01-20-2013, 02:11 AM
Well I did it. I ice fished the rockpile for the first time in 3 years (the last time it froze). It was spooky going out in the fog at 9am without any trails, but I had a friend, a spud bar, rope, GPS and all my gear. There was no one out there this year since it only froze over a few days ago, but I took my time and worked my way out. Great fishing was to be had. I was not interested in snagging cisco, but you could have easily limited out if you had a spoon with a treble hook. We started at 45' and worked out to 70' and then back in to 61'. We caught cutthroat at all depths. The best lure was a jigging spoon (Tubedude, 1/2 oz, perch color) tipped with cisco. I also caught fish on charteuse 3/4 oz. double twister tailed jigs and white tube jigs. We fished until 2:30. I ended up icing 9 cutthroat and lost 3 others. The biggest was right at 7lbs, but 3 of the 9 were over 5lbs. All really nice fish today. Another group was catching cisco and whitefish right on tope of the pile. They also caught two huge perch (13"+). Ice was 2" thick and crystal clear and there was just a skiff of snow on it, but it was still slippery. I'll have to post pics later since my friend has them on his camera. It was foggy all day and we had to follow our trail back in. There were about 3-4 other groups of anglers (10 people total). If you're coming up, bring a GPS unit or you might not find your way around in the fog or worse yet, you might step into one of the springs (methane vents) that are here and there around Bear Lake. Not sure if Ideal Beach will let anglers park there or not, but we walked out from there since my friend is a member. Others walked out from the public access just north of Ideal Beach on 250 East Loop Street. I did not check the east side of the lake today, but it was the last area to freeze up. I did see a guy ice fishing it yesterday, but he pushed a boat out on the ice with him. Crazy if you ask me and a LOT of work too. Temps were +3 at the start of the day and +14 when we quit. Supposed to go sub zero tonight. Thats it for now.
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