02-27-2005, 05:49 PM
My oldest son and I arrived at the lake around 6:45 A.M. The fish started biting as soon as I had a couple of poles down in the water. We caught and released around 20 Kokanee when some friends came over so we let them use our holes. They caught 5 or 6 before the Kokanee moved on.
After observing the Kokanee over the course of this ice fishing season I have come to the conclusion that the big bite can be anytime between first light and 10:30 in the morning. After that it is hit and miss for a few Kokanee at least around the boat ramp and island. I was wondering do you think that this is because the Kokanee are more likely to bite in the morning or is it because of the huge crowd that gathers in that general spot and the fish are spooked to other locations?
After the good luck with the Kokanee we moved out to our trout spots by the boundary markers at around 8:15. The fishing for the trout was not as fast as it was last week, but it still was productive and we caught 7 nice trout. between 14-17". From what we could tell the trout started cruising the drop offs at about 10:00 in the morning or maybe no trout were in our area until that time. We missed tons of bites in the shallow water because they would start tapping our jigs and we would run over to get them then they would feel the vibrations in 5-8 feet of water and take off. We caught the majority of the fish in 20 feet of water but 5ft closer to the bank it was 12 ft deep. The trout were just cruising these ledges. It was really interesting to watch the trout follow the contour of the bank on the aqua-view.
One other exciting thing happened when we were watching the aqua-view and all of sudden the screen filled with fish. A huge school of big Kokanee came through but I had switched all my poles to paddle bugs for the trout and so all the baits got hit but we only landed two Kokanee they were both around 14". Over all I have been very impressed with Ririe Res. I had not fished it much since I left Idaho 10 years ago. It seems like it is a totally different lake now.
Good Luck
Windriver
[signature]
After observing the Kokanee over the course of this ice fishing season I have come to the conclusion that the big bite can be anytime between first light and 10:30 in the morning. After that it is hit and miss for a few Kokanee at least around the boat ramp and island. I was wondering do you think that this is because the Kokanee are more likely to bite in the morning or is it because of the huge crowd that gathers in that general spot and the fish are spooked to other locations?
After the good luck with the Kokanee we moved out to our trout spots by the boundary markers at around 8:15. The fishing for the trout was not as fast as it was last week, but it still was productive and we caught 7 nice trout. between 14-17". From what we could tell the trout started cruising the drop offs at about 10:00 in the morning or maybe no trout were in our area until that time. We missed tons of bites in the shallow water because they would start tapping our jigs and we would run over to get them then they would feel the vibrations in 5-8 feet of water and take off. We caught the majority of the fish in 20 feet of water but 5ft closer to the bank it was 12 ft deep. The trout were just cruising these ledges. It was really interesting to watch the trout follow the contour of the bank on the aqua-view.
One other exciting thing happened when we were watching the aqua-view and all of sudden the screen filled with fish. A huge school of big Kokanee came through but I had switched all my poles to paddle bugs for the trout and so all the baits got hit but we only landed two Kokanee they were both around 14". Over all I have been very impressed with Ririe Res. I had not fished it much since I left Idaho 10 years ago. It seems like it is a totally different lake now.
Good Luck
Windriver
[signature]