We (me & the misses-sp?) are wanting to go ice fishing on one LAST BLAST after New Years...either to Fish Lake or Flaming George-lol...but I've read about the ice in say...Lost Dog at the George, but cannot find any info about ice at FIsh Lake. I know we could fish FG but I'd almost rather have the solitude of Fish Lake. Oh, and we are taking the motorhome (good or BAD idea?) at either spot...any info will be GREATLY appriciated and THANK YOU in advance.
I'm getting my shoulder(rotator cuff) operated on Jan 13 so I'll be plenty messed up and WISHING for FISHING!!
I was reading the info of Lost Dog about how long the road is off the pavement and rocky and twisting, but I've taken the 'ole motorhome in some pretty HAIRY spots before, so I'm NOT new at it....just kinda cautious!
I've been to Fish Lake before and it "seems" like I remember the lake being right off the side of the road with PLENTY of spots to park a mtrhome right next to the lake? Been a decade or so, and I'm getting up in yrs and can't 'member 'xactly!
THANKS AGAIN...and remember....I'll be reading ALL ABOUT ALL OF YA THIS WINTER so keep the fish stories COMING!! SURGERYSUXXXXXXX!!! LOL
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Hey,
I am also planning on hitting Fish lake in a few weeks. Here is a couple of site that may have info you need. I read that they keep the roads plowed but I do not know on how well. Hope this helps. Let Me know when you are going and how well you do. Thanks.
Brifish.
http://boweryhaven.com/Lodging.htm
http://www.fishlake.com/
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We went up there on Christmas day and we were a little disappointed with the ice. Pretty much the marinas and a little bit on the south end had ice. 2-3 inches. We fished for a couple hours in the shallows--the ice doesn't go out to deep water--and caught several perch. Towards the middle of the afternoon the ice started getting a little iffy and we got off the ice.
The road from the main highway wasn't too bad. My mother-in-law works at UDOT and says that UDOT doesn't have money and will not be plowing the fish lake road--it's being left up to the guys that owns/runs the lodge.
I wish you luck on that operation. In the winter time they keep an area in the middle of the lake by twin creeks plowed that they let you camp, by the rest rooms you can't miss it. As far as ice fishing, I've seen fish lake not freeze over till Jan 15th before. The bottle necks which are the north end and the south end usually freeze first why the other part of the lake is wide open. The north end would be too hard to get to because the road maintainence ends at Bowery Haven. But you could walk down the road about a half a mile and get to the bottle neck ice. The other area is you could park the motor home at lake side and walk south east to the cheese hole. Now the cheese hole is approx. 28 feet deep. The north bottle neck is 55-90 feet deep. I hope this helps. Pikeman GO FISH
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Fishlake totally froze over on Friday night. We fished the north end in 50' of water on Saturday afternoon. We stayed off the new clear ice. We didn't even check the thickness of the clear stuff. The ice was 5" to 6" where we fished. There is something about the clear ice and the clear Fishlake water that freaks me out.
By this weekend the whole lake should be safe for foot traffic if you can handle walking on glass. Check the thickness regularly.
The roads were open to Bowery and there were several places you could pull out to park a motor home.
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[quote FishnMusic] My mother-in-law works at UDOT and says that UDOT doesn't have money and will not be plowing the fish lake road--it's being left up to the guys that owns/runs the lodge.[/quote]
UDOT never has maintained the road to Fish Lake (winter months). In fact, 20 years ago, no one maintained the road and the only access was by snowmobile.
The concessionaire(s) that run the lodge, and rent out the cabins, finally figured out that if they spent the money to maintain the road in the winter that they could easily make that money up in cabin rentals. So, they now maintain the road.
As mentioned, once there is plenty of snow on the ground, you will be limited to a handful of spots to park an RV. (New Year's weekend is always a busy weekend at Fish Lake)
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Udot is like all other state agencies, flat out broke this year, so if that road went without being plowed it would not surprise me at all. They (we) have cut down salt use even on I15, which is considered the highest priority. So for a road like fishlake i would imagine very little money/time would be spent trying to keep it passable.
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HEY HPB THE DOT HAS PLOWED FISH LAKE FOR OVER 20 YEARS [pirate] WHERE HILL YOU BEEN ?PIKEMAN GOFISH
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I could be wrong (it's been known to happen), but I was under the impression that SR-25 to Bowery Haven was maintained in the winter months by the concessionare(s) of Fish Lake lodge and cabin rentals. The road get's plowed, but I didn't think it was done using UDOT's money. Like I said, maybe I'm wrong. It really makes no difference.
Pikeman -- it may have been plowed for over 20 years, Maybe we could settle on 25? It hasn't been that long. There was a time when we had to use snowmachines to get in to Fish Lake over New Year's. Too bad it isn't that way still...
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Glad to hear that the lake is capped and getting thicker!!!
Last winter I was still living in Richfield and went to Fish Lake almost every weekend (and pretty much every time I saw a UDOT plow scraping the roads but the maintenance ended at bowery haven)--our top producer was 2" glow tube jigs with a 1/8 oz. jig head tipped with a meal worm and smothered in berkely trout attractant jelly. We fished about 50-60 yards from shore straight out from the lodge in 70' of water, but most of the fish we caught were in the 15-20' depth range. We were catching mostly splake 16-20" 2-3 pounds--they were excellent table fare.
I hope you guys get to come down and good luck with the fishing!!
Three of us went to otter creek tue. of this week and the fishing was not good. No fish no signs on the finder and not fun. We then headed for fish lake and it was an awsom sight. Clear ice aprox 2 ro 3 inches thick. But slick slick slick, and so clear you had to have pure faith to walk on it. It lookes like it was still water. Not me. It would break your head and shake your faith.
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our top producer was 2" glow tube jigs with a 1/8 oz. jig head tipped with a meal worm and smothered in berkely trout attractant jelly.
Any particular colors work better than others?????
Thanks,
Phats
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We just used white glow--we never tried another color.
Thank you Fishnmusic,
I plan to hit FL shortly
Phatdaddy
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