North Idaho Ice

[Southpole]

Going out tomorrow for my first time ever ice fishing in Idaho.  Going to hit Cocolalla.  Pretty excited!

Found you Machias! Not stalking you I swear, I saw your name on here and couldn’t resist  saw CoryTDF from huntwa on here somewhere too. Do any good today?

[Yellowice]

Fished round yesterday. Descent bite 330-430. Iced 2 perch 1 bass 1 brookie and 4 bows. 10” of ice. Found a fish finder that fell out of someone’s sled on the way out. I stashed it in the pavilion if anyone is looking

[DEER4DINNER]

Hey all! 

Gamlin (Gamble) - I've been there the last several weekends. The fishing has been pretty good with big perch but last weekend was super slow and couldn't even find a perch.  Didn't seem like anyone else could either.  Ended up with two little largemouth that I let go.  Ice was a good 11", 3-4" clear and 7 or 8 white.  Super slick and needed cleats.  Wore my wife's cleats as mine broke last year, so they were pink and a little tight on my boot but it saved my ass, literally. Searched everywhere today to find some more.  North 40, Blacksheep, Cabela's, Walmart and Tri-State, Finally found some of the inexpensive ones at Rathdrum Hardware in case you're looking.  Tri-State had high end ones for $50+

So... tomorrow I'm thinking of trying something new.  Maybe Blue Lake near Priest River.  Any thoughts or ice and fish reports from there?  Thank you!

[ForestGuy88]

Anybody been to the chain lakes this week. I saw that it was raining there last week but it's been colder.

[plfish]

D4D…Blue Lake should be good to go.   Didn’t fish it last weekend but hit it the previous weekends.  The last few nights have been in the single digits to mid teens so it should be fairly firm. There was a slush layer mid way through but there was 6”-7” below the slush layer the last time I was there (about 10-11” total). I’m hoping to hit it Sunday since I can’t get out tomorrow. Bite was slow but that was over a week ago.  Caught perch, LMB, crappie, and a couple of pumpkinseed. Had plenty for a dinner plus a fish chowder.

[Joe34]

Spirit Lake for kokanee.

Anyone know if the ice is ready? I'm planning on trying it with the kids around Maiden Rock ... but I don't want to haul everyone down there with gear unless the ice is ready. Last year I remember it took a while.

[BlueDuck]

DEER4DINNER,  I couldn't find any decent spikes around locally either.  Got a good set from Amazon for $24.   Came in 4 days.

[Machias]

Found you Machias! Not stalking you I swear, I saw your name on here and couldn’t resist  saw CoryTDF from huntwa on here somewhere too. Do any good today?

LOL, nope, did not make it out.  Well pump guy came out yesterday and installed the well pump.  Excavator guy was supposed to show up last night, but did not, so I'm waiting on him now.  Going out this afternoon to at least get familiar and maybe figure out where to go in the morning.

[waltermaurer]

Fished round yesterday. Descent bite 330-430. Iced 2 perch 1 bass 1 brookie and 4 bows. 10” of ice. Found a fish finder that fell out of someone’s sled on the way out. I stashed it in the pavilion if anyone is looking

Yellowice, you're a credit to the hard ice community for stashing that fishfinder instead of "finder-keepering" it for yourself.  I'm sensitive about that because 5 years ago, someone stole my gamecam that I mounted on a fairly-well hidden deer trail 40 yds off a logging road.  This past season, I forgot to put my Backjack chair in my truck before leaving after the day's hunt, and it was gone by next morning.  So thanks for being a great example of a true sportsman, and may God bless you with many more fish!

[Southpole]

LOL, nope, did not make it out.  Well pump guy came out yesterday and installed the well pump.  Excavator guy was supposed to show up last night, but did not, so I'm waiting on him now.  Going out this afternoon to at least get familiar and maybe figure out where to go in the morning.

Good luck!

[Vandal78]

Anybody been to the chain lakes this week. I saw that it was raining there last week but it's been colder.

Chains are all good. Apparently everybody in N ID decided to fish the chains today. It was damn near take a number out there. 7” pretty much everywhere.

[BlueDuck]

Fished Lower Twin yesterday (Sat.)   8" good ice.  Slow fishing.  Ended up with 4 trout and 2 dinky perch. 

[sihlms391]

Lowe twin isn't like how it was 6 years ago.   I rarely go there now.   

[catfish2018]

Fished cocolalla today good solid 9 inches of ice steady perch bite all morning in 31 feet of water fishfinder was still stacked with fish when I finally convinced my wife we had enough perch to keep me busy for hours!

[catfish2018]

[plfish]

Blue Lake had 11” of hard ice.  Fished a few hours this afternoon and lost a few at the hole.  Most bites were very light but did ice a few perch 7-8”, a couple of largemouth (one was almost 16”) and a few crappie.  Right at dark had a ton of extremely light bites and I think they were crappie.

[Idahoice77]

Any one have an ice report for Thompson lake

[Vandal78]

Any one have an ice report for Thompson lake

Plenty of ice 7"+

[fishaddict]

Anyone been on Avondale?

[Machias]

Fished Cocolalla for a couple of hours yesterday, right in the middle of the day.  It was my first time on the lake, so it was more of a scouting trip and sorting out gear.  No bites, but I was there are the wrong time.  Still had a blast, can't wait to get out again.  Supposed to be 10 or 11 degrees tomorrow night.

[RayneBidziil22]

Avondale is still frozen but edges are not safe last I heard a few days ago

[smitty661]

Fished lower twin for a couple hours today. Got 2 trout and 1 perch in 30 fow.

I checked Avondale on my way home. The edges are definitely thin but I was able to step out 24”ish inches onto good white ice. I didn’t fish but some guys were on it fishing. The launch area is slicker than snot but if you stay on the right side and get on the ice about 50’ south of the main entrance it’s not terrible.

[plfish]

Have a little bit info on ice at Priest.  Sounds like northern end has some ice and someone had walked out on Squaw Bay.  No info on conditions, depth etc. 

Spoke with some folks who work in Cavanaugh Bay and it sounds like Cavanaugh isn’t quite ready, looks a bit sketchy, but the feeling is with the cold temps this week could possibly be ready by the weekend. 

Good chance there could be some fishable ice by the weekend….but we’ll have to see what the temps bring.  Looks like a high of 19 on Wednesday and the Weather Service forecast doesn’t show temps above freezing until Saturday.

[Vandal78]

Have a little bit info on ice at Priest.  Sounds like northern end has some ice and someone had walked out on Squaw Bay.  No info on conditions, depth etc. 

Spoke with some folks who work in Cavanaugh Bay and it sounds like Cavanaugh isn’t quite ready, looks a bit
sketchy, but the feeling is with the cold temps this week could possibly be ready by the
Good chance there could be some fishable ice by the weekend….but we’ll have to see what the temps bring.  Looks like a high of 19 on Wednesday and the Weather Service forecast doesn’t show temps above freezing until Saturday.

Thanks for the report plfish. Hopefully we can string a month or at least a couple weeks of some cold weather to really firm it up. Would love to make it up and jig for some macs.

[sihlms391]

Couple guys was on fernan y
Today.  Wasn't able to fish to take time to fish.

[ribka]

Avondale is still frozen but edges are not safe last I heard a few days ago

Thanks. I'll probably try Thursday after a bit more cold weather

[CMS]

The north Idaho news feed said that authorities are chasing a man that ran onto spirit lake and have medical crew standing by on case he falls in, maybe that guy will tell us how thick it is?

[Joe34]

The north Idaho news feed said that authorities are chasing a man that ran onto spirit lake and have medical crew standing by on case he falls in, maybe that guy will tell us how thick it is?

Do you have a link to verify this story???

I was going to drive down to Spirit Lake with my son on Saturday and hope for the best, but maybe we'll go somewhere else...

[CMS]

I don’t, my wife just showed me on her Facebook page

[CMS]

This was all that was said