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got up to the lake around 10:30 and on the ice and fishing around 11:00.. took my Chariot out to the north end.. had a fish on the first drop and it only got better after that.. i thought it was fast fishing when i first got there.. was catching a fish every 10 to 15 min's.. then around 1:30 it just went off i could not even get my bait to the bottom before getting wacked by a fish.. that went on tell it was time to go.. left the lake at 3:20 home by 4:00.. the sun go's down there at 3:30 and i know i dont want to be down in that valley after the sun is gone.. it was a T-shirt day up there today temp was 6* when i got there up to 27 when i left.. but no wind at all..
the BDD of choice today was a 3" rainbow tube tipped with minnow.. used 2 bag's of minnows today and must have cought around 40 to 50 fish.. i used alot of other BDD'S today with all doing good the rainbow tube was doing best tho..
what a sweet day to get out on the ice!!
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Sounds like a great day Ron! Did you sneak you kids up with you? Or were they stuck in school? Those e-lake cutts are pretty and plentiful!
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You had that lake to yourself, that's pretty sweet.
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That sounds like a blast. I wish I could make it down there. I’m stuck in the office this week getting year end paper work done. However next week my kids will be off track and they’ll want to go fishing for something to do.
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yeah did not see anyone but my self up there all day.. the fishing at E-lake is as good as i have seen it this winter.. did not need a strick indecater at all today the fish would almost pull the pole out of your hands if you were not watching .. it was fun to see the fish on the finder come shooting up off the bottm and hit my jig like a mac truck.. it surprised more the once that they could hit that hard and i still missed them..lol
no big fish today that's not a surprise at E-lake but when you can fish all day and see fish on the finder all day and be hitting them makes it a lot of fun [sly]
the fish i cought were in the 14" to 18" class and they put up a great fight for there size..
there was some open water to the north of me (see looking north pic) where the mine is pumping the water back in the lake but the ice was 14" 6" slush then another 10" of ice.. thank god for power augers!![angelic] BTW my auger just about did not make it today.. lol keep flying out of the jet sled (4 times)on the way in.. i got to find a way to tie that damn thing down to the snowmobile some how..
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no where my wife works at the school she would get a little upset if i tryed to snach one for a snow (ice fisheng day) lol.
but it's not like they would not have wanted to go..
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great report ff
looks like you needed some sun screen
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Ron, how long is the hike to the ice from the north? Enjoy fishing Electric Lake through the ice, but that walk across and back up that dam is tough on foot through all of that deep snow.
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Where did you park your trailer and unload the snowmobile? I always came from the north, but it looks a little wet up that way.
Rut
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Man I have had the E-lake itch, but I have not made it up yet. I guess it is time to strap on the snowshoes and find some fishes. Could you tell of other have been fishing the lake, i am sure that few if any have been on it and I am sure the fish are hungry.
Thanks for the report and if possible update us on the dam conditon and dam parking.
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hey kent the walk from the north end would be real bad i think.. the snow is deep up there right now.. there is a crust on it but still about 3 feet deep and drifts up to 5 feet deep in places.. with some snowshoes or ski's you could get in that way.. but with out you would have a hard time i think.. the crust would not suport me and when you go through it there is about 1 foot of powder snow under it.. makes for a hard walk. that is one of the biggest reasions i got my new (used) chariot this year.. so i could get into the north end of E-lake.. my old one was not to good at going in deep poweder and that valley can get some deep powder snow and with steep banks makes it realy hard to get in and out of..
the snow on the ice was only about 3" deep so once on the ice smoth sailing from there.. and the crust on the snow would surport the snowmobile so yesterday i could have gone anywhere i wanted to go up there..
still the best bet for a walk in would be acrossed the dam and down..
hey Ruttcrazed
i parked in the no parking snowplow turn around area on the north end..lol.. but my buddy that runs the plow up there pushed a area off to the side for me to park in.. lol so it's all good.
from there it's about 1 mile to the ice so on a snowmobile not to bad of a ride and there is a trial that other snowmobiles have made going into the valley.. just make sure that if you go up with a snowmobile do not drop down on the ice tell you get past the open water where the mine is pumping the water back in.. it go's all the way across the lake and is about 75 feet wide.. that would make for a very bad day going for a swim in that lake this time of year.. lol
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Hey Fuzzy,
My cousin and I ended up at Electric Lake on Saturday after watching the Tigers at Huntington not eat our bait all morning...
We fished by the dam and you are right, fast fishing! Our biggest was 16 1/2". Those Yellowstone Cuts are pretty. I wish we would have started there, as we only ended up with one Tiger at Huntington all morning, 16 1/4 inches.
P.S. We won't be going back to fish the dam at Electric Lake. Going down and up the dam was miserable. The snow drifts are 5 feet plus. I got stuck in one and would still be there if my cousin wasn't there. We almost left our equipment to retrieve it in the spring. If I have to work that hard to fish, I won't fish! Lets just say it was the best cardio-vascular workout I've had in a LONG time. Our clothes were soaked when we got back to the truck, with sweat!!! From the truck to fishing was less than a 20 minute hike but getting back to the truck (You have to hike UP the dam) was more like 45 minutes and was not pleasant. There are lots easier places to fish!!! (No snowmobile here...)
Randy
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I used to N.ot have E.nough T.ime O.ff to go fishing. Then I retired. Now I have less time than I had before. Sheesh.
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Did they have the little parking area at the dam plowed? When you walked down to the dam to you go strait down or did you cross the dam and go down the graded access point to the water. How far is the lake from the top of the dam?
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There was room for 2 vehicles at the little parking area at the dam. We walked across the dam, then straight down the "corner" instead of using the graded hill. We tried the graded hill and that is where I sunk into the snowdrift. Not possible. The snow is deep going down the rocks of the dam in the corner also, but at least it wasn't as far of a hike...just steeper. The ice is down quite a bit from the top of the dam..I"m guessing here but maybe 75 feet down from the top of the dam or so...
Snowshoes wouldn't have really helped. The snow was too fluffy and deep.
As far as conditions on the ice, a 12 to 16 inch frozen crust with about 8 to 10 more inches of solid solid ice under it. Easy to walk on and fish with no watery slush at all. Fishing is good...getting to it and back off is bad!!!
Good luck!
A helicopter would work out nicely...
Randy
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I used to N.ot have E.nough T.ime O.ff to go fishing. Then I retired. Now I have less time than I had before. Sheesh.
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I tried the corner short cut once and with the rocks under the snow you would fall through then get your foot stuck under a rock it sucks. My opinion the easiest way to do e-lake is to hike across with snow shoes. Get to the corner area and with a long rope lower your sleds to the ice then leave your rope stretched out so that it stays on the top then go down the grade and to your sled. Untie the sled and leave the rope so it goes from top to bottom. When you are done tie the sled on hike to the top of the grade and pull it back up. It is alot faster and easier then tring to get a sled back up when you are having a hard time getting your selve back up.
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[size 1]"P.S. We won't be going back to fish the dam at Electric Lake. Going down and up the dam was miserable. The snow drifts are 5 feet plus. I got stuck in one and would still be there if my cousin wasn't there. We almost left our equipment to retrieve it in the spring."[/size]
Randy, welcome to Electric Lake fishing at its finest! Thanks for plowing a trail for the rest of us.
I foolishly drug my ice shack down that corner of the dam (getting down was an adventure but we got down to the ice in no time at all) and then when we came up we headed up that steep road. About 1/2 way up some guys on snowmobiles came along (they were from UP&L and they were surveying the hole in the bottom of the reservoir that empties into the mine) and they pulled us up the hill and across the dam. Only problem with that was I was holding onto the rope that was attached to my shack and I thought I was going to get my arm pulled off! Yelled at the driver and we tied the rope to the snowmobile.
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Randy, welcome to Lost Creek fishing at its finest! Thanks for plowing a trail for the rest of us.
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i know lost Creek can be a bugger.. lol
but this is the E-lake fishing club for dummy's that have gone down the dam with 3 feet of snow on it.. lol
i know just a brain fart.. had to give you a ribbing tho.. lol
there again i'm in that club and on most years i'm the first dummy down [unsure].. good workout if your looking for one tho.. lol
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Nice looking fish Ron, thanks for the report and update on the conditions.
30 inches to drill threw to get to the water? Wow, that is crazy, did you bury the auger to the head going that deep? It has been years since I've been to E lake and I've never fished it in the winter but from your pictures, I'm amazed at how low the lake is. Is the lower water level normal for this time of the year?
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well the water level is down a lot from where it should be..
there is a mine shaft that run's under the lake from the skyline mine.. about 5 or 6 years ago something happend and the lake started draining into the mine.. it is draining at about 75 cfm.. the mine is pumping it back in at about 60 cfm.. so the pumps can not keep up with the water comeing in so the lake level drops about 1" to 2" a day..
the good thing about this year and last year is that the snow level's are great for a good water year again.. last year the lake came up about 60 feet during the runoff time. i know 60 feet sounds like a lot but before that the lake was down 134 feet from spilway.. so the 60 feet helped a lot but with the hole still in the bottom of the lake.. the water is still comeing out faster than they can pump it back in.. so it droped 20 feet from the runoff time to ice up.. so it is up about 40 feet from this time last year..
no did not bury the head of the auger in the ice but got about a foot from the head.. i'm not sure how deep the bottom layer of ice is.. i do know the top layer is 14" tho..
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