Ririe Reservoir freezes over — almost

Last Friday afternoon, Jan. 23, I received a message containing five photos of ice forming on Ririe Reservoir. They came from Bob Johnstone, manager of the Juniper RV Park near the dam.

By Sunday, there were still some open pockets of water straight out from the boat ramp.

I drove over to the reservoir on Monday, walked along the edge of the ice, drilled some holes, and found the ice was about 2 inches thick. It appeared the thick fog over the weekend had covered the solid ice with about an inch of snow, insulating it so the 6-degree temperatures (Fahrenheit) could not rebuild the ice quickly.

Then the weather changed, slowing the formation of ice further, and some of the open pockets of ice-free water got a little larger.

By Wednesday, the ice along the shoreline was 3 inches thick. Mike Bruton and I fished along the shoreline about 10 to 20 yards out, landing eight nice trout and one large spawned-out female kokanee. Several other fishermen came, and most also fished close to the shore.

A storm rolled in after we left, covering all the ice with snow. With the next 10-day forecast showing lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s — even pushing close to 50 degrees — we may not get enough ice to get out where we usually find the schools of kokanee.

It would not surprise me to see the reservoir ice-free by the middle of February, which would be a bummer for all the ice fishermen. Hopefully, we will at least get enough snow in the mountains to fill the lakes so we can have good kokanee fishing — but that’s not in the near forecast.

The week before the ice appeared on the reservoir, my friend Craig and I went trolling for kokanee. On Jan. 16, we trolled for a couple of hours, catching only one kokanee near the powerline, then ran into ice in the bend above the powerline.

On Monday, Jan. 19, the ice had almost reached the powerline, and we caught three 14-inch kokes from the Big Bend to the powerline area. It appeared that the kokanee were moving down the reservoir a few hundred yards in front of where the ice was forming.

This winter and next summer, the kokanee fishing will likely be slower, as only about 76,000 kokanee were planted in 2024 due to a lack of egg availability. Since then, Idaho Fish and Game has invested a lot of time and money to ensure that does not happen again.

“Last summer, we started a brood stock program so that we could develop a source for kokanee eggs,” said Brett High, head biologist for the Upper Snake Region. “But like everything new, we have made some mistakes — but we have learned some valuable lessons.”

“So, when the opportunity to get some sockeye eggs,” he continued, “we acquired them and stocked over 144,000 in Ririe Reservoir last May.”

Kokanee and sockeye are the same species of salmon. Sockeyes are hatched in freshwater and travel to the ocean only to return to freshwater to breed and die. Kokanee are landlocked sockeye that spend their lives totally in freshwater. The sockeye eggs from females returning from the ocean are now kokanee, as they will spend their life at Ririe Reservoir.

Those 144,000, 3- to 6-inch fish were joined by 194,775 kokanee fry that were stocked last May. Hopefully, they will all survive to provide great fishing for anglers next winter and into the summer of 2027.

We are currently seeing two sizes of kokanee: some 13- to 14-inchers and some smaller ones about 7 inches, which may be some of the sockeye plant.

Please be careful if you fish Ririe this winter. Reports indicate the gate into Blacktail has been opened so fishermen can get there to catch trout and perch while we wait to see what the weather brings.

Hopefully, colder weather will show up so we can have a good shot at harvesting some kokes through the ice. We will watch it closely and let you know what is happening.

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