1st ice trip for me this year today. I thought I could probably get on Echo and find some safe ice, and I did. I fished the southernish end. Balmy -4 upon arrival at 730 am.
Walked out a bit, drilled a hole, 5-6 inches of clear ice, was in 28 ft of water and saw a mark pass through. So I set up camp in that location. I never moved.
Perch were plentiful and willing off the bottom. Better quality than I thought I would find. I also set a jig at about 12 ft down tipped with chub, dead sticking for cruising trout. This worked as well, catching 4 nice bows between 16 and 17.5 inches.
Biggest perch were 11", kept 16 between 9.5 and 11". I was picky and threw back everything after a while under 10". I estimate I released 50+. One of the perch burped up a 3" minnow, probably perch fry. So I switched over to a minnow type jigging lure with no bait and continued to catch them.
Only 2 other anglers came after me. Surprisingly both women, arriving at different times and fishing by themselves. I helped the 1st drill her holes close by, and gave her some chub pieces for bait and she caught 4 nice trout. The other set up about 50 yards away, and was striking out. She was fishing for perch, so invited her over close to where I was at. She moved close and proceeded to nail the perch. She also caught a brown trout, which was pretty cool. Funny how the perch weren't 50 yards away, but we're where I 1st drilled.
Fun day for sure.
![[Image: 20250120-105258.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/3kGTBtKm/20250120-105258.jpg)
Walked out a bit, drilled a hole, 5-6 inches of clear ice, was in 28 ft of water and saw a mark pass through. So I set up camp in that location. I never moved.
Perch were plentiful and willing off the bottom. Better quality than I thought I would find. I also set a jig at about 12 ft down tipped with chub, dead sticking for cruising trout. This worked as well, catching 4 nice bows between 16 and 17.5 inches.
Biggest perch were 11", kept 16 between 9.5 and 11". I was picky and threw back everything after a while under 10". I estimate I released 50+. One of the perch burped up a 3" minnow, probably perch fry. So I switched over to a minnow type jigging lure with no bait and continued to catch them.
Only 2 other anglers came after me. Surprisingly both women, arriving at different times and fishing by themselves. I helped the 1st drill her holes close by, and gave her some chub pieces for bait and she caught 4 nice trout. The other set up about 50 yards away, and was striking out. She was fishing for perch, so invited her over close to where I was at. She moved close and proceeded to nail the perch. She also caught a brown trout, which was pretty cool. Funny how the perch weren't 50 yards away, but we're where I 1st drilled.
Fun day for sure.