Echo ice

[theboilermaker]

Did anyone fish Echo today. How was the ice?[]
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[MACMAN]

Talked to a couple guys coming off today. They said 3 1/2- 4” black ice. It was 42 degrees when I was there. I’m going tomorrow, I’ll report first hand then.
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[UThunting]

Fished it today 100 yrds out from boat ramp 6" of ice. Lots of people on there and it was good solid ice.
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[fishgiver]

How was the catching? Anything of size?
Thanks,
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[Bruitus]

My son in-law and I fished on Saturday. We started off with a 16” brown then 6-rainbows all about 13”. People around us were catching fish also. It was nice to be on the ice again.
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[roynut]

Was anyone catching Yellow Perch?
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[Freakyfisherman]

I hit Echo this past Thursday and scored some perch relatively shallow at 20 ft. Some small ones and a few 10 inchers. As long as I can access again this next week, I will be hitting it Wednesday morning after work.
Gabe
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[roynut]

Excellent! Thanks! I'm going to try to get there this week too.
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[catchinon]

Can anybody tell me about fishing depths there? Are the perch and the trout at different depths? Is the best fishing right at the bottom?
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[Bruitus]

We caught a brown at 20’ down in 34 fow where I was marking most the fish. But we caught the six rainbows just under the ice 6’down. We didn’t catch any perch.
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[SkunkedAgain]

I started this early AM but got busy so you probably got your answer by now. If not here’s my stab at it. In general fishing right off the bottom will be your most successful location. You will find the perch there and trout too. If you have a fish finder you will see if the trout are active at mid depths which they usually will be. But most times the perch won’t be cruising off the bottom, unless they are top predators in the pond. At least this is what I typically find everywhere I’ve fished. Good luck. J
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[catchinon]

Thanks everyone. I don't have any sort of electronic fish finder, but would this be a good approach: fish one pole on the bottom and another at variable depths for suspended trout in the water column?
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[T-Boz]

I fished there on saturday along with the rest of the world there were about 100 people there give or take. Anyway was out closer to the dam in about 20 FOW.
Caught a few perch at the bottom and one trout at the bottom. Most of the bite was in the 10' range and was better in the afternoon. Ice was a solid 4" which takes the hand auger 7-10 turns per hole. Rainbows were in the 13-15" range. I've usually had better luck with the perch closer to the ramp but you also have to deal with a bigger crowd there as you can unload alot closer to the ice.
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[Dunn13]

If you're without a fish finder try to get an idea of how deep you are by how many cranks it takes you to get up to the ice from the bottom as long as you know how much line you take up per crank.

Perch are almost always right on the bottom. They were hugging the bottom real tight at Echo on Sunday. I didn't see any come through on my finder more than a foot off the bottom. Drop your jig all the way to the bottom and reel up one crank then jig it a little then hold to see if you get a bite. If that doesn't work, pound the bottom a few times then raise it up again and hold to see if that attracted any perch.

If you're after trout I like to try 7-10' below the ice with a dead stick rod. If you're jigging a rod try a similar depth and then adjust up or down if you're not getting bites. If you go to Echo, or most waters with trout and perch, try to find 20-30 FOW and use these tactics and you shouldn't have much trouble finding both perch and trout.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Yes what you suggested would work great! Mid depth rod will be dead stick and bottom rod should be active or jigged. Seems like I have to tempt the perch to keep them active. It’s amazing how much I’ve started to rely on electronics on the ice. I even move my finder to my static hole to make sure it’s the right height off the bottom. Then I move it back to my active hole. I didn’t used to be this way and I caught plenty of fish but the Marcum has really sucked me in to using it. I really like what it shows me. Later J
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[mule_skinner45]

Fished Echo Tuesday afternoon. Started out from the boat ramp in 40' water about noon. Did not see any fish on the finder and did not have any hits. Leap frogged my two rods moving shallower until I got to 18'. No takers. Did not see anyone around me catching anything. I forgot my wax worms on the kitchen table, but had nightcrawlers and chub meat. Tried a lot of different jigs, etc. tipped with either a worm of small fillet of chub. Fished the bottom and mid levels. Left about 2:00. The ice was 4-5" and seemed solid, but my hole in the deeper water, spooked me a little. As I walked toward it, I noticed the water level rise in the hole with each step I took. I admit, I'm a sissy, I did not fish that hole.
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[Devildog09]

I fished Echo on Monday. Ice was maybe 4' thick. Alot of cracking going on. Was with two friends from California who were ice fishing for the first time that were pretty nervous to say the least. We hammered the rainbows. Caught three that were over 18', the rest were in the 14-17' range. All the rainbows were caught off the bottom on our perch rigs. Caught over 20 rainbows. We were in 25 fow straight off the boat ramp. Saw some guys pulling in perch further out, so we made our way to the deeper water and found the perch. Perch were in 35 fow, right off the bottom and the action was non stop until we left just before dark. Was using a green and white ice fly with a 1/8 oz sinker about 6" above the fly tipped with a perch eyeball. The perch were either tiny 5 inchers or fat 10+ inchers. We caught over 65 perch, kept 25 that were over the 10" mark. The bite was good and fun. I think ill wait until we get 6"+ of ice, didnt love seeing the ice shooting those huge cracks below our feet and around our holes.
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[WingNutt]

Thanks for the update

I'm afraid this warm weather is going to thin that not so thick ice out...[:/]
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[theboilermaker]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like you had a great day.
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