I could go after them through ice. He said not worth messing with till end of April. Said that those fish were found spawning up to a hundred yards into willow creek and to target that area. I asked what they were feeding on and he said they were stuffed full of kokanee. Just pulled my boat out of storage today and I am going to give all my attention to that area from the 15th to the end of month. Only hangup is that the only walleye I have caught have been on accident and not in Ririe. So what would you guys suggest to use for these fish? I live only 15 minutes from Ririe and right now there is no limit on these fish. You guys set me up with the right gear and I will give you an honest opinion of what's in there.[/quote]
. . . and when they eat themselves out of the fish that are in there, the Res. is so sterile they will stunt and the fisheries ruin will be complete. They will need to drop the water level to bottom pool and poison it to start over.
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Well I'm not a biologist but the IDFG are the ones that put the small mouth bass in there and hopefully they had a reason for that! You state that this body of water is so sterile!! If that is the case then why are there so many people catching crawdads & why are the bass doing so well? I don't know for sure, just what I'm reading from people on here! If the walleye do take hold, it will take 10-20 years for this to happen!
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Hello fellow fishermen. First post on this site. I too am interested in Ririe and its walleye population. However, have not been able to confirm it. We fished up there yesterday - Thursday the 4th. The upper end of the Willow Creek arm is less than 2 feet deep. I remember finding some deeper holes up there when the water was higher but this spring it's too skinny for my boat. A jet drive could access the mouth of Willow Creek. We fished it pretty hard yesterday - saw one other boat. We trolled crankbaits both flat lining and with leaded line in the deeper water. Also tried jigs and bait but could only catch suckers and perch. Water temps were 44 to 46 at the surface and the water is murky - low visibility. I would think at these water temps the walleye would be moving up to spawn but am out of ideas on how to catch them if they are there. There are a few spots on curves where the lake bed transitions from 10-12 feet to around 2-4 feet that should be holding fish. We are planning to go back up there Sunday morning. Blue and tan Lund boat - Evinrude outboard. If you see us there say hello and we will share what we know
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Before every one blasts the Bucket Biologist for the walleye in Ririe, the culprit may have the Fish and Game. They have admitted that the largemouth bass got mixed with the smallies they buy from Utah to stock Ririe.
They won’t publically admit the walleyes may also have been mixed in with other fish they have bought to stock Ririe. They have maybe their own worst enemy when it comes to stocking of fish.
If they have caught walleyes up to 27 inches the option of fishing them out of the picture isn’t going to happen. They tried that on Canyon Ferry in Montana with allowing you to keep 50 fish. Well they haven’t made a dent in the walleyes there.
They also don’t want to drain Ririe so they can do a kill off of the fish because they know the walleye, splake and perch would end up in the Snake. That would throw a monkey wrench in the cutthroat fishery in the River which would allow the Feds to take over control of the river.
Well enjoy catching and eating the eyes. They beat the h&&l out of them dumb cutt’s. I will try to get up there before we take the cows up to the hills.
I will have the white and teal boat up on the Black tail end of the lake.
Hell ya lady it's your elk, just let me get my
dle off it.
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I don't see how draining the lake at the end of irrigation season would allow any more fish to escape then any other time of outflow so that argument is a non starter.
As far as how they got in there it matters not at this point, they just need to go or it will destroy any other type of fishery the F&G implements and as I noted before. They will eat themselves out of their food sources and the walleye fishery will suck as well.
As it stands it will be a lose / lose situation IMHO.
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Either that or win win situation for a new Walleye reservoir in our precious little TROUT state! Walleye are less aggressive than those bass that already in there! Come to Salmon Dam for a perfect example of a lake that has a huge bass population that the big bad walleye doesn't seem to be hurting one bit! Along with that, tons and tons of big trout and perch and crappies! If it WAS a bucket biologist, they should pay dearly when they get caught! If it was a mistake by the IDFG, that was not there fault, then GO WALLEYE!!!
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The difference is the biomass. Ririe is a relatively new, deep narrow gorge waterway with very little shore weed growth and very few shallow areas for breeding grounds and fry shelter. Unlike expansive biomasses with lots of shallow water areas, Ririe simply won't sustain enough food fish for the walleye not to stunt when the F&G decides that planting food for them is no longer a viable option.
I don't see it ending well for the walleye either.
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Is there anything that walleye don't like to eat? There are clouds of chubs you see sunning themselves in the summer, suckers gallore, perch a plenty, and the lake is chalked full of crawdads. I see these fish with plenty to eat and what scares me is what if those things get loose and get into the South Fork? Goodbye yellowstone cuttthroats! I was told that F&G claims that those were illegally planted in the lake. Seems reasonable considering they are not putting a limit on them and they say that they want them out of there.
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The perch have almost disappeared with the Kokanee and the crawdad population has plummeted. The end game will be interesting to watch but it really screws up my Kokanee fishing. When the kokanee are gone the rest of the crawdads will really dissipate. Nothing can be done about that now and there's not really a big enough population of eyes to make them worth fishing for. Just enough to ruin the fishing for everything else.
Oh well . . . I always enjoyed a good science experiment.
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Been sitting back just reading the posts on this thread, being content to not jump in... until now.
Walleyes are opportunistic predatory fish that tend to like a fish diet. As Tazasorus mentioned, there are scads of suckers, chubs, perch and stocked kokes as well as little trout in Ririe to keep the eyes fat and happy for a long time. In addition, they will eat aquatic invertebrates if that is the easiest source of food (Mille Lacs in Minnesota they actually key in on mayflies during the hatch). They have even been known to eat there own young in some lakes. Because of their eatig habits and the fact that they are not as prolific as say a bluegill, perch or even the smallmouth bass, walleye populations do not tend to get "stunted".
Now the issue of the S. Fork... That is NOT a walleye river. I highly doubt that walleyes could infiltrate the river and decimate the cutts. Have we forgotten that there are brown trout in the S. Fork? If I am correct, they are just as much a meat eater as any walleye are. Walleyes are a cool/warm water species and the S. Fork is a COLD water environment. A great thing to comapre to the S. Fork is Oneida Narrows and the Bear River. Walleyes have been socked and stocked in the reservior and have ultimately made it into the river section that is directly below the dam. But yet the river is not infested with trout killing walleyes, is it?
The biggest fear right now is the fear of the unknown... How will the walleyes affect Ririe, time will tell. All this speculation about what will happen is simply that, SPECULATION. I have not caught any walleye out of Ririe but last year got turned onto the kokes. I sure hope it does not have such a negative affect on the kokes that fish and Game ceases stocking them. But on another note, does the walleye predation on some of the kokanee have anything to do with the large size of those 3 year old kokes? Like I said, last year was my first time chasing the kokes so I am not aware of what the "normal" size is, but I had heard that they were bigger than usual. Makes sense though if the population is smaller, those that make it can obtain a larger size.
Heres to hoping Ririe can sustain a fishable perch, smallmouth, kokanee, cutt and yes, walleye fishery!
Again, only time will tell.
My 2 cents...
Paul
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OMG SERIOUSLY? There isn't enough of a population to fish for but there is enough to ruin the rest of the lake??????? And yet, not a single picture has been submitted to prove they are in there! First of all if the lake has perch, bass, chubs, suckers, crawdads and a few others that were mentioned, and there aren't enough walleyes to fish for, then what makes you think the Kokanees are in jeopardy? Like I said for the third time: those bass are far more prolific and aggressive than walleyes are!!!! And if all these bass guys are catching them as you say, obviously YOU are talking circles!!! If they are catching them, then I suggest getting with them and having them teach you how to catch them, so you can save the Kokanee!!!!!
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