Tackle Tom's said that Cascade has ice on both ends (north and south) but is still open in the middle. He was not sure if there was enough ice in the coves to fish or not. He thought that even though there is about 12 inches of snow on the road to Horsethief, that it will passable for a few more days. Icehogger84 fished last Saturday and did pretty well, so I'm gonna head up there in the morning. I will have at least one extra seat in my truck if anyone is interested in coming. Send me a PM with your phone number.
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Would really appreciate a follow up tonight! thinking of heading in tomorrow or sunday
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Looks like Icehogger84 and I are heading up in the morning. I'll try to get a report up before it gets too late.
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Don't believe everything you read, or hear. Had some of my best days on ice that wasn't fishable.[
]. Care must be taken of course.
Like I think I said earlier. Icehogger84 was on Horsethief last Saturday. I highly doubt ice thickness will be any worse. If it is, then we'll be up for a beautiful drive.
One thing you have to remember. If the statesman prints that it is fishable and then you go through and die, they are wide open for a law suit, so they error strongly on the the side of caution in their print.
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The statesman said last week that there wasn't any ice on Horsethief. I found fishable ice out to about 20' from the bank. I just drilled test holes until I knew the edge of the fishable ice.
I wouldn't suggest anyone fish without extreme caution as I was on 2 1/2" to 3" of solid blue ice. I just hope it's still there.
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Icehogger84 and I want to Horsethief today. Here is my report.
Horsethief: The road to Horsethief was very passable in a good 4WD. I didn't even need 4WD until I tried to park. Then used it again to un-park and turned it off again. Snow was about 8-10 inches deep if you got out of the packed track. I'd recommend chains if you are heading in there. You likely won't need them, but I'd take some for justin.[
] Justin Case.
The ice near the shore was about 2" of slushy ice, 1 inch of water/slush, and another 3" or so of good blue ice. That held pretty true until you got about 100-150 feet from shore. Then the ice started thinning. I didn't venture any further than that, so if you go, be cautious, please. Don't want to read about someone going through. We started about 20 minutes before sun-up, but didn't get any bites until about 10 minutes after light. The bites were very sporadic. We'd get a whole bunch, then nothing for quite a few minutes. I must have had about 50 or more bites in about 5 hours. Only iced 4. Icehogger had about an equal number of bites and iced around 15, I think. I lost count after a while. The size ranged from about 8" to nearly 16". We left about 12 noon.
Cascade: I stopped by Cascade on my way home. The lake appeared to be mostly iced up, but there was some open water near the boat ramp closest to town, and also near the dam. I fished at the boat dock on the east side of crown point toward the dam. Ice was about like Horethief, but about 1/3 less blue ice under the slush ice. I seemed pretty scary, so I decided not to venture out on it. I caught 1 trout in the first minute. Then never got another bite. After about 1/2 and hour, I left. Before leaving, I ventured from the cove where the boat dock is more toward the main body of the lake. I walked about 10 feet from shore and drilled 1 hole. The ice was about 2.5 inches counting the slush and everything. I could feel it noticably sagging under my feet so I got of it gently and quickly and came home. I'd say about another week or so of cold temps and most of the lake will be safe for walking.
Here are some pictures of our venture.
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Nice report Bug, thanks. Be careful out there, the part about the ice sagging beneath you freaks me out a little.
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Sounds like a fun trip. Hopefully Cascade will be safe soon and you can go after the new state record perch.[cool]
Windriver
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Judging from the background Horsetheif looks like a very scenic place to fish! Thanks for the report!
OvidCreek
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Here is the video I made for Icehogger84 from our Horsethief trip. Made it for his jiggertotter web site. It might show a bit more of the surroundings, but is pretty much a stationary camera, so you can't see a lot of the scenery. You'll see a lot of JT's in action, though.
Video: [url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs2SWucQr4Y"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs2SWucQr4Y[/url]
Web site: [url "http://www.jiggertotter.webs.com"]www.jiggertotter.webs.com[/url]
[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs2SWucQr4Y"][/url]
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Lordy! My wife and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!! We are pretty sure that those trout were having fun with you, making you run back and forth, etc. Looked like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing. Mike
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Looks like the fish were biting everywhere you weren't!
![[Image: happy.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif)
Guess we've all had days like that!
![[Image: bobwink.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/bobwink.gif)
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Great video! Have to get some of those things.
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Now I'm offended! That was intended as a serious video!
Just kidding on the offended part.[
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those are awesome i will be getting some.
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That would be great material for a "Far Side" cartoon. I can just see the fish down there yakking back and forth. "Hey! He's over by #1 now, pull #3!" [laugh][laugh][laugh][laugh] [angelic]
Kidding aside the tip-ups seem to work well, and to be really sensitive. Do they auto-jig for you in a wind?
Looked like fun and great fishing. Thanks for sharing!!
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Yes, in a breeze they will jig themselves.
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You think it's funny like that, try playing back at 2 or 4X.
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Those holders are awesome. One thing I'm curious about is whether a big fish could easily take the rod down the hole. Is that at all an issue with them? Also, do they work best for a certain rod length, it looked like all of your rods were all the same length. Thanks for posting the video, it was very entertaining.
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