Henrys Lake fishing

Weather - 10  Fishermen -1.  Opening Day on Henrys Lake is a crap-shoot at best and this year the weather beat the heck out of the fishermen.  Most fishermen became campers as the rain, snow and wind kept many off the water.  Campgrounds were full, but the lake had only a few boats on it.  Bank fishermen seemed to do the best by casting lures and a few flies like the Red Naked Lady, Beadhead Electric Black and the Mity Mouse.

Monday I made it up, but did not make it on the water due to the wind.  So I did a little bank casting flies to the few fish that were next to the shore.  I did manage to catch a few.  Here a nice cutthroad is landed that fell victom to the Red Naked Lady.

On the way home, I captured this mature Bald eagle who had been feeding on a road-killed elk just east of Henrys Lake.

He should have been out fishing, but the road-kill was easier to get and closer to cover as the rain started once again.  Just another wild day in Idaho.

Spawning at Henrys Lake

Yesterday I drove to Henrys Lake and met with Damon, the manager at the Henrys Lake Hatchery.  The run this year has been outstandingly consistent.  Damon has had 3837 cutthroats and 109 hybrids run into the hatchery.  He has collected over 3 million eggs and have made all of the hybrids.  The largest fish he has seen has been hybrids in the seven pound class.

Here is a picture of Damon and his grandson holding a large male hybrid.

Damon's goal is about 5 million eggs and he plans on spawning nine more times.  He says the lake looks very good for another good season, it the water is good.

Kokanee at Ririe Reservoir

During the last week of the Christmas break, I was able to fish Ririe Reservoir several times for Kokanee salmon, trout and perch. When the kokes came through, the fishing was hot and then we would have to wait awhile for another school to come through. The kokanee would range in size from eight to fourteen inches. They were usually found between 10 to 20 feet under the ice. We caught the perch and trout right on the bottom at 50 feet.

I fished most days right next to a bunch of old retired men who fishes Ririe almost every day during the winter. We had a great time between the kokanee runs. Here one of them lands two kokanee at the same time by fishing with two hooks. I tried that, but spent too much time untangling my line.
Here my son-in-law lands a trout that he caught on Ririe. Right now it is very good fishing and the ice is about six inches deep. As you can see, it was snowing very heavy as we were fishing.

My Kokanee set-up is to have a flasher about eight inches above a jig tipped with bait. One man was doing very well catching perch by putting the jig tipped with bait within three inches of the flasher.