01-11-2016, 03:12 PM
Getting lots of inquiries on ice conditions, fishing, etc at the Gorge, so hopefully this helps get the word-out.
Currently there's fishable ice down to Pipeline. Average thickness is as follows: 4-5 inches at Anvil, 7-8 inches at Brinegar, and 8-9 inches at Buckboard. Even thicker further uplake. Ice is slowly forming downlake and you currently can only launch boats at Cedar Springs and Mustang Ridge boat launches. As of yesterday both of those ramps were still snow covered. A mix of ice and open water exists downlake from the Pipeline, so the thickness will be highly variable if or when it completely caps over.
Fishing reports have also been variable for burbot, lake trout, and rainbow trout. I had some good lake trout (pups) fishing early near the Confluence but it's recently been slower in that reach of the reservoir. Some better reports have come from further downlake near Buckboard and Brinegar Ferry Crossing (aka Squaw Hollow or Holmes Crossing). Fish main channel depths with jigging spoons or white tube jigs tipped with sucker/chub meat.
Rainbow fishing has been good for sizeable bows up to 18-20 inches on shallow flats and points in 10-20 ft of water using small tubes and jigs tipped with meal worm. You may also catch some small cutthroat (10-14 inches) which were stocked into the reservoir last summer.
Finally burbot fishing, which based on reports has been better in the middle portion of the reservoir. Look for rocky structure (smallmouth habitat) and depths of 10-40 ft. We caught some last week, all of which were pre-spawn. They typically spawn in the latter part of January in the inflows and close to shore. Try fishing shallower water and move if you're not catching fish. As always, good lures are glow-n-the-dark Yamamoto grubs, Radical Glow tubes, and jigging spoons tipped with sucker/chub meat. The Burbot Bash is scheduled for January 22-24th followed by the Buckboard Burbot Classic on January 29-31st. Registration info for those events can be found at [url "http://www.burbotbash.com"]www.burbotbash.com[/url] and [url "http://www.buckboardmarina.com"]www.buckboardmarina.com[/url]
Hope it helps and good luck! Ryno
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Currently there's fishable ice down to Pipeline. Average thickness is as follows: 4-5 inches at Anvil, 7-8 inches at Brinegar, and 8-9 inches at Buckboard. Even thicker further uplake. Ice is slowly forming downlake and you currently can only launch boats at Cedar Springs and Mustang Ridge boat launches. As of yesterday both of those ramps were still snow covered. A mix of ice and open water exists downlake from the Pipeline, so the thickness will be highly variable if or when it completely caps over.
Fishing reports have also been variable for burbot, lake trout, and rainbow trout. I had some good lake trout (pups) fishing early near the Confluence but it's recently been slower in that reach of the reservoir. Some better reports have come from further downlake near Buckboard and Brinegar Ferry Crossing (aka Squaw Hollow or Holmes Crossing). Fish main channel depths with jigging spoons or white tube jigs tipped with sucker/chub meat.
Rainbow fishing has been good for sizeable bows up to 18-20 inches on shallow flats and points in 10-20 ft of water using small tubes and jigs tipped with meal worm. You may also catch some small cutthroat (10-14 inches) which were stocked into the reservoir last summer.
Finally burbot fishing, which based on reports has been better in the middle portion of the reservoir. Look for rocky structure (smallmouth habitat) and depths of 10-40 ft. We caught some last week, all of which were pre-spawn. They typically spawn in the latter part of January in the inflows and close to shore. Try fishing shallower water and move if you're not catching fish. As always, good lures are glow-n-the-dark Yamamoto grubs, Radical Glow tubes, and jigging spoons tipped with sucker/chub meat. The Burbot Bash is scheduled for January 22-24th followed by the Buckboard Burbot Classic on January 29-31st. Registration info for those events can be found at [url "http://www.burbotbash.com"]www.burbotbash.com[/url] and [url "http://www.buckboardmarina.com"]www.buckboardmarina.com[/url]
Hope it helps and good luck! Ryno
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