(12-09-2021, 04:07 AM)fast_randy Wrote: You are very welcome. That's what we do here. So where will you be staying? Access that I know of: If you are coming from the South, before the State marina road way after Island Park you will see a left turn to Rock Creek road. Keep this in mind! So then you come to State marina road. Good access there like I said. Keep going and you come to the Eniss, Montana turn off. Turn here and you come to the State Hatchery and the Wild Rose area. There is parking and access there. But keep going and there is a left turn you need to make to the Staley Springs area, and on to the County marina, and on past that, on the for mentioned Rock Creek road to the South access point and the Cliff area. Or past that turn off to the main road again full circle.
We will be staying at a rental cabin between island park and Henry’s. Thanks a ton, it sounds like there are plenty of options as far as access points. I will be sure to check out a couple of the ones you mentioned. Unless of course the first spot we end up at is productive enough we don’t go anywhere else. We can hope so anyway.
(12-09-2021, 02:47 PM)SkunkedAgain Wrote: Welcome to the site, I know a new pond is intimidating and I may recommend some other areas because I don't like to fish with the crowd... I'm also assuming that the current cold snap will make the ice safe... I like the north half of the lake from Wild Rose (will cost $20 to park) to the county Dock (Frome) ramps, including Pintail (both of the latter are free parking this time of year I think)... Early ice the fish are near shore and fishing shallow (less than 6 feet) isn't a bad thing, but get out of the weeds, actually if you can find a spot on the edge of the weeds is best, the fish use that as a highway to travel through... (I would recommend getting away from the crowds if possible, the fish are really noise sensitive.) (Also good idea not to be near gas augers they scare fish way away from you in shallow water.) By Christmas the fish may be moving out deeper, if so find open areas around weed patches, we fished a few underwater mounds in the middle before and found good fish numbers, and usually no one else gets out that far, so the fish aren't scared to feast... If you have electronics watch for fish, if you don't see any in half an hour move to a new spot... (if you don't have a sonar, then lay on your belly and put a cover over your head and look down the ice hole, in shallow water you can see if fish are there.) I did really well with a Manic Cut'r bug in natural glow color... They look white, but glow green... tipped it with a smashed meal worm and caught 15-16 fish in an hour and a half, so they will definitely take that lure, now you just need to find the fish... Good luck... Jeff
We will definitely get away from people as much as possible. I don’t love fishing in the crowds either. Fishing in 6 FOW seems so shallow. At least compared to where we are usually finding fish. But we will start shallow but out of the weeds and work around until we figure out where they want to be. Yes we have electronics, so that should help find them for sure. I might not catch any more but at least I will know they are there. Thanks