01-05-2014, 03:59 AM
[quote RyanCreek]As someone who has ice-fished at Scofield more than any other destination over the last decade, I have gradually come to the 
conclusion that it has become a very poor fishery. Last year was my first time getting skunked there. [/quote]
I have heard a few people say this. The statement does not match what I experienced about 3 weeks ago there, when I caught one gorgeous slot busting cutt and a good number of slot cutts, many of them fat. I had to admit, I was impressed. However, that may be the exception. A few observations and also questions.
1. I used to fish the "old" Scofield too and back in the day, it was smokin hot at early ice and after about a month, it would slow down a lot. The current slow reports seem to correspond to this old pattern, as did the better reports from a few weeks ago. Maybe it isn't so dire after all.
2. I noticed that the tigers I caught were either the recent plants of rather skinny 12 inchers. We all salivate over the pictures of the huge tigers that are occasionally caught, but a few years ago, I used to catch good numbers of fat 14-19 inch tigers. (the monsters of the future) I haven't seen too many reports of tigers in this class being caught. Have you? Maybe the young tigers are struggling to get big enough to switch to a piscivorous diet and if so, soon the old giants will die off and few tigers will remain?
3. It seems that the reports of the chubs being caught are of bigger chubs, meaning that the cutts are getting the littler ones. It seems that the cutts and giant tigers are doing some good.
4. I caught some medium sized bows there and there have been reports of good bows being caught by others. The DWR was going to stop planting bows there due to previous poor returns. Maybe that was premature?
5. How many of you would prefer the DWR to just pull the plug, rotenone Scofield and return the lake to rainbow city that it used to be. They are still considering this, and I used to favor that, until I caught those fat cutts, and now I'm not sure. It seems to me that Scofield will at worst slowly become like Strawberry, but how many folks want that?
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conclusion that it has become a very poor fishery. Last year was my first time getting skunked there. [/quote]I have heard a few people say this. The statement does not match what I experienced about 3 weeks ago there, when I caught one gorgeous slot busting cutt and a good number of slot cutts, many of them fat. I had to admit, I was impressed. However, that may be the exception. A few observations and also questions.
1. I used to fish the "old" Scofield too and back in the day, it was smokin hot at early ice and after about a month, it would slow down a lot. The current slow reports seem to correspond to this old pattern, as did the better reports from a few weeks ago. Maybe it isn't so dire after all.
2. I noticed that the tigers I caught were either the recent plants of rather skinny 12 inchers. We all salivate over the pictures of the huge tigers that are occasionally caught, but a few years ago, I used to catch good numbers of fat 14-19 inch tigers. (the monsters of the future) I haven't seen too many reports of tigers in this class being caught. Have you? Maybe the young tigers are struggling to get big enough to switch to a piscivorous diet and if so, soon the old giants will die off and few tigers will remain?
3. It seems that the reports of the chubs being caught are of bigger chubs, meaning that the cutts are getting the littler ones. It seems that the cutts and giant tigers are doing some good.
4. I caught some medium sized bows there and there have been reports of good bows being caught by others. The DWR was going to stop planting bows there due to previous poor returns. Maybe that was premature?
5. How many of you would prefer the DWR to just pull the plug, rotenone Scofield and return the lake to rainbow city that it used to be. They are still considering this, and I used to favor that, until I caught those fat cutts, and now I'm not sure. It seems to me that Scofield will at worst slowly become like Strawberry, but how many folks want that?
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