02-15-2012, 02:53 AM
Hey kentd71,
Thought I might share an idea or two to help you increase your odds at finding fish on most reservoirs in the area. I have ice fished many of the reservoirs here in southeast Idaho over the years. We developed a technique which really ups our chances of pulling fish through the ice. First we drill a series of holes through the ice. First hole is about ten to 15 feet off shore, the second is straight out from the first hole going in a straight line, the 3rd hole another 15 feet out and etc. until we have drilled about five or six holes in a straight line. Before cleaning out the ice slush in any of the holes, we drop our depth (fish) finder transducer into the hole and check for activity of fish swimming through each hole. After about three minutes of watching the screen per hole we move to the next hole until we have checked all five or six. We then mark the holes with the most fish moving through them. Almost always two or three holes are the most active out of five or six. We spend little time messing around with the "dead" ice holes. This has really increased our catching rate concentrating on the active ice holes. Also we have found most fish of any species is usually just off the lake bottom or in the 8 foot to 12 foot down zone from the top of the ice. One other thing is we have found most fish are from 5 feet off shore to 30 feet out. An exception to this rule has been kokanee salmon at Mackay Reservoir are usually a hundred to 130 yards off from shore. Lake trout would fit more in this senario too at Palasaides Res. Occasionally trout are found farther out on American Falls Res. but the majority of fish are closer to shore perhaps grubbing around shore plants for food and shoreline rocks hunting for minnows and other food. Hope this helps.
DeeCee
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Thought I might share an idea or two to help you increase your odds at finding fish on most reservoirs in the area. I have ice fished many of the reservoirs here in southeast Idaho over the years. We developed a technique which really ups our chances of pulling fish through the ice. First we drill a series of holes through the ice. First hole is about ten to 15 feet off shore, the second is straight out from the first hole going in a straight line, the 3rd hole another 15 feet out and etc. until we have drilled about five or six holes in a straight line. Before cleaning out the ice slush in any of the holes, we drop our depth (fish) finder transducer into the hole and check for activity of fish swimming through each hole. After about three minutes of watching the screen per hole we move to the next hole until we have checked all five or six. We then mark the holes with the most fish moving through them. Almost always two or three holes are the most active out of five or six. We spend little time messing around with the "dead" ice holes. This has really increased our catching rate concentrating on the active ice holes. Also we have found most fish of any species is usually just off the lake bottom or in the 8 foot to 12 foot down zone from the top of the ice. One other thing is we have found most fish are from 5 feet off shore to 30 feet out. An exception to this rule has been kokanee salmon at Mackay Reservoir are usually a hundred to 130 yards off from shore. Lake trout would fit more in this senario too at Palasaides Res. Occasionally trout are found farther out on American Falls Res. but the majority of fish are closer to shore perhaps grubbing around shore plants for food and shoreline rocks hunting for minnows and other food. Hope this helps.
DeeCee
[signature]