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I went up to Ririe to get my sticker for this year, have to call and make an appointment to get one, and wow the water level is as low as Ive seen it for this time of year in years. I dont think it is starting to fill at all and I am guessing it is at least 30 feet down if not more. looks like the same level as it was going into the winter ice conditions. Not a boat one. It is open for fishing though at least for now so good luck. I am thinking about hitting the liquid next week once I get my boat back from being serviced.
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I just looked and the lake is 16 ft down from full pool.
The lake is coming up about a foot a week. Once the temps get up higher and stay above freezing at night it will fill up guick.
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Wow, 16 ft huh, when you get up there, it looks one heck of a lot lower believe me, it's unreal. But good to know its filling at that rate. Just hope the fish start biting. If anyone has been fishing would be good to hear whats happening. Thanks always and be safe and healthy.
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Made a couple trips to ririe this past week... wanted to fish perch and then troll for kokes. Was able to find enough perch to keep the wife and kids actively involved and therefore did not do any trolling at all. Saw surface water temps up to 48 deg on Thursday with most fish caught in the 15 to 20 ft range. Jig tipped with crawler worked well!
Talked to a few people when at the ramp who were trolling... sounds like it was pretty slow with only a few tout and even fewer kokes caught.
Paul
That's great you were able to get some fish and keep everyone interested. Trolling can be pretty boring if there's not much action. I'd imagine it'll be a couple weeks before any fishing gets good.
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I went Friday and we caught 8 trout but no bass or perch. We tried all the spots we usually catch them but not even a bite.
Nice, sounds like a great day.
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Hey folks, well, I ventured out yesterday by myself to just get things going and kick out some cobwebs from not fishing since last fall and this crazy virus. I launched at Juniper around 8 and was 3rd on the water. Water temp when i launched was at 39 but OMG, what a great morning to get out. Nothing happened for about an hour but landed my first fish about 9 a nice rainbow, but to my surprise, someone had hooked it before and it swallowed the hook and placitc grub and had just gut the line and it was still in it. So I moved on and pretty slow but I did get 1 kok about an hour later. Then, I finally got into so nice consistent action. Ended up with 3 really nice bows and 3 nice koks. Most of my fish were caught between 1130 and 1:00.
The water temp when I left was right at 45, smooth as a babies bottom and couldnt ask for better fishing conditions. I was about 12 ft deep, long line 110 feet out, trolling about 1.5 - 2.0 MPH and was using a silver flasher with a pink hootchie. Seemed to do the trick. I saw and talked to a number of others who were using down riggers down 25+ feet. But, the fish are shallow folks, you dont pick many of them up on a finder they are that shalow because when you go over/through a school of fish, they split up and go out around your boat and finder and come back together after you pass over them, this is why long lining and out over 100 ft seems to be working.
Just a little help and hope folks get out. When I left just a bit after 1, there were almost 20 rigs in the parking lot and I know a bunch of boats came down from Blacktail. My largest kok was 18 smallest 13 largest bow was 18 smallest 16. So it was a successful day.
Good luck and please remember to keep your social distancing, there is a reminder on the board going into the boar ramp on social distancing. And, the county is doing a lot of new work on the ramps/boat dock so dont be surprised when you get up there. Looks good, but, it is a bit tight against the bank right now getting out, you can do it fine, but, I am sure county will move the docks over just a bit to make it a bit easier. Wont take but a few more feet.
Heres a few pics of my catch. Cant wait to get back out. ![[Image: 20200421-161859.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/Wnb4gB5/20200421-161859.jpg) ![[Image: 20200421-153150.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/cDyVz5D/20200421-153150.jpg)
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Great detailed report duksnfish, awesome when members give that much detail in a report, it sure helps others that don't understand the reason why some folks long line instead of go deep with down riggers. Nice sized koke and bow as well. Another thing that can help too, is to use side planners to get your lures away from the boat. Keep the great reports coming, sure haven't been a lot lately coming from other members but hopefully with the weather improving that will be changing.
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Well we went up and got our boat pass
We fished for 4 hrs. Lost one downrigger weight when I was putting batteries in the gps.
We found fish stacked up at 20 ft and then around 40 ft. Caught last yrs planters that were about 8 inches
The wakeboard boats showed up in mass about 1pm when we were leaving. They had the docks tied up for 20 mins before we could finally tie up and load out.
Nice, it's great to get out and get some fresh air, catching a few fish makes it even better.
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I like Ririe when the water is warm enough to catch your Kokes at first light and get back off before the wakeboard crowd shows up!
Thanks for all the reports!
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Fished Ririe yesterday, what a beautful day. Just like glass, but that was about all I got. We missed 4 koks at the boat and they were decent size, I'd say around 14-15". Not sure why they got off as they hit hard and took the line hard, but, one last jump at the boat and they were gone  . Water was 50 and fish were all over the place. From right at the surface 10 or so feet down to 25 or so. Nothing consistent on what they were hitting either. I do know, a lot of fish that are showing up on the finder are perch. We took a number of them long lining for koks and they were at the surface but a few boats were holed up in some of the coves jigging most likely for perch. the perch we kept were at the 8" range and fat so if you got a bunch of them, you would have an awesome mess of fish.
The one thing I noticed from a week ago, the water was like pure mud. I couldnt believe how milky the water was. I dont remember it ever being this muddy before and it is coming up pretty fast now too. So, I imagine this situation is having an impact on the fish, all fish due to the fast run off. Not a lot of debris floating on the water though.
Werent a lot of boats at Juniper - like 8 or 9 and a few from Blacktail came down.
Good luck with this high wind warning and the next week doesnt look like great weather but you might be able to sneek a few hours inbetween storms. Good luck and be safe.
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(05-06-2020, 04:26 PM)duksnfish Wrote: Fished Ririe yesterday, what a beautful day. Just like glass, but that was about all I got. We missed 4 koks at the boat and they were decent size, I'd say around 14-15". Not sure why they got off as they hit hard and took the line hard, but, one last jump at the boat and they were gone . Water was 50 and fish were all over the place. From right at the surface 10 or so feet down to 25 or so. Nothing consistent on what they were hitting either. I do know, a lot of fish that are showing up on the finder are perch. We took a number of them long lining for koks and they were at the surface but a few boats were holed up in some of the coves jigging most likely for perch. the perch we kept were at the 8" range and fat so if you got a bunch of them, you would have an awesome mess of fish.
The one thing I noticed from a week ago, the water was like pure mud. I couldnt believe how milky the water was. I dont remember it ever being this muddy before and it is coming up pretty fast now too. So, I imagine this situation is having an impact on the fish, all fish due to the fast run off. Not a lot of debris floating on the water though.
Werent a lot of boats at Juniper - like 8 or 9 and a few from Blacktail came down.
Good luck with this high wind warning and the next week doesnt look like great weather but you might be able to sneek a few hours inbetween storms. Good luck and be safe.
Thanks for the report, too bad those kokes did not hang on there at the end but I guess we have all had that happen with those hard fighting fish. Funny you should mention catching perch in the upper water collum, we did the same thing here, at out local lake yesterday. I was very surprised to catch a perch while trolling but I guess it does happen from time to time.
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Gave it a shot yesterday evening for a few hours and ended up taking home 5 perch and 1 koke. Trolled various depths, speeds, baits, colors and dodgers all within sight of the Juniper ramp. Water had some color to it with just a little debris floating around. Water temp 53 deg. according to the Lowrance. Only a couple other boats out and they did not appear to be doing much either. Planning an early morning trip this weekend if possible.
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(05-08-2020, 05:34 PM)psanders71 Wrote: Gave it a shot yesterday evening for a few hours and ended up taking home 5 perch and 1 koke. Trolled various depths, speeds, baits, colors and dodgers all within sight of the Juniper ramp. Water had some color to it with just a little debris floating around. Water temp 53 deg. according to the Lowrance. Only a couple other boats out and they did not appear to be doing much either. Planning an early morning trip this weekend if possible. Psanders, any updates?
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(05-24-2020, 12:38 AM)MMDon Wrote: (05-08-2020, 05:34 PM)psanders71 Wrote: Gave it a shot yesterday evening for a few hours and ended up taking home 5 perch and 1 koke. Trolled various depths, speeds, baits, colors and dodgers all within sight of the Juniper ramp. Water had some color to it with just a little debris floating around. Water temp 53 deg. according to the Lowrance. Only a couple other boats out and they did not appear to be doing much either. Planning an early morning trip this weekend if possible. Psanders, any updates?
Wife and I did make it out for a few hours in the morning but the results were even less impressive... Water still had color to it and we ended up getting only a couple of perch while trolling for kokanee. Again tried numerous dodgers, lures, colors and baits. Have not been able to get out at all since then as we have just been too busy! Hoping to get out and try it again in the near future... hope the water is clearing up!
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Made it out again for a few hours... water clarity is much better than our last trip! Trolled around and caught 2 trout, 5 perch and 5 kokanee while missing another 10 or so bites. 4 of the kokes were smaller with the one other right at 15 inches. Spinners and hoochies both worked with neither one really outdoing the other.
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