01-15-2006, 05:22 PM
sjgabby and I headed up to Strawberry on Friday (13th) in the afternoon. We made it to the lake after dark and by the time we got the 4 wheelers unloaded and then reloaded with all of our gear and headed to the lake, it was close to 7-7:30 pm. We wanted to make it to Renegade. We went out across to Haws Point. The crack in the ice there made us a bit nervous, we got off and walked the area and determined it was Ok and went across it with no trouble.
We headed south towards Renegade, with the full moon out, it was very easy to see. The only problem was, we were quite sure where we were. We had heard from other posts, there was another bad spot in the ice down by the island. Well, we figured out we were past it before we realized it. Once past there, we decided to head for the narrows. We stopped the first time at about 8:00 pm and drilled a hole about 100 yards from the shore. We were in 67 feet of water. I caught one cutt right away. The fish were cruising through at 20 ft. It was a little breezy there and we got cold pretty quick.
We knew we wanted to in shallower water, so we decided to move. We decided to go further south on the east side of the bay. I can't tell you exactly where we were, but apparently it must be a very popular climbing hill for snowmobilers as we found out in the morning.
We drilled holes and found out we were in 39 ft of water and fish were cruising through.
The fishing was good enough there, we decided to set up camp.
It wasn't breezy at all in this spot, so the cold was bearable. We both spent hours without coats on.
I caught about 20 through the night, with 4 or 5 being 20"ers. Most of the fish were between 18 to 19 inches.
James caught a few, but not as many as I did. The bite was far slower at night than we were expecting.
Once the sun started coming up, James started catching fish pretty regular, and I couldn't get bit.
Around 9 am, we were both catching fish.
Between the two of us, we caught at least 100 fish and probably close to 120. The biggest was 21" that James caught, the smallest was a 14" that I caught. We didn't catch even one rainbow.
The bite was very agressive. You could watch the fish on the fish finder come up or down to the bait. For the most part, you didn't need a strike indicator, the fish would just smack the bait.
It really didn't get real cold until around 4 am, James looked at his thermometer, and it showed -3.
The wind did pick up in the late morning on Saturday, but not too bad.
Lesson learned on our first night ice fishing trip; [ul] [li]Bring an ice chest for things you don't want to freeze. I got somewhat dehydrated because all my water and sodas froze.[/li] [li]While trying to cook breakfast, James found the eggs froze.[/li] [li]I think it would be best to find the area you want to fish, before the sun goes down. With the full moon, we could see alright, but the snow distorts the surroundings and it is hard to pick out features of the landscape.[/li] [li]Better tent heaters would have made it alittle more pleasant. [/li][/ul]
The ice was 17" thick where we were at.
All in all, it was a good trip. We didn't catch one of those 25'ers we were after.
On the way back to the marina, it was amazing to see the number of people out on the ice.
The parking lot was overfull when we arrived there, some genius had parked his big truck and snowmobile trailer right behind us and of course there was a truck in front also. Thank goodness there was a little gap. We were able to take the trailer off of James's truck and move it out by hand and then work his truck through the gap.
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We headed south towards Renegade, with the full moon out, it was very easy to see. The only problem was, we were quite sure where we were. We had heard from other posts, there was another bad spot in the ice down by the island. Well, we figured out we were past it before we realized it. Once past there, we decided to head for the narrows. We stopped the first time at about 8:00 pm and drilled a hole about 100 yards from the shore. We were in 67 feet of water. I caught one cutt right away. The fish were cruising through at 20 ft. It was a little breezy there and we got cold pretty quick.
We knew we wanted to in shallower water, so we decided to move. We decided to go further south on the east side of the bay. I can't tell you exactly where we were, but apparently it must be a very popular climbing hill for snowmobilers as we found out in the morning.
We drilled holes and found out we were in 39 ft of water and fish were cruising through.
The fishing was good enough there, we decided to set up camp.
It wasn't breezy at all in this spot, so the cold was bearable. We both spent hours without coats on.
I caught about 20 through the night, with 4 or 5 being 20"ers. Most of the fish were between 18 to 19 inches.
James caught a few, but not as many as I did. The bite was far slower at night than we were expecting.
Once the sun started coming up, James started catching fish pretty regular, and I couldn't get bit.
Around 9 am, we were both catching fish.
Between the two of us, we caught at least 100 fish and probably close to 120. The biggest was 21" that James caught, the smallest was a 14" that I caught. We didn't catch even one rainbow.
The bite was very agressive. You could watch the fish on the fish finder come up or down to the bait. For the most part, you didn't need a strike indicator, the fish would just smack the bait.
It really didn't get real cold until around 4 am, James looked at his thermometer, and it showed -3.
The wind did pick up in the late morning on Saturday, but not too bad.
Lesson learned on our first night ice fishing trip; [ul] [li]Bring an ice chest for things you don't want to freeze. I got somewhat dehydrated because all my water and sodas froze.[/li] [li]While trying to cook breakfast, James found the eggs froze.[/li] [li]I think it would be best to find the area you want to fish, before the sun goes down. With the full moon, we could see alright, but the snow distorts the surroundings and it is hard to pick out features of the landscape.[/li] [li]Better tent heaters would have made it alittle more pleasant. [/li][/ul]
The ice was 17" thick where we were at.
All in all, it was a good trip. We didn't catch one of those 25'ers we were after.
On the way back to the marina, it was amazing to see the number of people out on the ice.
The parking lot was overfull when we arrived there, some genius had parked his big truck and snowmobile trailer right behind us and of course there was a truck in front also. Thank goodness there was a little gap. We were able to take the trailer off of James's truck and move it out by hand and then work his truck through the gap.
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