I plan on fishing Strawberry this Friday and would like to know what options are available for ice fishing? I know that Mudcreek has safe ice (at least for a good portion of it), and certainly many other small bays would also be good to go. How much of Soldier Creek by the highway is safe to fish (my definition of safe is 3" or more of solid ice)? What does the ice look like around The Ladders and the Chicken Creeks? If you know the conditions up there please post up.
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I drove by there last sunday and there were a couple of guys on the ice in that bay by the Solider Creek Dam turn off. The ice only covered about half of the bay though with a big wet crack right down the middle. There was no ice at chicken creek east and only 200-300 yards of ice at chicken creek west. However, ther were guy out on the ice at CCW. I was told the temperature in the morning was right around 0 so it's been cold enough, but just too windy.
Good luck if you decide to go.
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Kent,
I fished over by the marina on tuesday. 2.5 inches of ice, it was a litttle sketchy but fishin was great. Quite a bit of open water on the main lake, but all bays around that area were frozen. If you want more info feel free to pm me.
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So I will be up at the Berry on Friday. Wanted to do strawberry marina or chicken creek east - sounds like it will be the marina from your report. Any advice?
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Be carefull, lots of new ice. dont go far without drilling a hole to check thickness. Fish in 20-25 feet of water. Almost all fish were within 5 ft of bottom. Anything white or pearl colored worked well (tubes or curly tails). Minnows were much better than worms. Good luck.
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Drove by wed the 19th. Still main body is open water. Some ice formed in the bay near the soldier creek dam turn. Some ice formed in sage creek, some ice forming near the ladders and out to the island. Jakes bay had ice forming in about half the bay. Some in the bay ccw. But the big body of water is still open. It was blowing pretty good. Need a few calm nights to get the cap forming. Wont be long.
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Thanks for that last report. Did it look like anyone had been fishing on Jakes bay (CCE)?
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I didnt see anyone there Wed, the ice had formed around the shore and then there was some open water in the middle and then more ice forming out where it narrows before opening up into the main body. If anyone had been out, Ill bet they didnt venture to far from shore, looked scary to me. gives us just a little more time to get the ice fishing gear ready to go.
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