12-17-2011, 04:44 AM
Arrived : 8:00 am
Left : 1:00 pm
Temp : -1 to +25
Weather : Clear blue skies! No inversion!
Location : West Side
Ice : 5" solid
Depth : 15-19 ft
Tackle : small white jigheads
Bait : Nightcrawlers
Tiger trout : 1
Cutts : 20+
Chubs : 34
My son and I decided to make the trip and see how things are this year. It's been a long time since the water has been this high. Started fishing in 19 feet of water and immediately started catching chubs. It wasn't long before we each had six chubs on the ice. We were actually targeting chubs. Great bait for burbot! Then we started to catch the occasional cutthroat. All the cutts I put back last year have put on some length and weight! It was good to see the size improving. Most bellies looked plump and hopefully full of chubs. I used small jig heads to make hooking chubs easier. It was encouraging to see that there were very few small chubs. Another indication that the cutts and tigers are doing their jobs. The one tiger we caught went 16 inches and was really chunky.
Mid-day there was a real nice crack that rocked our end of the lake! Great fun...had my son up off his bucket and ready to run[
] The ice raised up and then lowered 3 or 4 inches. Made some pretty good noise! Kind of like an earthquake!
With the high water, the parking area on the east side across from the island where you can drive down to the ice is almost nonexistent You can only fit 2 maybe 3 vehicles down by the ice. Looks like it's parking by the highway and walk down in this year.
There were 2-3 groups fishing the dam arm, two guys just north of the island, and three groups on the west side.
Fun day on the ice. Plenty of chubs, so if you are going after burbot, make a trip up and catch some chubs for bait. It will reduce the chub problem and then you can work on the burbot problem!
Sorry this got so long. Feel free to quit reading now[:p]
[signature]
Left : 1:00 pm
Temp : -1 to +25
Weather : Clear blue skies! No inversion!
Location : West Side
Ice : 5" solid
Depth : 15-19 ft
Tackle : small white jigheads
Bait : Nightcrawlers
Tiger trout : 1
Cutts : 20+
Chubs : 34
My son and I decided to make the trip and see how things are this year. It's been a long time since the water has been this high. Started fishing in 19 feet of water and immediately started catching chubs. It wasn't long before we each had six chubs on the ice. We were actually targeting chubs. Great bait for burbot! Then we started to catch the occasional cutthroat. All the cutts I put back last year have put on some length and weight! It was good to see the size improving. Most bellies looked plump and hopefully full of chubs. I used small jig heads to make hooking chubs easier. It was encouraging to see that there were very few small chubs. Another indication that the cutts and tigers are doing their jobs. The one tiger we caught went 16 inches and was really chunky.
Mid-day there was a real nice crack that rocked our end of the lake! Great fun...had my son up off his bucket and ready to run[
] The ice raised up and then lowered 3 or 4 inches. Made some pretty good noise! Kind of like an earthquake! With the high water, the parking area on the east side across from the island where you can drive down to the ice is almost nonexistent You can only fit 2 maybe 3 vehicles down by the ice. Looks like it's parking by the highway and walk down in this year.
There were 2-3 groups fishing the dam arm, two guys just north of the island, and three groups on the west side.
Fun day on the ice. Plenty of chubs, so if you are going after burbot, make a trip up and catch some chubs for bait. It will reduce the chub problem and then you can work on the burbot problem!
Sorry this got so long. Feel free to quit reading now[:p]
[signature]
to come back to the smog.