Huge Ririe walleye captured

A monster walleye was recently captured in the gill-netting survey done by the Department of Fish and Game on Ririe Reservoir. They found the walleyes are growing fast, but their population is low.

“We set six gill nets designed to catch walleyes for three nights and captured 13 walleye,” Jon Flinders, a regional fishery biologist from the Idaho Falls office reported. “We had one 29-incher that weighed about 10 pounds and seven small ones about 8 inches (long) with the rest between those sizes.”

The first night the nets were set at the upper end of the reservoir near the mouth of Willow Creek and only three walleyes were taken with one large one about 4 pounds. Six were caught the second night in the middle section and the final night, four were caught, including the large one in the lower section of Ririe.

“We have walleyes throughout the reservoir, but the population is staying in check,” Flinders said. “The reproduction level is low, probably due to poor spawning habitat.”

The first year the Department of Fish and Game documented walleyes in Ririe was 2008. With the estimated age of the 29-inch walleye at 10 years, they believe the illegal fish were introduced about 2005. Flinders believes the large fish may be one of the original plant.

“At times someone wants a certain species of fish available for fishing, so they introduce them illegally without knowing what the consequences might be,” Flinders said. “That is what it appears happened at Ririe with the walleyes.”

Flinders has been gill netting for walleyes the last two years. In 2014 at total of eight were captured with two 24 inches long with an estimated weight of 5 pounds and 6 to 7 years old. Most were captured within a mile and a half of the dam. This season the middle section of the reservoir produced the most walleyes, though a 23-incher was caught in the area near the Willow Creek mouth.

The walleye stomachs were checked for food. Seven were empty, with six holding fish in different stages of decomposition, but only one had remnants that could be identified – a small perch. Because walleyes live on mostly other fish, and with perch and kokanee ready available, they grow very rapidly.

“As compared to other bodies of water, the Ririe walleyes grow very much faster than others,” Flinders commented as he removed perch from the gill net. “They don’t have to eat as often as fish that eat mostly insects as it takes time for them to digest the fish they feed on.”

Because of the low numbers of walleyes in Ririe, they are not having an impact on the numbers of kokanee and perch, the two most targeted fish by fishermen in the reservoir. Perch were by far the most numerous fish in the gill nets, and they were the only species that was captured in every net. Most were between 8 and 10 inches, too large to be food for most of the predatory walleyes.

Flinders said fishermen should not try to catch a walleye at Ririe, as there are not enough of the fish there.

“Fish for other species of fish and you may luck into one of them,” he said. A 4-pounder was reportedly taken this summer near the dam in July while a fisherman was trolling for kokanee.

Hopefully for the kokanee fishermen, the numbers of walleye will stay low, but tying into a 10 pound fish-eater through the ice or while trolling for kokanee would be a thrill of a lifetime.

Photos by Bill Schiess unless otherwise indicated.