01-29-2022, 05:24 PM
Hue and I fished Smith and Morehouse yesterday. It is one of my favorite places to ice fish, because it is so peaceful and beautiful up there and I have a chance to catch a grayling. Yesterday, didn't disappoint on either.
I first tried using my hand warmer as a fish attractant! It may have worked, but I hope not to ever do that again. We were fortunate to catch 6 grayling (the largest was 12" and the smallest was around 10"), and lots of small rainbows (largest was 16" and the average was ~10").
We saw a strange sight of large sheets of ice up the sides of the shoreline for ~10-15' of vertical elevation. The ice thickness of these slabs was maybe 10" and where we were fishing I measured the ice thickness at 16" thick. Apparently, they dropped the water at least 10' vertically, after the reservoir was frozen.
I appreciate Hue dragging me up there behind his Snowdog. For those considering going up there, it is only accessible by Snowmobile, Snowdog, walking (it is over 2 miles one way) or a 4-wheeler (until it snows again). Don't even think of driving up there in a full-size 4-wheel drive vehicle. At least one guy tried and made it ~1/2 mile and I'm sure spent hours digging out.
![[Image: Broken-ice-1.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/v4Ms29pg/Broken-ice-1.png)
![[Image: Broken-ice-2.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/Yv3w50HX/Broken-ice-2.png)
![[Image: Grayling-2.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/c64t2tGz/Grayling-2.jpg)
I first tried using my hand warmer as a fish attractant! It may have worked, but I hope not to ever do that again. We were fortunate to catch 6 grayling (the largest was 12" and the smallest was around 10"), and lots of small rainbows (largest was 16" and the average was ~10").
We saw a strange sight of large sheets of ice up the sides of the shoreline for ~10-15' of vertical elevation. The ice thickness of these slabs was maybe 10" and where we were fishing I measured the ice thickness at 16" thick. Apparently, they dropped the water at least 10' vertically, after the reservoir was frozen.
I appreciate Hue dragging me up there behind his Snowdog. For those considering going up there, it is only accessible by Snowmobile, Snowdog, walking (it is over 2 miles one way) or a 4-wheeler (until it snows again). Don't even think of driving up there in a full-size 4-wheel drive vehicle. At least one guy tried and made it ~1/2 mile and I'm sure spent hours digging out.