12-14-2003, 02:41 AM
Went to the Berry this a.m. and fished Mud Creek. 5-6 inches of ice for the first few hundred yards. 25-30 people there. Fished in 16 feet of water. I caught (4) 17 - 19 inch cuts. My son caught (1) 19 inch cut and a real fat 17 inch bow, which he kept (the bow that is) Others were catching fish also. It was pretty slow, so we left at 9:30 and drove to Current Creek Res. The road is packed until you get to the last 4 miles from the dam. 4 wheel drive is needed to finish the trip. I drove most of the way in 2 wheel drive. 1/2 of the lake is capped. 3 inches of ice at the dam. Not too strong. 3 others were fishing so we decided to try it. The ice cracks and pops when you go out. We fished 20 yards from the dam in 22 feet of water. The first group of 3 fishermen went home at 1:00 or there abouts with 55 fish being caught. We stayed till 2:30 after fishing there for 3 hours. I caught 35 and my son caught 8. Thats the Vexlar for you. Most were 10 inches. I took home (2) 17 inchers and (2) 14 inchers (all cuts). They would come in groups and bite for a while and then leave. Seems the longer we stayed, the better it got. If we'd stayed till dark, I'd have caught over 50. I landed 5 in less than a minute on one wave. Wax worms and nite crawlers on anything was the ticket. Good day of fishing all in all. Between my son and I, we landed 49 combined between the two lakes.
We need a good cold snap and things would really harden up.
Chicken Creek W. has ice, Chicken Creek E. is half and half, Ladders is "nada" as well as the rest of the lake. The bay closest to the highway at Soldier Creek is iced over. A friend said he saw a guy out on the ice last weekend in that bay. It was empty today.
If you go to mud creek, don't venture past where you see tracks in the snow. People were cutting holes in 2.5 inches of ice at the east end (about 1/2 way across the ice). It seemed strong, no cracking, but I moved back to the 5 inch stuff. The closer you fished to the North bank, the better the luck was running.
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We need a good cold snap and things would really harden up.
Chicken Creek W. has ice, Chicken Creek E. is half and half, Ladders is "nada" as well as the rest of the lake. The bay closest to the highway at Soldier Creek is iced over. A friend said he saw a guy out on the ice last weekend in that bay. It was empty today.
If you go to mud creek, don't venture past where you see tracks in the snow. People were cutting holes in 2.5 inches of ice at the east end (about 1/2 way across the ice). It seemed strong, no cracking, but I moved back to the 5 inch stuff. The closer you fished to the North bank, the better the luck was running.
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