06-20-2006, 08:00 PM
Ririe bass fishing is nothing to get excited about. From what I have heard it had some fantastic bass fishing 20 years ago.
Several years ago a two day tournament had a top weight of only 7lbs. Several anglers didn't even catch a fish large enough to weigh. Last year 3 1/2 pounds won a one day tournament. I've seen the weights at several of the other tournaments and the above weights have been fairly typical at Ririe. Ririe has a fair number of SMB under 10". For some reason few SMB are getting over the 12" mark. Yearly drawdowns, lack of sufficient forage and anglers keeping too many SMB from Ririe (including sub legal sized fish) have been blamed for the lack of larger SMB in Ririe. I think when the reservoir was young it provided better habitat for SMB. I don't think it will ever return to the good old days. I do think special regulations could help Ririe kick out more 12"+ bass.
The Ririe SMB have a short growing season. I could be wrong but I bet it takes a Ririe SMB 5 or 6 years to reach 12".
LMB were planted in Ririe about 10 years ago. I’ve seen guys I'm fishing with catch a few LMB in Ririe in the late 90's. I don't think the population of LMB took hold. I haven't heard of any LMB being caught out of Ririe the past few years. If anyone has caught or knows of LMB being caught in Ririe the last 5 years I would like to hear about it.
Keep in mind I haven't fished Ririe much the last 6 years so others might have better up to date info about Ririe.
When I fished there 10 days ago my Dad caught a small SMB but we didn't try to target the SMB that evening. If we had fished for SMB I don't think we would have had any problem catching at least a few small bass each. 10 days ago the surface temp was 67 degrees at the dam and Blacktail.
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Several years ago a two day tournament had a top weight of only 7lbs. Several anglers didn't even catch a fish large enough to weigh. Last year 3 1/2 pounds won a one day tournament. I've seen the weights at several of the other tournaments and the above weights have been fairly typical at Ririe. Ririe has a fair number of SMB under 10". For some reason few SMB are getting over the 12" mark. Yearly drawdowns, lack of sufficient forage and anglers keeping too many SMB from Ririe (including sub legal sized fish) have been blamed for the lack of larger SMB in Ririe. I think when the reservoir was young it provided better habitat for SMB. I don't think it will ever return to the good old days. I do think special regulations could help Ririe kick out more 12"+ bass.
The Ririe SMB have a short growing season. I could be wrong but I bet it takes a Ririe SMB 5 or 6 years to reach 12".
LMB were planted in Ririe about 10 years ago. I’ve seen guys I'm fishing with catch a few LMB in Ririe in the late 90's. I don't think the population of LMB took hold. I haven't heard of any LMB being caught out of Ririe the past few years. If anyone has caught or knows of LMB being caught in Ririe the last 5 years I would like to hear about it.
Keep in mind I haven't fished Ririe much the last 6 years so others might have better up to date info about Ririe.
When I fished there 10 days ago my Dad caught a small SMB but we didn't try to target the SMB that evening. If we had fished for SMB I don't think we would have had any problem catching at least a few small bass each. 10 days ago the surface temp was 67 degrees at the dam and Blacktail.
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