01-03-2016, 07:43 PM
First off, thank you for the tips. I ended up staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Rock Springs. The room was great, and hot tub/pool was 24hrs/day so that was nice to come back to warm up after being out until the early morning on the ice. The showers at the inn were poor, the only down side.
The first night I didn't get out to the ice until well after sundown. I had taken the 191 South, but it was closed to traffic, so I had to circle back and go down the west side on the 530. Since it was dark and I was new to the area I just looked for whatever signs looked familiar. I ended up at Lost Dog after a bit of a drive. It was a bit foggy, so foggy in fact that I didn't see the giant cliff to the south. There was an ice tent set up just northeast of where I parked, so I figured to set up just beyond them a hundred yards. The first night was SLOW with one fat burbot and a pup mack pulled through. I missed a few other bites, but overall, knew I was in the wrong spot. As I was packing up I did see the big cliff and decided that's where I would be the next night.
The next night, I set up again later than I wanted. But made it over to the cliff and fished in about 60 feet of water. The Marcum had a hard time getting a clear read on the bottom, I assume because of brush and topography down there. But did get sporadic bites and iced a few. Went closer to the cliff, still in deep water and continued to catch some fish sporadically. Most of the fish were small, but a couple nice ones came through too. I could have moved around more and probably done better.
It was a fun experience and I'd love to do it again! They call the burbot the "poor man's lobster." Well the price of the hotel, gas, snacks, nice gear...I could've bought lots of lobster! But I wouldn't have had the experience.
The best lure was a glow sonar blade tipped with sucker meat. Radical Glow 3" tipped with sucker meat caught only 1 or 2. Other spoons, a glow one bought at ACE hardware in Rock Springs and Swedish Pimple glow only caught a couple (both tipped with sucker meat.) Ended up with enough fish to eat a couple different ways, and still bottle some.
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The first night I didn't get out to the ice until well after sundown. I had taken the 191 South, but it was closed to traffic, so I had to circle back and go down the west side on the 530. Since it was dark and I was new to the area I just looked for whatever signs looked familiar. I ended up at Lost Dog after a bit of a drive. It was a bit foggy, so foggy in fact that I didn't see the giant cliff to the south. There was an ice tent set up just northeast of where I parked, so I figured to set up just beyond them a hundred yards. The first night was SLOW with one fat burbot and a pup mack pulled through. I missed a few other bites, but overall, knew I was in the wrong spot. As I was packing up I did see the big cliff and decided that's where I would be the next night.
The next night, I set up again later than I wanted. But made it over to the cliff and fished in about 60 feet of water. The Marcum had a hard time getting a clear read on the bottom, I assume because of brush and topography down there. But did get sporadic bites and iced a few. Went closer to the cliff, still in deep water and continued to catch some fish sporadically. Most of the fish were small, but a couple nice ones came through too. I could have moved around more and probably done better.
It was a fun experience and I'd love to do it again! They call the burbot the "poor man's lobster." Well the price of the hotel, gas, snacks, nice gear...I could've bought lots of lobster! But I wouldn't have had the experience.
The best lure was a glow sonar blade tipped with sucker meat. Radical Glow 3" tipped with sucker meat caught only 1 or 2. Other spoons, a glow one bought at ACE hardware in Rock Springs and Swedish Pimple glow only caught a couple (both tipped with sucker meat.) Ended up with enough fish to eat a couple different ways, and still bottle some.
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