Rain at Ririe Reservoir creates hazardous ice-fishing conditions; Kokanee population unusually low

EXTREME CAUTION NEEDS TO BE EXERCISED AT RIRIE AS THE WARM WEATHER AND THE RAIN THIS WEEK HAS CAUSED PRESSURE RIDGES TO DEVELOP AND THE ICE TO BREAK APART IN PLACES. IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!

Ririe Reservoir froze over earlier than usual allowing some fishermen to begin ice fishing on December 22, four days earlier than it has been in many years. Usually, it is the first week of January when we can get on it. But kokanee fishermen are always in a hurry, and we were in a hurry to celebrate Christmas with family gatherings on the ice.

But it really didn’t matter when we started fishing for kokanee because in the first week of ice fishing, no schools of the land-locked salmon have been sighted. Only four kokanee have reportedly been caught and they were in singles, while trout has been consistently caught. After interviewing 42 fishermen on the ice, most fishermen thought the kokes were holed up in the canyon near the power line crossing.

Last Monday, the ice was between five and seven inches thick, and I decided to make the mile and a half trek up the reservoir to fish the narrow canyon. When I drilled my first holes, I found a school of fish about 10 feet below the ice.

“Kokanee,” I excitedly thought – wrong! Two 15-inch trout was all I got out of the school.

After fishing for a couple of hours, I moved further up the canyon as six fishermen came up on ATVs. They went about a mile further up to fish where they had been successful with kokanee last season. None of us marked any schools of kokanee and when we fished the hot perch areas, we didn’t find any schools of perch — only trout willing to play.

In my unofficial interviews of fishermen, I found a lot of frustration, along with some rumors from experienced kokanee and perch fishermen. The only positive comment was, “the trout fishing is better than it has been for years – if you like trout; at least I get a trout for every can of beer I drink.”

On Tuesday, I called local regional fisheries manager Brett High to ask him about what he thought about nonexistent kokes. He appeared ready for my call because he also was frustrated.

“The kokanee have not done well during this drought,” High said. “In 2020, we planted 262,000 fingerlings that should be the ones we are catching this year. But in June, we only had 29 kokanee per net per night. Most of them were mature spawners that died during spawning this fall. We only saw a handful of the 2020 and the 2022 planters. We believe that there should be a lot of fish, but the lack of water coming into the reservoir and the high temperatures of water that is coming in from Willow Creek, probably did not let them survive.”

The long-term average in the gill nets show about 65 kokanee per net per night and the perch numbers were also down last June. High claims that perch go through a “boom and bust” cycle and that cycle plus the water conditions during the drought has also affected the perch population.

“There are a lot of reasons and a lot of bad luck why the kokanee fishing in Ririe is going to be bad this year. Available stocking stock and drought conditions are just two of them,” High commented. “Ririe kokanee are 98% hatchery raised as there are no good spawning creeks for them to spawn in. If you get a couple of kokanee this year, it will be something to shout about and I am as frustrated about it as you are.”

The Fish and Game are trying hard to figure it out and have several things they are working on that I will write about in a later article.

In the meantime, I will continue fishing there once or twice each week and will enjoy catching the trout. One fisherman got a 20-inch rainbow last week. There are also some tiger trout and a few perch to be caught and I need the exercise pulling my sled up the ice. Who knows, there might be a hidden school of kokanee hiding out that you and/or I might stumble upon. I also understand that Mackay Reservoir is producing a few kokes in the 11-inch range, as well as some very nice rainbows.

Good luck to you cold-footers and be safe, but don’t expect to catch a lot of kokanee from area waters. Have a happy and healthy New Year.