Fishing Forum

anyone have a decent estimate of when the ice typically goes off of Utah Lake?




(Christmas keeps getting closer!! I'm going crazy waiting for it!)




(yes. This is fishing related. Thanks for asking)
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Probably depends on the weather and how good of guesser you are.... Some years warm up early, like last year and others drag on forever staying cold... Usually ice holds through the second week of February before it starts getting questionable and I never trust spring ice, it gets too scary... Once it starts getting grainy with pores opening down through the ice it loses its strength fast and you will step through 18 inches of ice as fast as gravity will carry you... Just my thoughts, but its a crap shoot for how long it will really last... Later J
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Not for awhile with this weather!!!
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[cool][#0000FF]During a mild winter there may be open water by mid February. The last three winters have seen the harbors still iced up on the first of March...with some spots being open enough to launch my float tube around the first week of March.

Right now there is over 12 inches of ice mid-lake. In the absence of a major warm spell...accompanied by gale force winds...I would not predict open water on that lake before mid March.

Just go sit in your boat out in the garage and play with the simulator on your sonar.
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Usually the ice is gone by the first of march. I have seen it break open by the second week in feb and then one good windy day and its gone[cool] I usually have my boat on it by the first of march searching for walleyes.

I have also seen it stay till the second week in march, when Im just itching for some walleye fishing.

My guess this year will be..................................Feb. 27 with any luck and I will be [fishin]

Anybody want to bet I will have my boat on the lake before March 1st?
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[font "Calibri"]I prefer to sit in the boat, dangling a size 2 treble hook baited with friskies and pray for my wife’s cat to walk by. Lots of ways to skin a cat, ya just gotta catch them first. HEHEHEHE[angelic][/font]
[font "Calibri"]Just kidding, I play!!!![][/font]
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TD always steals my thunder!! March 17 is the target date depending on thickness, temp, and WIND !! Wind is the kicker. A good strong wind out of the Southwest is the best thing to clear the lake off. Although Goshen bay gets pretty thick, it also is fairly shallow and will warm up faster than the rest of the lake. Once that Southwest wind starts, Goshen will break up and then the fun begins. It usually is at night, but if there are reports of winds out of the Southwest, get down to one of the harbors to watch the show. With the thickness of ice this year, you can expect to see some pretty big slabs being pushed around and stacking up. AT times, 20, 30, 40 ft sheet of ice will be pushed over the top of the cap until they hit the shore or one of the breakwaters. It will then shoot straight up in the air and stack up. Quite the show, worth going down to see !!!!

[cool][#0000FF]Here's a pic of the shoreline iceberg at Lincoln Beach a couple of years ago. First week of March. And the walleye began crashing the shore two weeks later.

[inline "ICE STACK 3.JPG"]
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Therapist, that actually sounds like fun. Be an interesting video at least.
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[cool][#0000FF]Fun is a relative term. Subject to the location and disposition of the beholder.

I always push the (tubing) envelope and try to get on the water in my float tube as the ice is breaking up. The fishing can be good (or bad). A couple of times I have had to throw a roostertail with my fins to race back into a harbor just ahead of a big sheet of ice being pushed by the wind after it changed direction. Getting caught between the rocks and the ice would be a nasty weight loss program.

Like many things in life, watching sheets of ice crashing into the shoreline is best from a safe distance.
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[quote Darkcloud]... I usually have my boat on it by the first of march searching for walleyes.

I have also seen it stay till the second week in march, when Im just itching for some walleye fishing.
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Why wait! Let's go hunt down those walleye under the ice:

"... target walleye under the ice because I hear they're tasty."

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...59;#786959
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If you are targeting only walleye through the ice ya might get hungry before ya get to tasty[laugh]
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Thanks TubeDud. That's what I was looking for.


got to figure out when/where the maiden voyage will be. It would be easier for the dealer to do it up north. But he just might need to take a trip down here to hit Quail or Sand Hollow!
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[cool][#0000FF]Thass okay "Pahr-Bate". I think the option of hitting Quail or Sand Hollow makes a lot more sense. Besides being warmer the fishing is likely to be better too. That is, unless you have your heart set on getting some Utah Lake "goldens" (carp).

Let me know if you will make it up this way and we can do a meetup. 'Bout time.
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[quote PBH](Christmas keeps getting closer!! I'm going crazy waiting for it!)[/quote]

What's Santa bringing, that didn't fit down the chimney?
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[quote Fishrmn][quote PBH](Christmas keeps getting closer!! I'm going crazy waiting for it!)[/quote]

What's Santa bringing, that didn't fit down the chimney?[/quote]

you just might have to wait until Friday for me to post a picture....


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One good thing about inexperience is you don't know what you can't do, so you try ...

... and surprise everyone.

The walleye are there and just waiting for me to figure out how to catch them.

I should pick from walleye waters those that have structure that have walleye congregate and then hunt along structure. Which waters have that quality the best?
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[quote RonPaulFan][quote Darkcloud]... I usually have my boat on it by the first of march searching for walleyes.

I have also seen it stay till the second week in march, when Im just itching for some walleye fishing.
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Why wait! Let's go hunt down those walleye under the ice:

"... target walleye under the ice because I hear they're tasty."

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...959;#786959[/quote]"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...959;#786959[/quote][/url]

I have caught more walleye out of that lake then any other lake, but I have never caught one through the ice down there, but I also dont fish for them through the ice.

Its not a lake to target them through the ice like other lakes. Its all the same structure everywhere. Mud bottom, mud bottom, mud bottom, did I say mud bottom? The harbors, lincoln beach, and bird island are about the only exceptions. There is a few more but I wont say on here. ( I like my secret spots[])
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I just experienced a lake with no structure as far as I know. Strawberry, January 20. Hole after hole, I lowered my camera to the bottom and everywhere I checked, it was all the same and looked like sand with a few scattered sprouts of something very sparse and short.

I think I might have an ice fishing advantage with my MarCum LX-9, so I want to use it to best advantage by choosing a reservoir that's a good choice for finding choice structure along with the fish attracted to being there or at least include it in the paths they travel.
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If winter keeps playing out like it is than I'd say late March. Ice was completely off the lake (on all of it that I could see anyway) by the second week in March last year. Hoping for a nice warming trend soon. Can't wait to get back out of the water. I'm not as big a fan of the hard deck as I use to be.
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