Fished it Monday with a friend, saw two other groups- a pretty lonely place to fish, with pretty good reason. It was -6 leaving Bartlett, which held until we crested the notch, then fell to -22 by the time we passed the AMC compound!!!
When we arrived the temp was back to -10 ish. Fishing was great once the sun came up with almost no wind, thanks to my buddy's Bigfoot shelter and Mr Buddy to thaw fingertips. My buddy was more successful. He only had 2-4 flags, but his last (about an hour before mine) ran way off, he set the hook, then wasn't sure if there was anything there as he pulled it in, until it saw the hole, then it put up a short fight ending in landing a 20.5" Brown. What a pretty fish! His first of the trout family through the ice; very exciting! I had about 6-8 flags all day, just hit and drop's, until the last one at 3 ish. It ran out prob 40' of line, and I use Circle hooks, so I never snap the line to set the hook, I just pull it tight, then try to keep it tight. I could feel it following me all the way in, and each time it shook its head, the line would STOP, until it started following me in again. I saw my marker at 8' when it gave a last shake and was gone!!
AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!
Results of a long, pleasant but cold day from 12 traps, 8-12 flags, 1 Brown, 0 Northern, 0 Yellow's
And the ice was consistently 12" in the area we fished, up near the narrows. It's been lowered, I'd guess, 6-8' from the normal high water mark, with 2-4" of blown snow cover
