Joatmon, ice_sled, and I fished Huntington this morning. There is plenty of ice (we didn't measure it) in three strata. There's no slush but several inches of powder snow. It was not very difficult to pull our sleds on and off the lake. We fished somewhat close to the dam in 8.5 fow.
Now for the bad news. I iced one 11 1/2" tiger. The other guys were less successful [:/]. I brought a second fish to the hole but lost it there. I had a couple of other bites that I couldn't connect on. All mine were on a green size 10 Ratfinkee tipped with a waxworm. The other guys tried a lot of different things but couldn't get a bite; they marked several fish coming up to look at their presentations then swim away. My bites came mostly near the bottom but one was up at about five feet.
Joatmon and I have about given up on Huntington; in three trips over three years we have caught two fish. We haven't seen anyone else having a lot of success either. Ice_sled said he has never been skunked there before, and you know what a great fisherman he is, so the fishing really is pretty poor right now.
It was a good shake-down run for joatmon and me, if nothing else. His new Eskimo propane auger ran great and it was nice having 10" holes.
I caught my obligatory one fish (how many times have I done that this year?). And it puts me on the contest board with one of my target species, so it wasn't all bad.
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Thanks for the report Craig, too bad the catching was so poor, sounds like you should have drove a little farther and hit Scofield[
]. Did you try any powerbait? Seems like when catching is tough, that stuff will catch fish when nothing else will work.
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A few years ago when I was fishing at Soldier Creek I ran into two older gentlemen, brothers. They were fishing with fly rods that they balanced across their buckets. They were doing very well, as was I, but I went over to see what they were using. They explained that they were using what they call a worm sandwich. First you cut a PowerBait nugget in two. Then on a fairly large baitholder you string on a half a worm followed by the PowerBait disk and then the other half of the worm. Fish it near the bottom and clean up on fairly big cutts and rainbows. Well, I tried it at Huntington yesterday and got nary a sniff. Of course we knew about the hot fishing at Scofield but we wanted to catch some tigers to put on the contest board. As we said, "We'll always have Scofield." And we wanted to try Mammoth before the ice and snow got really deep. You roll the dice and see what you come up with--you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.
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[#0000FF]Huntington (Mammoth) is often a "90/10" lake. 90% of the fish might be in only 10% of the lake. I have fished it a lot both open water and under the ice. And I can remember more than a few trips when it took some searching to find any concentration of fish.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]The other aspect is that finding fish is never a guarantee you can catch them. You also have to find ACTIVE fish. And they may be feeding in one part of the lake and not others.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Smaller tigers in that lake will hit a lot of things. But plain old worms tipping jigs is about as much as you need. Wax worms and meal worms will work too. Never heard of anyone doing much with "bottle baits" there. Although gulp minnows produce well at times. And if you have some REAL minnows, that is what the biggest tigers eat. There are redside shiners in the lake and they are the preferred item on the menu for bigger tigers. However, chubs or other small minnows will usually work too.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Bottom line is the fish in that lake can be finicky. On other days there is a wide open bite and everybody seems to be connecting.
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Well, with water levels so low and the fact that Huntington res. gets over fished,
ly I'm not surprised by your report. I have wondered in the past if closing it yo ice fishing would help relieve some pressure and revive the good days of 4 + pound tigers in there.
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Thanks for the detailed info. I've seen Gulp! minnows work while nobody else is catching. I tried it and had no luck. I guess it is all about how you hold your mouth[
]. Yeah, we stuck to one spot and it sounds like you need to run and gun to find the good spots.
About that 90/10 thing: I bet 90% of the fish are caught by 10% of the anglers, too.
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"About that 90/10 thing: I bet 90% of the fish are caught by 10% of the anglers, too."
[#0000FF]That holds true on many waters and on many trips. But I have experienced it where the guys catching the most and biggest fish are newbies, women or kids. And the "experts" with them catch a lot of aggravation and frustration.[/#0000FF]
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Been there, done that, both sides. Ya just gotta keep on keepin on. Hope springs eternal, or no one would fish for long. If you can think of any other cliches for the situation, add them here [
].
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Thanks for the report. J
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[quote catchinon]Been there, done that, both sides. Ya just gotta keep on keepin on. Hope springs eternal, or no one would fish for long. If you can think of any other cliches for the situation, add them here [:p].[/quote]
[#0000FF]You can not always "find" time to go fishing. So you should make time.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]When you wanna go fishin' it is better to go...and ask for forgiveness later...than to beg for permission.
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[#0000FF]Fishing is always good...even when the catchin' ain't.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]The best time to go fishing is whenever you can.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Never look a gift fish in the mouth...hook 'em there.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are...it never works.[/#0000FF]
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[quote TubeDude] [#0000FF]That holds true on many waters and on many trips. But I have experienced it where the guys catching the most and biggest fish are newbies, women or kids. And the "experts" with them catch a lot of aggravation and frustration.[/#0000FF][/quote]
It's because we decide what the fish would like and try to change their minds. It's like spending 2 hours trying to figure out where your wife wants to eat and then when you show up at the Peruvian-Zuni tapas fondue and German deli restaurant with 115 choices on the menu, she orders a garden salad.
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The other day I was subbing in a high-school class. The class clown was wearing a shirt with this on the back:
Nature or Nurture?
It doesn't really matter
Either way it's your parents' fault
I hope we all take kids fishing, hunting or doing something in the great outdoors. I've seen kids in residential treatment programs because all they would do is play video games constantly. Take a kid fishing! Pass on the values and experiences that can be taught out there. I just took along my son, his future brother-in-law, and a kid in foster placement to help me pack out a downed elk. It was a bonding outing, plus they got to see where their food comes from. And we talked about serious moral issues brought up by them as we drove along. Kinda fun. But dang it, now they want to go ice fishing, too [mad][laugh]. Peace.
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