Kokanee are trying to spawn in Ririe

“We saw hundreds of red Kokanee trying to spawn in the Ririe Reservoir up near the Narrows,” explained an excited fisherman as they came off the water last Saturday. “We tried to catch them, but they would not hit anything that we tried, but we had great luck with trout, perch and bass around the kokes.”

As they were pulling their boat out of the water, I hooked a bright red male kokanee near the dock at the Juniper Boat Ramp.

It wiggled off before I could land it, but the next one was not so lucky; I landed it.

I could barely see the ghostly shadows of the green-colored females as they would swim excitedly in the shallows with an occasional bright red male with them.

The females would ignore my offering while the males would attack the lure, probably protecting the redds that they were trying to fertilize.

I hooked nine males but landed only five of them in the hour that I fished late last Saturday afternoon.

Last Tuesday, a friend of mine, Craig, and I caught 19 bright silver 10-to-12-inch kokes and two Yellow perch while trolling up in the canyon, but did not catch any spawning kokanee.

Two weeks prior, we had caught seven silver salmon and five pink-colored males trolling in the same area.

This summer and fall, we have experienced the best kokanee fishing on Ririe Reservoir in many years.

Craig and I will try to get out a couple more times before it gets too cold and the boat will have to be winterized.

In the meantime, we hope to catch more delicious salmon to eat.

Over the last six years, kokanee fishing has been up and down with the 2022 and 2023 seasons the worst when we did not catch any kokanee.

The kokanee we caught this summer was from the 2023 stocked fish while the fish we were catching last week were from the 2024 stocking.

In 2023, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game stocked 254,428 fry from zero to three inches long.

Most of those were 14 to 17 inches long before the attempted to spawn during October.

Just after Labor Day, those fish quit eating as their bodies started absorbing their scales and started turning pink.

Most of those fish we caught were males as they were becoming aggressive, preparing to protect the redds where the females drop their eggs.

We may find fishing this winter and next summer slower than this year as only 76,032 kokanee were stocked in 2024.

There are two things which may allow good fishing to continue.

The kokes stocked that year were not fry, but fingerlings from three to six inches long insuring a better survival rate.

The second thing is that those salmon are the Early spawning species that survive better than the Late spawners.

With the cold weather showing up, we will troll for about two more weeks until the boat will be winterized and we will wait for ice fishing to pursue the kokes.

By the time we put the boat away, Henrys Lake and Island Park Reservoir should have ice forming enough to satisfy our ice fishing desires.

Get those bird feeders out for the winter feeding.

I am hoping for some Blue Jays to show up and my feeders will be full and waiting for them to encourage them to make a home for the winter.