Schiess: Ririe Reservoir produces Large Trout

With Henrys Lake opening on May 28, it is not the only reservoir that will be producing large trout as Ririe Reservoir produced a 10 pound rainbow last week.

“I got a big trout,” yelled a smiling Mason Pigott, as nearby fishermen trolled by looking for kokanee.

“Look at this huge fish!” he said as he held it up.

The large rainbow was one of three over eight pounds that have recently been caught since the ice left the long narrow impoundment. The water has been clear near the dam but the south end has been muddy with the runoff created by the melting snow. All three of the large fish have been taken near the dam.

As the water clears, fishermen will be able to move up the reservoir with most of them targeting kokanee, bass and perch. Most of the trout caught the last few years were taken by those looking for the other species but with large rainbows now being caught, more anglers are starting to go after trout.

For years the Idaho Department of Fish and Game stocked the reservoir with Fine-spotted cutthroats and they remained small and skinny. Then four years ago rainbows were reintroduced replacing all other trout plants since 2013 except for this April when 19,755 Lake trout fry were planted in the lake.

In a gill netting study done last fall for walleyes, Yellow perch were the most numerous fish in the lake with very few trout being caught. All of the trout that have been planted have been “catchables” meaning that they are over six inches long and are meant to be caught and harvested in that season. In 2013, 2014 and 2015 over 20,000 rainbows have been stocked. Obviously some of these catchables have survived and are now entering the bag limits of fishermen.

Last year while gillnetting Ririe, Jon Flinders, a regional fishery biologist from the Idaho Falls office suggested those fishermen desiring to catch walleye not to target them as they were few and far between. “Fish for other species of fish and you may luck into one of them,” he said. The same may be true for trout. Trolling for kokanee, casting for bass and fishing for perch on the bottom sometimes produce trout.

“One Saturday two of us trolled for trout for a couple of hours, but were unsuccessful,” Mike Bruton of Rexburg said. “But we have taken several trout most days in past years while trolling for kokanee.”

Will Ririe Reservoir become a destination fishery for the Upper Snake River Valley like Henrys Lake has been? It already has for ice fishing, but not for summer fishing. With its close proximity to Idaho Falls, it is a popular spot for pleasure boating and water skiing during the warmer months of the year. Many summer fishermen try to be on the water early in the morning and finish their trip before the water recreationalists begin to arrive.

It appears that the key for fish growing large is a healthy perch population as the trout, bass and walleye are targeting the small perch as their main food source. Bass, trout and perch recently taken have been full of perch minnows. With the addition of Lake trout, another specie that targets fish for food, hopefully the perch population will be able to keep their numbers up to produce large fish.

With rainbows, Lake trout, perch, walleyes, Small-mouth bass and kokanee inhabiting the lake, this beautiful body of water could become a cash-cow for the State of Idaho as future fishermen flock to the reservoir.