Ririe 1-8-10

[prvrt]

Off to Ririe in the morning. I guess we will see how things go. The ice should be thicker this time and I should be a little more well armed for the Kokes. Stop by and say "Hi". I now have BFT stickers displayed.

They are selling parking permits at the booth Fri-Sun for those interested, or you can get them from the county commissioners secretary.
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[CREED]

I am also headed up in the morning, I was up there yesterday and the koke fishing was slow. One school came through at about 10 but they were only there for a minute I guess. We were about a hundred yards from the main group and they never came through where we were. We did pick up a couple of perch off the bottom but the bite was very very light. Hope to get in some in the morning.
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[prvrt]

It was a great day on Ririe today even tho the Koke fishing was a little slow. Started off heading to Sportsman's at 9:00, but when we got there, they did not open untill 10:00. We did not want to wait around, so we headed to Walmart to get my friends license and look for some fishing lures that we had planned on buying at Sportsman's. Well, Walmart does not carry anything we were looking for which was a pink Syclops. I guess the redneck in us came out a little while we were there and we decided to buy some plain silver spoons and a can of fluorescent pink spray paint. Off to Ririe we went. We setup an and I preceded to paint the spoons. I then dropped the camera down and wow, I was not where I thought I was. It was nothing but huge rocks, suckers and a big old smallmouth in about 33' of water. We did a little looking around and finally found where I wanted to be. We packed everything over to the new spot, setup, and started fishing. Caught a few perch to start with. I needed to dry the spoons a little faster, so I hung them on the grill of my buddy heater. Worked great. They finally dried and me and my buddy threw them on the poles and started jigging. Nothing for a while and then I hear my buddy yell 15'. I reel up a bit, jigged twice and bam. First Koke this year, both were around 12". Those are the only 2 we hooked for hours.

We worked on the Perch for a few hours for entertainment. My buddy landed a nice Cut while after the Perch. The Perch did not stick around much. There would be a few here and there and they would take a look at your bait and off they would go. I did see Perch at 20' and also had 2 swim by my hole just under the ice. Quite weird I thought since I have never seen them that high in the water before. We were fishing in 48' of water. Ice is around 6" and took the 4-wheeler out today.

We watched a group farther out get into a big school of Kokes and were pulling them out like there was no tomorrow. After watching them for a few minutes we decided we had better start jigging again. Next thing I hear is 30'. Dropped the spoon down and bam, another Koke. That was the last one for me today, but my buddy nailed 2 more in that group with our special pink spoons. We left at sun down. I ended up with 22 Perch, 1 Crawdad, and 2 Kokes. My buddy ended up with 4 Kokes, 1 Cut, and some Perch. Weather was as good as it gets. We stopped by Sportsman's on the way home and they were out of the lures we were after anyway. So I guess when I get done filleting these fish tonight, I will be doing a little more painting. []

It is time for a Vexlar.
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[Belasko]

Sounds like a fun day. I'm definitely going to have to try the redneck spoon idea. If you're serious about a vexilar you better think fast. I haven't found many in stock. Also I finally decided on the Marcum lx-3 after reading the reviews, but only found 2 sites that had any in stock. One had lousy reviews from the BBB. The other site is a major store in Minnesota. I ordered from that one but have yet to hear what my tracking # is or see my package this week. Hopefully it will show up tomorow or monday. Since then I haven't seen a single site that has them in stock!
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[maghunter]

I am headed up there tomorrow with a group of guys. We won't be far from the ramp in two blue command posts stop by if you are up there.
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[MMDon]

Saw the two blue command posts S. of the Island but didn't know that was you. I got there around 5:30 am and couldn't believe the traffic as it came in from 8 to 9. Wow!
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[maghunter]

How did you do fishing? We got there about 7:30 and fished until 12:30 and four of us caught one Kokanee each. The schools came by 4 or 5 times but they were deeper than last week and wouldn't bite. Nobody around us was catching much either. Windriver was set up right next to us but he had to take off for some meetings and said he was coming back in the afternoon so I wonder if the fishing got any better after we left.
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[MMDon]

I saw a guy with a Green Bay jacket dump a runaway sled on the ramp in the dark just below my silver chev this morning. I wondered if that was Windriver as we have never met.

We limited out early and then caught and released fish until we packed it up hoping for a few perch. No perch. The fish were coming from 24 to 34 with some deeper than that. The bait didn't seem to matter as long as you could drop it down or raise it up to their depth. One of the guys I was fishing with got a couple of doubles while I was there. They fish every day at Ririe and said the last two days had been slower than earlier in the week. Today the bite was back on. This coming week they will move to the mud flats hunting perch.
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[prvrt]

Why do you say they will move to the mud flats hunting perch in a week? Kokes are plankton eaters.
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[MMDon]

Not the Kokes, the guys I was fishing with will move to the mud flats. They are perch junkies! The Kokes will still be over deeper water.
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[prvrt]

Ahhhhh, got ya. There are quite a few perch I seen out there, but I had to be in 45'+ water to find them. They are not biting very well or hard. You have to entice them to bite. Once you get one, the rest wander off and you have to wait for another group to come by. They are fat and lazy right now. I will have to look around next time up there and see if I can find another place that has perch that is not so deep. Pulling them up from that depth kills them almost right away as there air bladder ends up in their mouth.
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[MMDon]

I set up this morning next to the ridge so the rods on one end were over 45 to 50' and the other rods were over deeper water. Kind of a combo deal that way. I saw some guys on the flats down by the mile marker this morning. I wonder how they did on the perch?
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[maghunter]

The guy in the green bay coat was probably Windriver. That is what he was wearing when I talked to him. What part of the lake were you fishing this morning? The spot we were at is normally really good there is a big drop off right there too, it goes from 45' to 70' and the kokes normally seem to swim right through there. But this morning the few schools that did come by would barely tap a pole or two and then they were gone. Oh well at least somebody was catching them. Windriver will probably report catching tons of kokes an hour after we left, that is our normal fishing luck.
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[prvrt]

I was wondering myself. They have been down there every time I have been up there. I was also wondering how the guys are doing on perch over by the dam at the concrete pillar also.
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[MMDon]

We were fishing outside of you on the edge of the Island. Same depths. Usually those fish will range from where you were set up to where we were at. You never know however.


Prvrt. If those guys have been down by the line all week they are getting perch!
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[prvrt]

I may have to try that way some time. Just waiting on the ice to thicken up a little more since I would rather take the 4 wheeler along. That is a long walk dragging a sled. If you see the 4 wheeler out there, stop and say hi.

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[MMDon]

I'll be sure to stop by!
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[MMDon]

If you go down to the line stay away from where the creek dumps in about 3/4's or a mile from the dam on the West side. That ice is always suspect. The rest should be pretty good. The F&G told my buddies that it was 5" before the cold snap so a couple more days like this and the whole thing should be solid. Ken was going to drag his camper shell down to the line today but we left before he showed up. Of course he seems to need less ice than the rest of us.
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[maghunter]

I measured 9" of ice, but we were in a spot that has been drilled and drilled, not sure what the virgin ice thickness was.
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[SteelFisher]

We were there this morning just west of Windriver and it was very slow. I caught 1 small koke and a few of the other guys around us caught a few fish. Mix of kokes, perch and cutthroats. Windriver went back out around 2:00 and he called me to let me know they limited in a few minutes so the bite was better in the afternoon. I always seem to go home too soon. I'm sure he will post a report with more detail.

SteelFisher
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