Merritt and the Valentine Refuge

[Mr Merritt]

  Excerpted from another Post FYI;  Here at the Trading Post on Merritt we carry live chubs, frozen chubs, and frozen smelt along with minnows and wax worms.  I sell our smelt in smaller bags approximately +- 12 count.  Those available lately seem to run to the small side.   If not fishing the refuge I would recommend live chubs, especially on Merritt.  They have been running 4 to 7 inches long.  As live vs. dead bait, they seem to draw more strikes.  Pike up to 43 inches have been taken in the last 2 years here with them.

  If you are tip up fishing on the refuge or Merritt you should give the new Entycer Death Trap quick strike rigs a try.  Use them under your tip ups for live or dead bait.  These rigs utilize an inverted 'V' design with a 7" hook to crimp length that lets you rig 4 to 10 or 11 inch baits horizontally.  The manufacturer is Nebraska based and very responsive to customer needs.  I requested he make special order rigs using 4/0 circle hooks.  When "set" properly circle hooks will normally slide to the corner of a fishes mouth and bite in there, gut hooking far fewer fish than trebles.  On the Valentine Refuge all pike exceeding 28 inches have to be released.  Circle hooks can be a big help in doing just that.  I have limited stock of these special order quick strike rigs on hand.  If you need any more than a small quantity, please call ahead to the Trading Post so I can order ahead.

[hankthecrank]

Just remember dead smelt only for bait.

[Juan bond]

Love your reports Mr. Merritt! I will be there someday!

[Mr Merritt]

  Good reports continue to reach us for lakes in the Valentine Refuge. Both panfish and pike action has been good to excellent on several lakes there. Duck, Hackberry, and West Long are most frequently mentioned for panfish. Dewey and Clear are good pike producers. despite a little warmer weather recently ice conditions are holding up ok with 10-12 inches of ice reported.

 Somewhat sporadic action for panfish at Merritt seems to be improving as we move closer to the late ice period. Reports of good crappie angling up the Snake arm are filtering in. There is a fast bite for smaller bluegills towards the back of Boardman Creek. If you want fast action or would like to get some young people on some bites then put some waxworms on a small tear drop and fish the brushpiles in 8 to 18 FOW. Don't be surprised if you butt heads with some big bass or pike there. The predators will be where the prey is

[Mr Merritt]

A friend gave me the top 3 places at the Cork Thornton Memorial Ice Tournament:
 1st................... .......Don Cox Team 20.9 pounds
 2nd................... ......Chris Elliot Team 18.6 pounds
 3rd................... .......Priel Brothers Team 18.3 pounds.

 Anyone with more complete results feel free to post them!

[kamala]

Nice job Don!

[swampdonkeyice]

How does this tournament score?  Is it total panfish only?  Do northerns and catfish count?  I heard it was moving to Merritt next year.

[Mr Merritt]

I did not fish the tournament so someone more in the know might correct me.  I think each 2 man team could weigh; 20 panfish, (crappies at Big Alkali), 1 catfish, 1 pike, and 1 bass.  The tournament may move back to Merritt next year but I have not yet heard if the decision was made and finalized.  The reason given for moving to Big Alkali was that with Merritt's crappies biting in 30-45 FOW there were too many small ones being "sorted out" and returned to the hole to die under the ice.  Perhaps the back of Boardman Creek where the depths are not more than 30 feet?

[Mr Merritt]

  The bite is getting right, the weather will be nice, and we have rooms at winter rates.  Need I say more???

[Sandbilly]

Nice job Don!

Thank you sir.

4th................Mar cus & Stan Dryak  16.2 lbs.

With it being a measure C&R tourney there were several ties in the big fish categories so they drew a team number out of a hat to determine winners.

Pike 35" Chris Elliot. Two other teams tied for large pike.
Walleye 20" Nick Larsen.
Perch 10" Jim Elliot. 6 teams tied.
Catfish 29" Kerry Hoffman.
Crappie 12" Eric Allemang. 5 teams tied.

Weather was absolutely beautiful on tournament day with highs near 50 and very little wind. Big Alkali always fishes tough on ice and this year was no exception. I didn't get to prefish due to a wrestling meet but after 5 minutes of visiting with people at the rules meeting, I could tell it might be the roughest tournament yet to catch fish. Partner did not set a hook on Saturday but said he had marked a few crappie not far off the launch so that was our starting point. Our goal was to target crappie first, then move around and try to pickup perch, cats and pike.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. My partner ended up landing directly on top an active school of feeding crappie. Within the first 30 minutes we had 17 of our 20 pan fish limit. Another 5 minutes we would of limited but an atv rolled through and blew out the crappie. Even with 16-18 inches of ice those fish were extremely sensitive to noise. We should of had a limit by then anyway. I bumped one off on the ice and wrapped another around the transducer. Dave was spending too much time transporting fish back and forth to the cooler. Something I should have been doing while the active school was under him. It was strange because you could be 6 ft. away from the feeding school, mark fish but maybe not catch anything. If you were centered on the school, it was as fast as you could get down and up until they moved. Not the first time I've experienced this on a Sandhill lake this season but it was suspended perch that time. 

It got tough after that. We stayed in the area for another hour setting up cat rods and searching for the crappie but it was over. There were 4 other teams within 400 yards and they weren't doing any swinging either so we started moving around the lake. I finally hit a 17" catfish mid morning but knew we needed a pike for any chance at all. Cut, set up, pick up, move every 20 -30 minutes looking for signs of life. With an hour and a half left in the tourney and our umpteenth move Dave got a line cut on one of his bobber rod so we figured pike. Ten minutes later he pops our first pike of the day, a 25 incher. Not long after that I'm sight fishing a psycho shad in 3 fow and a monster pike smashed the lure. Scared he!! out of me after 5 hours of nothing and then watching this big pike strike right under my feet. I was rigged well with 50 lb braid, 50 lb mono leader on a bait casting reel and heavy rod, but that pike was violent. Couldn't turn her on the first run. In 3 feet of water and 18 inches of ice, she took the line sideways cutting into the ice a good inch at the bottom of the hole. Had to free the line by lowering the rod below the ice while she was running. It was getting a little hectic on top of the ice as Dave was now keeping the line out of the notch in the ice and I was still trying to turn the pike. After burning off 50 yards of line she finally slowed and I started making a little headway but only for a second. Next run she headed straight for the pencil reeds and that was that. I had enough power to turn her, but she had 50 yards of line advantage. Hooks pulled when she wrapped in the pencil reeds. I would have really liked to measure that fish!! Dave upgraded our cat to a 20" with about 10 minutes left.

Valentine Chamber does a really great job with this tournament. It will be held on Merritt next year and the last year for some of the people running it. Might be the last year for the tourney period unless they can find some other folks to step up.

dc                           

 

[swampdonkeyice]

Excellent report sir, congrats.

[Mr Merritt]

Congatulations Don and thanks for the great report.  Any guesses how much the big one that got away might have weighed?

[swampdonkeyice]

Hows the ice on merritt?.....good enough for a quad up the snake? ....how about travelling on the main lake?

[Sandbilly]

Congatulations Don and thanks for the great report.  Any guesses how much the big one that got away might have weighed?

Thanks,

Deducting a couple of inches for adrenaline, somewhere in the 36 -38" range. She came in flared and grumpy and I didn't do much to change her attitude.

Probably close to the same caliber of fish as Tristen's refuge pike in December.

Hows the ice on merritt?.....good enough for a quad up the snake? ....how about travelling on the main lake?

More ice up the snake than at the mouth. Ice depths are leveling out but there are still snow covered areas that have less ice. We found 8" ice under a snow bank near shore. Most ran 14-16" with some of it pushing 20". Don't know about the main lake.

 

[Mr Merritt]

The main lake area, especially around the dam, is always the last to freeze and first place to open up.  There are some pretty good structures on the main lake and they could be the home of the elusive winter walleyes here.  If you decide to try it use all due precautions.  Most Merritt regulars fish the other arms and areas.

[Mr Merritt]

Reports of good fishing continues to reach us from the refuge. Seems to be the occaisional slow day, with good action at other times. Panfish and pike are biting on the usual offerings. Trey Osburn had a nice mixed stringer of perch, bluegills and pike. At least two of the perch were Master Angler sized. All were taken on Chekai Tungsten Jigs at the Refuge. Photos on our facebook page.

 Merritt's action has been a bit more sporadic. Good catches have recently come from both the Boardman and Snake River arms, but not consistently. Crappies to 14", bluegills to 9", and perch to 12" are being taken when the bite happens, along with some pike, bass, and catfish mixed in.
 One report said ice on the upper snake was 13" before eroding to 11" during the last warm spell. Ice at the refuge was thicker than that. With colder temps back into the area ice conditions should remain good for some time.

  The last storm barely grazed us leaving less than 2". With better than 30" for the season I really didn't mind that this round missed us. Ice conditions remain good both here on Merritt and the Valentine Refuge.

[Fryinpan]

How is the ice holding up??   How was the fishing this weekend??  Thank you   

[Mr Merritt]

So far ice conditions are holding up well.  Fishermen out Saturday reported mostly decent success with some doing well, others not so much.  By Sunday winds gusting to 50+ chased everybody off the water.  Still plenty breezy today but a better forecast ahead.  So far I'm predicting ok ice conditions for the weekend.  Edges could start getting iffy, especially on the refuge by the weekend.  Most ice depths currently reported range from 10 to 13 inches.