Fast Randy joined me this morning fishing the Juniper end of Ririe, we got our 2 man limit between 7am and 11:45am, The big ones are 16” with a 14” average. Anything pink worked going 1.3 to 1.5 MPH with 43 and 47 the best depth. We lost a number of fish swinging them in and netting them. Got bit on almost every turn. These are the best condition and average size I have seen at Ririe in the 8 years I’ve been fishing it.
Awesome… looks like a great morning! We were out for a couple hours on Saturday before the joy riders came out. 45 to 50 feet down was best, using pink and orange lures behind UV slingblades. Ended up keeping 12 kokes that were 13 to 15 inches and one decent perch. Also got 6 rainbows that went back in.
WOW, good for you guys. I was out yesterday morning from 6 until noon and never got one bite from a kok :(. We tried everything under the sun, including what you guys were using. We must not have held our mouth right, but, we were further up the water in/near the narrows. I also talked to 3 other boats who were having the same luck as we were. Not a fish one :(. We could see a ton of fish on the finder but no takers. They were between 30 and 60 ft. Last time we were out we did well and had fish in the same range. But, not sure what we did wrong yesterday except went back to the same area. I am wondering if with the water dropping and warming up a bit, they have moved closer to the dam?
Those are awesome fish and typical of what I had been seeing, bigger, better, and most awesome
When we were getting ready to leave, 2 kids had the unfortunate luck of their truck running out of diesel right in front of my truck so we couldnt move to get our boat out. No one was around the truck so I was like really, lol. I started honking the horn and pretty soon here comes the 2 kids running up from the water no where near the ramp and the kid tells me he ran out of diesel. Thats a problem. I told him he would have to back it down along the side of the parking area into the law enforcement parking area. He said, but its not a standard transmission so I cant let it coast. I was like really? I said just put it into neutral and youll have to turn really hard with no power steering and trying to turn with the boat, a big ski boat to get it moved. Low and behold, this young bull got it moved but, man was he using everything he had to turn the steering wheel to get the truck moved. Now that’s what I call pre-trip planning. MAKE SURE YOUR VEHICLES HAVE FUEL, lol.
Anyhow, there were a lot of boats on the water yesterday so I hope more ppl had the luck you did. Thats one awesome mess of fish there. I think it looks like the bite actually will be on for a while more so fill those freezers for the winter and smoke a few tasty ones for a nice treat :).
Wash, Rinse and Repeat.
I couldn’t help my self and pulled the boat from our camp at Palisades to fish Ririe again this morning, more of the same as Monday We caught a lot more shakers though. We kept 18 kokes and put as many back, we also got a bonus football rainbow. The thermoklein has moved down a bit since Monday it is 56 degrees at 50’ and 52 degrees at 55’, we got them on standard pink stuff between 1.3-1.7mph from 45-55’ down. Caught most of the large fish near the Juniper launch and most of the shakers at the start of the narrows.
It might just be the color of the fillets matching the color of the fillet board but wow, those almost look like beef, they look red instead of pink. Congrats on another great trip to Ririe Shawn.
Me and Shawn hit it again today. Three of us had our 45 fish by noon or so. They were a little deeper at 60 feet today. But anything pink on all poles were hitting.
I filleted yesterdays fish after they sat on ice all night, the meat is still firm and bright. We caught several chrome 12-14” that will be nice this winter through the ice.