Blackstrap 2014-2015

[engineman]

Wont be too long!!! 

[ToonFisher]

Will it be 4" this Sunday in the shallow?

[gman51]

going out tomorrow for a look will check most areas of the lake and report back tomorrow. 4" would be great but not likely. its been fairly windy out here the last 4-5 days even over night. that's not good ice making conditions. anyway i will let you know.

[corney]

Northend froze over in the last couple days. One spot still open in the middle in front of golf course. It always seems to be the last area to freeze up?

[gman51]

thanks corney, i'll still get my walk on report .if there is walk on .checking different areas.

[The Beachcomber]

I didn't even know there was a golf course at Shields, all these years of fishing at Blackstrap!  I guess you do learn something everyday.

[gman51]

was out at the strap today and all looks pretty good for the first walk on. 3" most everywhere i checked didn't venture to far out but did happen to find 10-12 fow with 3" of ice in a few locations .shoreline in places is crusty most of its solid.I did not check the very north end don't fish there. anyway the forecast looks good over the next little while so the ice should thicken up nicely.think I will head out this weekend for a couple hours in the evening.. just be careful and don't take anyone's word on how the ice thickness is including mine always check for yourself take it slow and have a great hard water season.

[ToonFisher]

Hope it will be not too windy to have a try on Sunday.

[corney]

I didn't even know there was a golf course at Shields, all these years of fishing at Blackstrap!  I guess you do learn something everyday.

Probably doesn't look like a golf course if you only fish there in the winter?

Still some geese sitting in an open spot out there. I always wonder why they hold out so long. If I was a goose sitting out in the middle of an iced over lake on a day like yesterday I would have started flying South!

[corney]

Will it be 4" this Sunday in the shallow?

It was 4' last February! Was in the garage yesterday and noticed my auger sticking up about 6', reminded me how much fun it was drilling holes last year.

[darrenf442]

Hope the fishing is better then it was a month ago, usually fishing is good right to the bitter end. Was out in the middle of Oct and even the pike didn't want to bite, which is odd. Was all over that lake and froze my butt off and nothing, first time all year. 

Good luck on the fishin

[ggpr]

I also found it slow at blackstrap in october (only went out once there) but the rest of the soft water season was pretty good for me this year again.  I think i have got blackstrap soft water figured out but i have had poor luck ice fishing out there the last two years.  Maybe this is the year i can figure out blackstrap on the ice.  I have tried being very mobile and fishing a bit after dark but had minimal luck.  Last year on the ice we mostly fished the south end near evans road and the provincial park boat launches.  I am thinking of trying some spots i had success in september for early ice and maybe more in the north end this ice season.

Does anyone have any tips for depth or structure at this time of year?

I am thinking i will walk out next weekened if the ice holds and gets thicker this week.  With the current forecasts it should definitely keep growing the ice, although maybe not as fast as last week.

Does anyone who went out this weekend have any reports on ice thickness?

[2fst4u]

Took a little drive on Saturday in the hurricane winds.  That blew me to this lake and ventured on for a quick peak with the ice auger.  Drilled a few holes very sketchy only maybe 2" of ice, not clear black and needs a few more days yet!

[ToonFisher]

4-5" of black ice under 2" of loose snow at Evans Road now. There is no open water in sight. Not many fish though.

[gman51]

wow....  5"         I can smell the 2 stroke already.

[ToonFisher]

Drilled a line of holes with Ion and hand auger from 15' to 24' 30-50 yards from shore. The blades were blunt last year for both systems. The hooks are not sharp either, probably safer for the fingers.

[corney]

Sounds like the only thing sharp was the fisherman?

[ToonFisher]

not either. lost 3 out of 4 half way.

[corney]

Looking to be quite warm this weekend. Anyone pounded any holes lately?

Might be time to fix up the ice shack this weekend.  It rolled across my yard last spring in a plow wind! 

[gman51]

 buddy and i were out yesterday south end did a morning fish and an evening. walleyes were active more so in the evening caught 5-6 in the am lots on the graph in the evening we landed around 15 no perch or pike. kept our limit of course.

[engineman]

how's the ice?

[gman51]

where we were  6"- 7" good ice

[engineman]

good stuff....should hold ol plus size me!!

[golf560]

thanks for sharing

[engineman]

 NO problem.

[ToonFisher]

Got soaking wet with half an inch of water over six inches of seethrough ice near Shields late afternoon today. Fish was rare on the flasher. Got one perch and two walleye on chubby carter.

[ggpr]

i was out from 5-8 pm on the north end of the lake by the dam on wednesday evening.  There was 7 inches of ice at that time and also there was a pressure ridge a few feet back from the rocks at shore on the dam.  I saw some spots with open water in the pressure ridge, cross at your own risk and do so very carefully if you do.

Sadly we didnt even see a fish on the flasher or camera.  There was a TON of little beetles with wings/flippers coming in for the light on the camera.

[The Beachcomber]

Every year I see less and less fish on the flasher at Blackstrap.  Too many idiots taking small fish home or going over their limits.  I try to stay away from the Strap buts its so close which is the problem also.  Last year their was so much garbage at the end of the year, it was sickening.  I prefer to head north and get away from the idiots, sorry for the rant.

[ToonFisher]

I think the fish count are stable since I started there in 2011. Fish will concentrate as winter progress.

[ggpr]

I think there are definitely still decent numbers of fish in blackstrap.  As i said earlier in this thread, my open water fishing at blackstrap the last two years has been pretty darn good considering all the obvious reasons for it to have worse fishing than say an average northern lake that isnt hit too hard.  If i recall correctly i remember reading somewhere that blackstrap isn't even stocked with fish?  It's pretty crazy considering how busy it is  that there would be any fish at all haha.  I only ever do blackstrap on week nights in the summer, or sometimes I start earlier if i can get off work.   It is generally pretty busy, I can't imagine what weekends look like these days in the summer.  I have done a couple saturdays out at blackstrap in the winter before and that shanty village at the north end can get pretty large.

If the fish will be concentrating for the winter i can only assume that if you happened to find them and they were active/feeding that could make for some really good days.  My experience ice fishing at blackstrap (only been ice fishing regularly 3 years now) generally consisted of 2 to 6 people spending 3-10 hrs on the lake, and usually we would relocate the tent if no fish were caught after 1.5-2 hrs (if weather wasnt too insane).  On the nice days we would drill a ton of holes trying to locate structure and hole hop giving each hole maybe 5-20 min.  At any rate i think the best we have done is 5 pike over the course of say an 8 hr day.    Although i am always learning more about fishing the more i do it and i am becoming more successful so perhaps i should maybe  use one of my full weekend days that i am free to go fishing and just stick around blackstrap and do my "homework" on that lake so i am more prepared for shorter after work outings. 

What does everyone consider a good ice fishing day at blackstrap (clarify if it would be for a full day or half day etc) ?

All that being said i prefer to head north too beachcomber.  I find Diefenbaker and the Saskatchewan River systems to be among the best options for good fishing within 60 minutes of Saskatoon (for the summer, i still haven't got diefenbaker in the winter figured out, thats my plan for this year though!). I wish that some of the lakes i wanna to get out on up north weren't so damn far making a day trip not practical (from saskatoon).  Having a little 2 year old son doesn't allow me to get away for as many over night trips as before but as soon as he gets old enough i expect me and him to be able to go away any weekend we want if he stays interested in fishing!

Does anyone have any recommendations or favorite lakes that are close to saskatoon that would be good for ice fishing?  I am thinking this year i will be trying to hit up diefenbaker (hitchcock area and south, always did coteau and pumphouse bay in the past), lake lenore/st brieux, and maybe some of the lakes in the blaine lake to shell lake stretch.  I also will definitely be trying last mountain lake at least once, hopefully more than once although it is pretty far for a day trip from saskatoon and i am not sure if the fishing would stay good all season in the etters beach area, i know the fish migrate through the lake from spring until summer, not sure what goes on during the ice season. 

How about some recommendations or favorites for any northern lakes that are good for ice fishing and would fall into a reasonable day trip from saskatoon?  Mine currently would be bittern and whiteswan (sadly the only time i was at whiteswan was a bit of a slow day and the limit of 1 kinda hurts for me when i don't have the luxury to fish for lakers regularly) .  i haven't really ice fished too much in the north yet.  I would also like to try montreal lake, piprell and maybe either little bear or east trout.  I really wanna do lac la plonge too but i think i would probably have to do that as a overnight trip and make two days of it to get the best out of it.

Sorry for my long winded post!  Perhaps the second half of my post should be its own thread.... The discussion just got me thinking about that stuff haha.

Have a good one everyone!