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My son and I hit the 6-7' ice at Rigby Lake this morning from 8:30am-11:00am. The fishng was really good and we iced 21 bows and 1 koke (yes, I said koke!) Jigging either pink or chartruse jgs with crawler off of the bottom really produced fish; dead polling for more than a minute would create a dead rod! Back to the koke; I was shocked to see it come out of the hole. Last year banana trout this year kokes; not bad for a backyard fishing hole. Whats more amazing is that I looked up the stocking information and there s not one word on kokes being stocked. To prove my story I posted a couple of picks, one with our catch for the smoker and one with the koke alone. Notice the koke on the bottom right. If you bring your shelter you can watch fish go for your jigs!
Off to Mud Lake!
OvidCreek
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Wierd, I wonder if it just got mixed in with the rainbows from the hatchery. I wouldn't be surprised if thats how the walleyes got into Ririe, mixed in with some hatchery small mouths.
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Sounds like the only logical theory! I would love kokes at Rigby Lake, but considering its depth and the dry bed access is not always flowing I doubt it would ever work.
OvidCreek
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It is just north of the town of Rigby about 1/4 mile on Hyway 20 . Curt G.
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That is so strange. Ask the Fish and Game how that happened. It would be interesting to hear what they have to say.
Windriver
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I'm sure they will say that someone planted it(them?) there..I think Mag hit it on the head...I would be willing to bet that it came from the hatchery and was placed there by them..you know that they would never fess up to that though..if they did it would mean that the walleye mess at Ririe could be blame on them.
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Does fish and game even have a walleye Hatchery ? I think they bought the fish in Onida and Salmon Falls from out of State . Curt G.
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i heard a rumor that the walley did make it in there through fish and game but its from a hatchery in utah and we trade some of our fish from our local hatcherys for smallmouth fry well i heard from people talking about it in utah (yes they are talking about it as well as us) that its not the first time that hatchery has mixed up fry for planting.
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If there is just an isolated koke, it may be possible it hitchhiked in a stork or heron belly. I understand fish can survive the treck through their digestive system. I know an empty pond with adequate water for fish to survive from year to year can develop a fish population without it having been stocked by man.
If there are a lot of koke, sounds to me like it would more likely due to hatchery error.
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compactfishing,
Interesting theory, and it may be possible consdering Ririe is only ten air miles away, however, the fry were released in Ririe in April, and Rigby Lake nearly has no water in it this time of year; essentially it is a very small pond 30 feet by 6 feet. The water starts to come in by the end of May.
Again pretty amazing about your local pond!
OvidCreek
I will call Fish and Game tomorrow, however, I expect an answer similar to the ones mentioned above.
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I think the truth is you will never know, just will be able to rejoice in the catch. Unless you catch this sort of thing in the act of implantation, we are probably just pooling our ignorance, but, is that not a major part of the fun in life, besides fishing of course!
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