Kokanee fishing on Ririe Reservoir

On the ice at 6:30 this morning and drilling holes in the dark.  Head lamp was very handy.  While getting set up two schools came through and missed all the hits - but then they flashed through and were gone.  The south wind was howling and setting up the ice house was a chore.  But once it was anchored down it gave me a lot of protection.

The third school produced one kokanee, 45 minutes later I got another from a fast moving school.  All of the schools dashed through in 30 seconds or less.

The Boy Scout Troop who had camped out all night started running the four-wheelers pulling sleds.  The sled made one heck of a racket as they slid over the rippled ice.  While they were playing, the kokanee would come through at 45 to 59 feet below the ice.  When the four-wheelers stopped they would move back up to 18 to 25 feet below.  A group of shakers, kokanee from 6 to 8 inches, came through and I landed six of them.

On my depth finder I saw a fish near the bottom, down I went for it and caught a 16 inch sucker.  About 10 minutes later I saw another one near the bottom at 55 feet so down I went for it.  It fought very hard coming up and I was surprised at the kokanee over 16 inches long, the largest I have ever taken on Ririe.

I caught a few more kokanee in schools as they flashed by, returning some and keeping two more.  Then I saw another fish near the bottom and dropped down to jig for it.  It turned out to be just under 16 inches.  Today I was glad to be irritated by the Scouts as I believe it broke up the groups of kokanee and the single ones on the bottom rewarded me for my persistence.

Here is my catch for the day before I caught the last one.

A great way to spend in the wilds of Idaho.  I was able to beat the snowstorm as it came in just as I was leaving the lake.

I have fished Ririe Reservoir five times since it froze over.  Fishing has been fair but pretty tough.  Kokanie seem to be hitting the lures really light.  But enough schools come through that you have a chance to catch your limits.

The ice has been good, but very slick at times after the rain removes the snow off it.  On Saturdays, the area around the boat dock area.  Here was the scene last Saturday as I was leaving.

The lake should be good fishing until mid March. 

Holiday fishing.

Twelve available fishing days during Christmas vacation and six days on the ice.  Mackay Reservoir treated us very well on both days there.  Took a son-in-law and a grandson there.  We caught trout and kokanee there.  We used my flasher-jig setup for kokanee.  Here Brandon lands one of the small kokanee we caught.

You can see our setup for the kokanee in the picture.  I tye the jig and tip it with a wax worm or piece of nightcrawler.  The kokanee are withing a foot of the bottom no matter what depth of water we were in.

Mud Lake was still dead and we took all the grandchildren to Roberts Pond to catch small perch.  They had a lot of fun, but nothing of any size.

Island Park Reservoir was good to me as I caught rainbows and a couple of nice kokanee there.  I used the same setup as I did for kokanee.  The area by the dam is my favorite area.

Henrys Lake for the one day season on New Year's Day was not good.  I predicted in my newspaper article that it would probably be slow and it was.  My son-in-law, Steve, and I each caught one brook trout.

Tomorrow is back to school, but what a way to spend a couple of weeks in the wilds of Idaho.