After reading an earlier post on Oneida I decided to take Jeremy's advice and try out from the campgrounds.
The road up to the dam is mostly clear but there are sections of packed slick snow were the sun doesn't get. Road above the dam is SCARY as it has several inches of snow with only a couple of tire trenches to follow. I would not advise going on this road without 4-wheel drive. There is only enough room for 1 vehicle so if you met somebody head on, then one vehicle would have to back up in those trenches to the nearest turnout.
I parked at the turnout leading down to the campgroud entrance and fished in 12 to 40 feet of water. I saw most of the fish in 15-30 feet.
Ice..... is 12+ inches with 1/2 good ice and 1/2 ice and snow mix. The water comes right to the top of the whole. I saw no sign of stressed ice or ice buckled by fluctuating water. about 2 inches of snow is on top of the ice.
Fish..... I caught a toad 13 inch perch and another about 10 inches. I also caught one of those "cigar" walley that was about 5 inches. I had numerous light bites that I couldn't hook.
After fishing near the campground I walked across the lake and tried in a few spots that I could see other people had fished before. I never had a bite nor saw a fish on the vexilar.
I then came back to the campground side but fished north of the ramp where I could see a bunch of wholes drilled. This is where I caught the 10 inch perch.
I wan't to go back again and try the area near dam out from the boat ramp. Anybody had sucess there?
Dave
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Those perch sound nice. I hope they just keep on growing. It would be great to have some really good perch holes around.
I am curious -- Were you in the "Day Use" area close to the dam, or were you able to get all the way to the "Campground" at about a mile or so further in?
I am amazed that that road is even usable that far. I have never been up there in the winter, but even in the summer it isn't too great.
Thanks for sharing!
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Me and a friend hit Oneida on saturday. We started out a little past the campgroud where I had caught some walleye during the summer. We sat for about and hour and bailed to another spot. Ended up across the lake fishing in about 15 to 20 feet of water. Finally after about 3 hours we landed our first fish. Big fat perch! Landed 4 for the day which seems about par for Oneida in the winter, she's a cold mistress that I think I won't visit till the ice is gone!
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Nice perch! Just curious, were you using a flasher or finder?? Just wondering if you were marking a lot of fish and they weren't taking, or just not many fish around?
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No flasher or finder, I think next year I'm going to get one before I try Oneida again. If I could find them with a flasher Im pretty confident I could get them to bite. The spot we ended up catching them on was good for bites we missed alot of them and lost a few on the reel up.
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I was a mile up the road from the dam at the campground. Once I got started down that road I just had to either keep gowing until I found a large turn around or drive in reverse to get back out. That drive scared the S**t out of me. If I go back again this winter, I won't go beyond the launch right next to the damn.
Forgot to mention. I saw two other trucks the entire day drive on this road. I was the only one fishing on the entire lake.
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best enjoy that not another person on the lake while you can come sumer time it will be over ran with people just like twin lakes does it get cramed packed full of boaters and skiers and tubers and jet skiers.. Not trying to sound lake I am hating but 95 percent of the people there are from utah... Now I don't mind utahn s as I get it there lakes are usually packed full of recreators so they want to get away! But why must they come here to recreate I don't care if they come to camp and fish but do the recreating back home.... And another thing that urks my chain why in the heck is there a utah resident as a camp host in a idaho lake camp ground.... This last summer I had my 2 boyses bithday party up at onieda and the camp host kept coming over and telling me to quite my kids down and that are fire smelt bad.... It was a 5 and a 2 year olds birth day... Trying to tell a 5 and a 2 year old to stop having fun is like telling a fisher he can't caych fish.. And the fire we thrue wraping paper in woo hoo..... But yet her whole crew of campers she had at the host area could be as loud and obnoxious as posible... And they could burn what ever they wanted... I got the cabin fever and I'm pretty aggitated about that still... I sure hope she doesn't get the camp host position again...
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I paid 98 bucks for a non res license, your welcome Idaho.[cool] But in all seriousness rec boaters are usually dicks no matter what state there from that rings true for camp hosts as well. I was at Twin last year and payed my money, found a camp spot and set up shop. We went fishing and came back to the camp host chewing out our wives because we had picked a spot that wasn't right next to everyone else and because my friends half pound poodle was running rampant while the campers next to us were shooting guns. If you want to know what hell is like, come down and fish Newton in the summer. People actually will cut between you and the bank your fishing with thier bad ass jet boats, stereos blasting Tupac full of white kids, it sucks bad.
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I am going to go ahead and re-post what catmaster said because I agree with every single word he said, and I think it needs to be said more than once. So here you go, read up:
I paid 98 bucks for a non res license, your welcome Idaho.[cool] But in all seriousness rec boaters are usually dicks no matter what state there from that rings true for camp hosts as well. I was at Twin last year and payed my money, found a camp spot and set up shop. We went fishing and came back to the camp host chewing out our wives because we had picked a spot that wasn't right next to everyone else and because my friends half pound poodle was running rampant while the campers next to us were shooting guns. If you want to know what hell is like, come down and fish Newton in the summer. People actually will cut between you and the bank your fishing with thier bad ass jet boats, stereos blasting Tupac full of white kids, it sucks bad.
Oh and by the way, my wife and I fork out $500/year to hunt and fish in Idaho. I have a feeling they wouldn't have near the program they do if it weren't for non-residents.
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Thanks for the props Bait, but we do need to remember that it's what idaho does with that money that makes the difference. I can drive 20 miles and have better fishing than close to home. Utah does a pretty good job don't get me wrong, but Idaho has us beat generaly in my oponion, that goes for hunting as well, probably more so than fishing.
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Your cruzin for a bruizin buddy, I paid 100 bucks for my non res license last year, I was there when you got chewed out by the camp host (remember she said she was only doing it cause her husband loved fishing onieda for the bass and walleye). It wasn't that bad recreator wise when we went but it wasn't the heat of summer either.
By the way all others that read this I am this guys brother who happens to live in Utah [cool]
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You guys have it good! It costs me about $1500 a year to live in Idaho and work in Utah, so maybe the out of state license fees aren't to bad. Would I live in Utah to work there? I thought about it once, but then I woke up screaming.[
] As I was getting off the lake to go home tonight, even though I didn't catch any fish, I still felt pretty lucky to live where I do.
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Don't even get me started on Newton. I live about five minutes away from it, yet I almost never fish it because those a holes that are so rampant there.
As for Oneida, I've fished it several times in the summer and I've only seen a few ski boat idiots. I've had days where I don't see a single one. Granted, one is too many, but seriously, I don't think it's that bad.
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Yeah having a couple ski boats on Oneida or 10 on twin is nothing compared to what goes on down here, it is nuts!
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yeah i totaly understand why alot of utah fishers come to idaho to fish as ive been to one place there in utah fishing with recreators and ive scene alot of them on otherplaces... i dont mind the fishermen i welcome them i just dont welcome tham when they come to use our water for everything but fishing............. when they have there own to do the playing on.... but fish on other than that... and your cruzen for the bruzen matt i fish utah and have yet to catch your darn muskie...
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