Flaming Gorge Ice

[Cessna150]

Here are photos of the ice at the Confluence and Buckboard. Sorry, I don't know thicknesses.

I included a photo of Rock Springs for good measure. []
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[Brighamfish]

Thank you so much for keeping us updated Cessna! Pretty cool to get a birds eye view of the ice as it changes. Been trying to get over there all season. Think it's finally gonna happen a few days next week.

I've always taken road 11 into the confluence and never driven over to the Firehole Marina side. Anyone know how well they keep the road plowed into the Firehole marina?
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[Cessna150]

The Fire Hole road was pretty clear when I flew over it this evening.
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[Brighamfish]

Thanks for that!

I saw in another thread you wished you'd hit another lake instead of the Gorge last week. Slow fishing?
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[Cessna150]

It was slow. I fished half the day and only caught one 21" lake trout. I really would like to go where I can catch some perch. It would be nice if the ice at Echo would hold up and I could fish it Saturday, but it may have been too warm for good ice there.
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[Brighamfish]

Those days are ruff. Hard to stay excited even at a great lake like the Gorge when the fish just won't cooperate. It always amazes me how fickle fish can be.

For me Echo really shined for Browns and SM Bass this year. We had several days it gave up some really nice fish around the dam. Only caught a couple perch, though they were good sized. Nothing like last years numbers.

Pineview has been the only lake this year that we did really well for perch. Good numbers and size once you find them. We had several days we kept 20+ over 10" and let lots of smaller ones go. Lots of yummy tacos.

I'll try to post how we do at the Gorge. Hopefully I can share some useful info. If not it's going to be a long couple of days []
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[Cessna150]

Thank you for the information.
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[roynut]

I went to the Gorge today and fished near the southern end of the white ice. Fished in 70 feet of water. Fishing was excellent although most of the Macs were small, between 12 and 18 inches. Rainbows were biting very well too and ranged from 12 to 16 inches. Arrived at 10:30am and caught a limit of Rainbows by 2pm and limit of Macs by 3pm.

Ice in the white area was 10.5" where I fished, and around 12" near the end of NF-11. Shore access was good on the white ice, but very bad on the clear ice to the south.

I edited one of your photos to show the particulars of the conditions.

[6x7]

Thanks for the report, however, I would just add that the access towards the south was perfect for me. I fished Brinegar’s from Sunday through yesterday. Ice was clear and about 4”. I don’t know how long it will last with these warm temps, but the ice was good when I left yesterday.

[Cessna150]

Thanks for the information. What were the fish taking? Do you think the ice will hold up through Saturday with current and forecast weather?
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[pinks]

I talked to you yesterday, I have the black lab. I didn't catch any bows, but I caught 4 small macks, had 2 more to the hole and had lots of small hits. The fisherman with the ATV and dog also caught 4 macks (1 about 3#s). Mine were all on sucker meat and tube jigs, didn't seem to matter what color. I was on 12" everywhere I drilled. Best fishing seemed to be in about 70'.
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[Brighamfish]

Sounds like you did better than we did. We only managed a dozen lakers & bows all day in 60 ft of water just north of the FR 11 / confluence point. Day before in the Sage Creek area we only managed two 14" lakers all day.

Ice was great around Sage Creek 12+" other than pressure rigdes & some points. Only thing I would caution people on in the confluence area is the area on the pic you edited that is covered by the plane strut only has about 7 inches of ice on the FR12 side.
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[Cessna150]

Here is a photo of the confluence. There were quite a few people fishing down there. The ice extended down past Buckboard, though I didn't see people fishing on ice much south of the confluence. There were plenty of people shore fishing in the vicinity of Anvil. I saw a couple of boats. A lot of friendly people waved. :-)
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