Make the trip down to Fish Lake this morning. The weather was balmy with no clouds or wind. Arrived a 8:15 and parked near the south boat launch. We made our way onto the ice and headed out to the east. As forewarned, it was extremely slick. Thanks to the BFTer that recommended the clipped off cup-hooks in the boot sole trick. It worked great. My fishing partner, Kevin used the strap-on cleats - I think my cup-hooks worked even better. No banged heads or broken legs to thwart our efforts.
We fished in 40 feet just off the weed line and caught splake and bows almost as fast as we could get the line in the water. I used a pearl tube jig and Kevin an orange tube jig with chartreuse flagella both tipped with meal worm or perch meat. I'm not sure it really mattered, however. When we first got on the ice, I realized I had left the bait in the cooler at the truck. While I went back for bait, Kevin put down a jig that still had a dried up meal worm from last Saturday. He had a nice bow flopping on the ice when I returned.
We fished until 1:00 and then listened to BYU get murdered in the Pit on the way home.
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that sweet! made one trip last year but didn't do so hot. how much ice is there.
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That ice looks uber slick! Sounds like a fun day to be out.
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Great day, me and 4 buddies went to Fish Lake yesterday on the 15th. We got on the ice by about 930 and it was on from there. We went in from the North and drove snomobiles all the way across to the far east side. We fished in a 100 ft down to 50 feet and had the same success. We left the ice around 230 and between the 5 of us we pulled around 160 through the holes. Only 6 went home for dinner though. We only caught 5 Rainbows, about 15 Mac's the biggest being around 25 in and 5lbs. All the rest were Splake real nice, average size was 18 to 20 in. Everything we tried worked as long as you had some Perch meat on the end of you line, the best combo were tube jigs with the perch. Sounds like FL is the hot spot in the state right now. I usually hit FL 15-20 times a year and this is close to the best fishing on the ice I have had there in 15 years.
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Ice was 6-8 inches where we were.
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It was a solid 10 where we were. But talking all day like it was going to explode, probably from the sun hitting the last few days.
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Here is a photo of the Mac, we were hoping to get into some bigger ones but you couldn't get your jig to the bottom. Not a bad problem though! This one was actually caught around 40 ft deep.
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Me and my dad were down there today also. what a beautiful day, went to the east side of the lake and caught splake non stop all day, only had 1 rainbow about 2 lb come unhooked right at the hole, splake were 14 -18 inches, caught one splake about 15 inches that had almost become fish food, it had 2 deep gashes on one side along with what looked like teeth marks from about the dorsal fin to the tail. I had a camera but didn't even think about a pic before it was to late.[crazy] all in all it was a great day!
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Hockey anyone? I haven't seen FL without snow for the last several years. Nothing like sight fishing in your shelter through the clear ice! Great pics!
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I guess I should have come up, We were in Richfield for my daughter and grandson's birthday and I figured I would get in hot water if I dissapeared to go fishing. Maybe next weekend.
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man.....slaughtering fish AND getting to listen to BYU lose. some guys have all the luck
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all this talk about splake non stop all day has got me too excited to put off going down this weekend. Looking for any tips on location only been down there once and not very familiar with the lake any help would be greatly appreciated.
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On Saturday we just fished out from the boat ramp on the south west end - about 40' of water and did great. Problem is, I sent my brother and his family down on Monday - they didn't catch a thing - others around them were not doing well either. There is another post here on the site that said they went on Monday as well. They started on the west - but the bite stopped early. They then trekked across the lake to the east side and it was fish on. If I were going this week, I would probably start on the west side near one of the parking sites and fish out beyond the weed beds. It is just easier because that is the side where the road is. If I caught fish, great. If not I would head on across to the other side. It is a bit of a hike, but hey go where the fish are. If you go, don't forget some cleats or boot spikes. It is way slick. Good Luck
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One more thing - the weather report says a storm is coming in this weekend. Fish Lake is notorious for wind. We happened to pick a great day - with the inversion, it was great at higher altitudes with not much wind. Go prepared to anchor your stuff down. Again, have a great trip and give us a report when you get back.
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The splake will bite all day, you just have to follow them. Sometimes you just happen to be in the right spot and don't have to move all day. That's fishing. I've hit the ice three times at Fish lake so far, the most important thing seems to be line size and depth. If the bottom is less than thirty feet fish with 4-6 lb. test. If you are over deeper water the splake suspend between 10-50' below the ice and 8# test worked fine. Example: I was fishing in 70' of water looking for macs, a fish would come through at 50' so I would reel up, not always but often, I would hook up and it would be a splake. I used this same setup in 23' of water and could watch the splake come in and quickly turn away. I switched poles to 4# test and started to catch them again. A 2.5" tube, pearl, glow, white, etc. tipped with a piece of chub, sucker, perch or carp meat was the ticket. Keeping fresh meat on the hook seemed more important than color, a fish finder is worth it's weight in gold on the ice.
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Here's my late report on our trip to Fish Lake last week end. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and checked in to the cabin we had rented. After that I fished for an hour or so directly in front of the lodge and managed to catch a lot of perch but nothing else. The next morning we fished the south end with limited success. We caught 4 or 5 splake and more perch. That afternoon we tried in front of the lodge again and caught more perch and a few very small perch. Monday we gave it another shot at the south end and found the right spot. Action was steady for splake and one rainbow. The key seemed to be slow jigging and definetly having perch meat on the jig.
As others have mentioned the ice is very slick and cleats are very helpful.
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thanks for your pointers i hope to get into some nice fish. i'm taking out some family from california for their first ice experience. hopefully the weather holds up decent just hope the winds stays some what calm. but really appreciate the help.
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