Run Across the Border on the Ice Road

[SkunkedAgain]

Had a couple hours of leave left to use today, so took off for Idaho at 9:10 and since I've only used my Idaho season license like three times this year, felt like I needed to get another day into it so I didn't lose quite as much money on that purchase... won't do that next year...  Day permits are best for me, when I don't get away as often as I'd like to...  

Anyway I hit Twin Lakes and wow if you go there watch out for that road it's solid glaze ice and has a nice slope towards the lake... Truck did okay in 4 WD so I didn't slide into the lake, but I'm not so smart, I had ice cleats in my truck, but wasn't smart enough to put them on.. I didn't fall, but had several close calls just trying to penguin walk across the road... especially after the sun melted the ice a little so it was wet on top of ice...  

Anyway the snow is melted off the lake bed, so I decided against taking my sled down and opted to just hand carry my rod box, drill, jaw jacker, spud bar and rod holder..  Okay it took two trips to get it all there and three to get it all back to the truck, but when I got to the waters edge things got dicey, the ice had pulled away from the shore a couple feet, but I found a spot where I could step across the gap, but then the ice had fractured and started to pull apart leaving 1-2' cracks between ice bergs.  The ice in the cracks was only about an inch or less so it wouldn't hold any weight, so you had to step across the cracks and it really kind of freaked me out to step close to the edge and then step across to the other side... I'm sure glad the ice didn't break as I point loaded it near the edge.. 

Anyway I went out to 10 FOW and punched some holes and found fish right away.... Problem was they weren't hitting, so I noticed the water was pretty clear, so I laid on my belly and looked down the hole to see what was going on... Well the water was as clear as I've ever seen, I could see ten feet down perfectly and found out why they weren't biting.  The fish were about the size of my lures, so we have some dinky perch itus going on, like at Hyrum, all small perch... I did seen one maybe 6"er, but it was having difficulty getting my tiny tungsten jig in it's mouth... But then all of sudden a big ole rain bow swooped in and hammered my jig, I hooked it with my fingers on the line, and as I shifted to the rod, it got off, but I dropped it back down and it hit it again... so i pulled it up to the surface and tried to get it's head up the 6" hole, but I didn't have enough patience and it got off... I figured it was about 20" and deep sides on it, I was sort of bummed to lose that one...  

Went back to work jigging, only this time I forgot the tiny perch and jigged for trout... While later I had another one hammer it... This time I did better and got it landed, it wasn't as big, but I think it hit 16.5" which is my best trout this winter.. Too bad it was in Idaho and didn't count for the contest for me...  

Well then the festivities started rolling, or at least the ice did, man it was cracking like crazy and I guess pushing towards the shore, as I was laying on the ice it felt like an earth quake steady for 5-10 minutes... I've felt cracks go through before, but this was a continual shaking and really kind of made me nervous seems I didn't want to swim for shore. 

When that started settling down, the wind started to blow and for such a pretty day, the wind was really cold... After another hour of no bites I decided to call it a day and shuttled everything off and slow penguined back to the truck for the slick ice road to the dam...  

Anyway, if it snows like it's supposed to, that north side will be very dangerous to get on the ice, those cracks are wide enough to fall through and they won't show up at all, so make sure you take a spud bar and spud very frequently so you don't step in a crack, the water was probably over 5' deep where the cracks were, so it would be a full polar bear plunge if you do it... a plank to get on the ice wouldn't be a bad idea either... It was acting like late spring ice up there today... The bergs were probably 8" thick ice, but the top 3-4" were very grey but it did have a solid clear ice bottom after that... Probably why I didn't go swimming today... Anyway it was fun to catch one today, my luck lately has been very limited catching and mostly skunks... Good luck... J

[meancuznalfy]

Hmm, that's interesting, I was wondering how the ice held up during the warm spell, wind and rain. Hopefully it'll firm up with the weather we have coming.

[SkunkedAgain]

Looks like the wind caused the ice sheet to shift to the south opening up those cracks I mentioned... If I were going again, I'd try to get on the ice in the NW corner, it only had a single crack in that area instead of two or three cracks... Agree with you, hoping the cold will mend the ice injuries soon... Later Jeff

[EyLayo]

One is better than none. I sense you have a good trip in the pipeline

[SkunkedAgain]

One is better than none. I sense you have a good trip in the pipeline

Hey Shawn I wish I did have one planned, it’s my wife’s birthday so not a good time to take off fishing. But my Birthday follows the next week so that’s a great time to go. I need to decide where will be the best odds?  If Strawberry gets safe ice for machines where a lake novice wont fall through, I’d like to get in on that crazy bite while it lasts. How about you?  Any plans you can mention. Did see some friends got on a nice Mac at the gorge. I’d like to do some ice camping there this winter if I get my gear ready and can find a window to do it. 

[2knots]

One is better than none. I sense you have a good trip in the pipeline

Hey Shawn I wish I did have one planned, it’s my wife’s birthday so not a good time to take off fishing. But my Birthday follows the next week so that’s a great time to go. I need to decide where will be the best odds?  If Strawberry gets safe ice for machines where a lake novice wont fall through, I’d like to get in on that crazy bite while it lasts. How about you?  Any plans you can mention. Did see some friends got on a nice Mac at the gorge. I’d like to do some ice camping there this winter if I get my gear ready and can find a window to do it. 

The marina started shuttle service at the Berry last Saturday, so should be good to go

[Muskyon46]

That does sound like quite the sketchy trip Jeff. Wish the fish would've cooperated a bit more.  Sounding like it's going to be a small perch year at many places. Seems like this warm up has been doing all kinds of damage to the ice caps everywhere. Damon posted an update over on iceshanty. The ice is moving south and staying in pretty good shape at FG. Really regretting not going yesterday now. Chris ended up with a pretty nice one too.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Alan that should be a good sign that it’s getting better. J

[2knots]

Thanks Alan that should be a good sign that it’s getting better. J

Reports today are saying that after drilling a hole your standing in 4”s of water so slush below the snow is going to be the norm unless it really gets cold

[SkunkedAgain]

That does sound like quite the sketchy trip Jeff. Wish the fish would've cooperated a bit more.  Sounding like it's going to be a small perch year at many places. Seems like this warm up has been doing all kinds of damage to the ice caps everywhere. Damon posted an update over on iceshanty. The ice is moving south and staying in pretty good shape at FG. Really regretting not going yesterday now. Chris ended up with a pretty nice one too.

Sounds good Matt, not often we get two good ones in the same trip. Hey here is my last monster perch. Afraid it’s a sign of things to come. Later J

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Thanks Alan that should be a good sign that it’s getting better. J

Reports today are saying that after drilling a hole your standing in 4”s of water so slush below the snow is going to be the norm unless it really gets cold

Alan did they get a lot of snow on Strawberry?  Man I hate the slush monster. Later J

[wiperhunter2]

Jeff you have someone asking about this lake on the Idaho board, do you mind replying to them:
https://bigfishtackle.com/forum/showthre...pid1140400

[2knots]

That does sound like quite the sketchy trip Jeff. Wish the fish would've cooperated a bit more.  Sounding like it's going to be a small perch year at many places. Seems like this warm up has been doing all kinds of damage to the ice caps everywhere. Damon posted an update over on iceshanty. The ice is moving south and staying in pretty good shape at FG. Really regretting not going yesterday now. Chris ended up with a pretty nice one too.

Sounds good Matt, not often we get two good ones in the same trip. Hey here is my last monster perch. Afraid it’s a sign of things to come. Later J

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Thanks Alan that should be a good sign that it’s getting better. J

Reports today are saying that after drilling a hole your standing in 4”s of water so slush below the snow is going to be the norm unless it really gets cold

Alan did they get a lot of snow on Strawberry?  Man I hate the slush monster. Later J

Sounds like 18-24”s

[SkunkedAgain]

Jeff you have someone asking about this lake on the Idaho board, do you mind replying to them:
https://bigfishtackle.com/forum/showthre...pid1140400

Hey Curt I put a reply on there, I hope he sees it before he falls through one of those cracks.. Thanks for the heads up so i could pass on a warning... Later Jeff

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Alan did they get a lot of snow on Strawberry?  Man I hate the slush monster. Later J

Sounds like 18-24”s

Oh boy here comes the fun part of winter ice fishing... Bring on the cold to set up the slush... Later Jeff

[2knots]

Jeff you have someone asking about this lake on the Idaho board, do you mind replying to them:
https://bigfishtackle.com/forum/showthre...pid1140400

Hey Curt I put a reply on there, I hope he sees it before he falls through one of those cracks.. Thanks for the heads up so i could pass on a warning... Later Jeff

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Alan did they get a lot of snow on Strawberry?  Man I hate the slush monster. Later J

Sounds like 18-24”s

Oh boy here comes the fun part of winter ice fishing... Bring on the cold to set up the slush... Later

And here you go
“The bite was slow today 6 people caught 4, lost 3. The slush is real definitely plan on standing in water. Walking is absolutely terrible, if you’ve got a snowmobile you’ll be okay but even then I heard of guys getting stuck.”

[Muskyon46]

Really hoping we get we get an arctic blast or it's going to be a wyoming type of year for me