Still no kokanee at Ririe

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for the info Don, I had never heard of that before, how common is this problem?

[MMDon]

The problem is really common and sometimes can be seen at multiple lakes at the same time. Anderson Ranch took a similar hit 4 years ago where the fish literally all disappeared overnight. While Kokanee are one of the least expensive fish to plant per fish, they are also the most susceptible to any kind of stress disease such as bacteria introduced at the hatchery level. Pick almost any Kokanee biomass that is plant dependent and you can point to 3 to 4 year loss period in the last couple of decades of hatchery management.

[wiperhunter2]

The problem is really common and sometimes can be seen at multiple lakes at the same time. Anderson Ranch took a similar hit 4 years ago where the fish literally all disappeared overnight. While Kokanee are one of the least expensive fish to plant per fish, they are also the most susceptible to any kind of stress disease such as bacteria introduced at the hatchery level. Pick almost any Kokanee biomass that is plant dependent and you can point to 3 to 4 year loss period in the last couple of decades of hatchery management.

Wow, I had no idea that happened so often, has this problem been observed in others states or just Idaho?

[kentd71]

Me and obifishkenobi were the first ones on the water at Juniper this morning. It sure looks like a bunch of kokes on the finder down at 75 feet. But we couldn't get them to bite. A lot a fish showing at 25 feet also, so me and Shawn had our down riggers at 75 feet and 25. We got rainbows regularly at 25. Shawn started catching them on a orange dodger and orange huchie. He asked me if I had anything orange, so I put on a small orange flatfish and started nailing the trout at 25 feet. I eventually gave up on kokanee and fished another orange with black dots flatfish and caught them on that also. Nothing big, but good 1 1/2 pounds. It was fun and kept us busy until near noon. No pictures, all fish caught and released.

 This was our second attempt this spring and still nothing. We did catch one last fall but none through the ice this winter

How late last Fall, did you catch that koke, was it after the spawn?

We caught a single Kokanee near the end of the spawn. We saw a couple about 14” spawned out ones dead near the shore and a couple very red ones swimming also near the shore between the powerlines and Juniper. The one we caught was still Silver and around 12 inches.
At Anderson this July We caught a couple each day and lost a couple large ones that seemed to be around 20 inches .

[obifishkenobi]

So what does anyone think is going to have to happen to get the Koks to start biting again? Is there such a die off that we just dont have the populations to catch any? I mean, you would think that someone would at least pick a few up here n there  But, even the off internet folks are saying very very very few koks are being caught which is just amazing. I mean the last couple of years has been in a down turn for them. Such a high 2-3 years back and then just like falling off of a cliff, they stopped. This goes for frozen lake too. What goes folks, any idea?

I'm blaming it on the pandemic, because this did not happen at just Ririe, lots of koke lakes are having the same problem. I think that during those two years, more people than ever went fishing and they went after the kokes, in huge numbers. During those two years I saw more people out fishing during the week than I have ever seen, it did not seems to matter what day you got out there, it was always crowded and those high numbers of people decimated the koke population, in just about every lake. There are likely other factors but the pandemic made matters worse, IMO.

I don’t think in the case of Ririe it is matter of fishing pressure, as Ririe is a purely put and take fishery, there is no natural recruitment in that lake because of a lack of spawning habitat and in my exspierance the vast majority of the fish I catch are the fish that would have spawned in the year I caught them if there was appropriate habitat. It is definitely a mystery, maybe the virus theory is a good one, but I’m pretty sure those fish on my graph in big schools are Kokanee that just have lock jaw I wish Idaho Fish and game would do some gill netting surveys and publish their results with a theory of what they think is going on at Ririe. I’m hoping those big schools I’m seeing on my graph are next years fish and we just lost one years group of of fish to something and it will improve next year.

[MMDon]

By August 15 you should be able to easily target the next years koke population as the reds will have mostly separated from the 2 year old fish. If you are unable to find and catch these fish on the corners, they may not exist in the numbers you believe to be seeing on your fish finder.

[kentd71]

on March 31 we fished for around four hours near the powerline, trying for some Kokanee. Ended up with six rainbows between 12 and 16 inches. Trade many colors end, depths, 25 feet seems to be the magic number most of the fish came on a hot pink squid and a dodger .
it is now $10 to park at Juniper on the week days as well as weekends.
 I’ve heard there are supposed to be a lot of perch in there, but have had a hard time the last year or two trying to catch some.

[wiperhunter2]

on March 31 we fished for around four hours near the powerline, trying for some Kokanee. Ended up with six rainbows between 12 and 16 inches. Trade many colors end, depths, 25 feet seems to be the magic number most of the fish came on a hot pink squid and a dodger .
it is now $10 to park at Juniper on the week days as well as weekends.
 I’ve heard there are supposed to be a lot of perch in there, but have had a hard time the last year or two trying to catch some.

Thanks for the report, good to hear someone is getting out there, it sounds like you were in a boat, did you find any ice up the lake or did you not make it that far?