Ririe? Awful Quiet

[duksnfish]

Hey, good morning everyone. Just curious. It's been awful quiet with any info on Ririe and anyone catching any Kokes at all. Or anything else for that matter. I haven't been able to get out due to some health issues but plan on trying in the next day or two. Whats up with any activity on Ririe? Are folks catching fish and just keeping to themselves, which is fine, or is it a continuation of just nothing happening as it has generally been in about the last year?

Any information would be appreciated. If you don't want to post up on here, maybe someone will shoot me a PM.

Thanks and be safe and enjoy some water time.
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[fallsfish]

The fact is that very little has been happening at Ririe since last fall. The ice fishing season was the worst I have seen in ten years. I've been out once this spring to Blacktail and didn't see any schools of kokes. Of course they may be seperated into small groups or singles this time of year. The only thing the game and fish says is that the fish are located in the lake some where. When they do their spring trapping survey we'll see what they say.

I did catch one koke on my trip to Blacktail but I had to go to Meadow Creek. A friend fished from Juniper and up to Meadow Creek and only caught trout, no kokes or perch.

I believe you won't hear very much about Ririe until the fish start biting. I hope the game and fish will make a public statement about their survey.
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[duksnfish]

Falls, that is what I figured was happening. Sure seems amazing as to what has happened there. 2 years ago you couldn't keep the kokes off and now, no where to be found. Just makes one sick thinking what may have happened to our fishery. I'm like you, hopefully F&G will make some sort of public statement on what their thoughts are on what is happening. As many people that fish there for kokes and no one catching anything is pretty abysmal and scary.
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[Belasko]

I've been posting mostly on the idaho fishing reports facebook page lately and realized I should probably update here more regularly.

Anyway, I made it out to the Blacktail side of Ririe twice last week and my son went on Saturday as well. We managed to do OK on the perch. Caught about 15 the first day and around 10 the second day. They only caught five or six on Saturday but most the time was spent trolling where nothing was caught. We also caught a few trout while perch fishing each day. Each time we were fishing off the docks vertical jigging or dead poling with a 1/8 oz jig head (white was most consistent) with about a 1/2 inch of worm on the hook. Set it up just off the bottom a few inches. Never saw a Koke come through by any of the boats.
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[ironrod]

Thx for the report
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[MMDon]

Kokanee are cheap to raise and plant. That is the upside. The downside is Kokanee tend to shoal or school together so if they get some kind of bacterial infection of which they are highly susceptible, it pretty much wipes out a whole years production.
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[fallsfish]

It does look like we've lost at least one years stocking (2017). I believe that was the year McKay was short of fish and they had to get them some where else. We might have lost most of the 2018 stocking also. Hope the fish and game let us know how the spring survey goes. At this point they are taken up with catching the rainbows out of the Snake and transferring them to Ryder pond. We may have lost two years of koke fishing.
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[MMDon]

We have lost 80 to 90% a few other years. Losing 2 years back to back really sucks.
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[duksnfish]

So for the sake of discussion we have lost all the Kokes everyone is talking about. What kind of remedy is there by F&G to not let this or reduce this from happening again. Ririe Kokanee fishing produces not just a lot of fun and great food for people, but, I imagine the dollar value that it produces to our area is impeccable.

I realize as probably most who fish for Kokes on Ririe that it is a put and take fishery and dependent upon what F&G can get at the time and plant into the pool. Other than this continuing, can that be changed some how such as taking plants from a different source to reduce this from happening? Do we have any spawning waters within Ririe that can hold any spawning? Is there any spawning at all within the Ririe fishery?

Just throwing some things out there for thought. Like others of you who have posted here. I hope that F&G will chime in some time soon to let the public know what has happened to such a valuable fishery and with that a great monetary lose to the entire area.
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[curt69]

They plant 250,000min Island Park Reservoir every year . And I bet there are not 5,000 caught . I fish it about 50 days a year and Catch between 2 and 5 a season . Maybe they should plant them in Ririe ?
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[MMDon]

[quote curt69]They plant 250,000min Island Park Reservoir every year . And I bet there are not 5,000 caught . I fish it about 50 days a year and Catch between 2 and 5 a season . Maybe they should plant them in Ririe ?[/quote]

Ririe's problem isn't lack of fish. More fish on a successful year would just stunt the population due to lack of food. They would all max out at 10". You just need some luck to have each year class survive and then have the right amount of run off and a slow warm up into summer.
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[MMDon]

There is nothing in science to prevent a bacterial infection from wiping out most of a years class of Kokes. You just need some luck in the process. Wish there was a better answer but they are a fairly fragile fish at a young age.
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