Ririe fishing report

[fallsfish]

Fished for 6 days and caught 3 kokes. I have not seen anybody do better. Over 6 inches of ice. The IDFG stocked 262,000 this spring and 320,000 last spring, which means there is about 583,500 kokes some where. We are not even seeing large schools as per usual. What's going on?
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[mjanssen]

I had to leave about 3pm, did it pick up any this afternoon??
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[fallsfish]

I ended up with 5 kokanee. We had two large schools come thru. Hope we're on to something. It'll be Monday before I'm out again.
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[mjanssen]

Keep our fingers crossed. Thinking about heading out early this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes.
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[mjanssen]

No kokanee today. Everyone I talked to got skunked. Ended up with a few perch, a nice rainbow, and a sucker.
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[dead_duck]

I finally remembered reading about the Lake Georgetown kokanee population anomaly that occurred back in 2010, for example read article in the Missoulian Jan. 14, 2010. I don't remember how or if this was ever resolved but the article is an interesting read in lieu of what is going on at Ririe.
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[fallsfish]

Interesting article in Missoulian. Sorry no conclusions. The barometric and temperature hypothesis was bogus. The plankton hypothesis may have legitimacy. Ririe dam has not let any water through since mid November so the plankton near the dam may have died. If that is the case then the kokes have moved to where the feed source is, most likely where the inlets are flowing. That would be Meadow Creek and Willow Creek. I think that when the dam is opened to let the water flow/current to bring the plankton to the dam area we will see kokanee again.

I guess we could prove the plankton presence/absence would be to place a green light source into the water and see if the plankton are there. By the way, I spoke with the IDFG and they don't see any reason for the fish to not be there. I also emailed the Bureau of Reclaimation in Heyburn to find out when they might open the gates of the dam. They have not responded.

Hope we don't totally miss out on a decent season.
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[dead_duck]

Very interesting! I think you are on to something.

News from Bob is that two people each caught 5 fish last Friday and Saturday (I believe).
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[Hardwaterfinder]

I was there today, only caught 1 koke, but caught a pile of pretty decent perch
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[curt69]

How thick was the ice ? Thanks for the report .
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[fallsfish]

The ice is 8-9 inches and real clear.
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[curt69]

Are they riding atv's on it ? And thanks for all your reports and keeping us updated .
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[Hardwaterfinder]

There was one group that had there atvs out there. They had three 4 wheelers and a side by side all together. I had to laugh, because they drove out on the lake and then set up to fish only like 100 to 150 yards from the boat ramp, right in between everyone else out there. Not sure if they have a hard time walking or if they were just plain lazy. I know if I had an atv to take out there, I would probably get a little further away from the crowd of people on the ice???
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[fallsfish]

Slow again today, one person in our group of four caught one koke. The ice has been good for sometime now. Last week two guys on snow machines went toward Blacktail from Juniper. They came back after I left so didn't get to talk to them. Every body I've talked to days the same thing "where are the fish".

Going back tomorrow morning early. We plan to fish down where the old mile marker was at.
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[mjanssen]

Looking forward to your post on how you do tomorrow. I won't make it out again until Thursday.
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[curt69]

I thought it was against the law to put a snow machine on Ririe?
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[fallsfish]

It has been up until this year. The commissioners voted to allow them on the ice this year. My understanding is they can be ridden only on the ice to go fishing, no horse play and no getting off the ice.

Opens up a whole new transportation mode.
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[curt69]

Thanks , I did not no that .
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[Fishsticker]

I'm no biologist, but I can comment on what I observed while fishing Ririe 2 weekends ago. After drilling a few holes I dropped the flasher in and immediately saw suspended fish mid water column in 55 feet of water. Imagine my excitement level when I dropped a tungsten down to them and immediately had a fish on. Kokanee right? Wrong......perch I proceeded to catch 25-30 perch throughout the day, all suspended mid water column. The water where I drilled had visible invertebrate life (I assumed to be daphnia) and the perch were filled with the same invertebrates. I have never seen perch feeding like this.
So if the perch are suspended eating tiny insects why aren't the Kokanee?
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[curt69]

Fished Blacktail yesterday. Slow , very soft bite . Caught 3 Trout , five Perch , and 1 Sucker .
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