Not to be rude, but............ I wanna say something.

[ice dawg]

\
you noticed that to eh?

lol, I must have caught a hint somewhere. I've seen too many lakes beaten down by crowds.

[rdhammah]

when I was working, I did not get out until 7-8 pm and not able to do any scouting. also worked Saturdays til 4pm. I appreciated the generosity of others in my area who were willing to share ice info. I'm retired now and try to provide ice reports on my more popular ponds. I have one pond that I don't tell anyone about other than the guy who showed it to me. Not even my brother

[missoulafish]

it seems like its the new thing these days...jumping on people for not giving up all their work. Ive heard some of the  Montana Facebook pages pride themselves on giving up as much information as possible which in the long run will just defeat their purpose (by ruining fisheries) which they claim is to just help people. I have no problem helping people, my volunteering teaching ice fishing classes every winter proves that. At least more people are seeing these conversations and hopefully start thinking about this. Make your own report

[rickgehrke]

Thanks Steve! I guess it is the way the world is going. That is too bad. For those who do share, thank you. For those who don't, well, that is your choice. I say pay it forward. It is fishing for crying out loud.

[RustynMtnHome]

Thanks for your service Rusty, I enjoyed my two tours at Mt. Home but retired from Hill AFB from the AF and then just retired from Hill as a Civil Service employee after 20 yrs service. I will be making a trip up to Cascade from 8-12 Jan. and another the middle of Feb. for 5 days. I'm not sure if CJ will freeze this year, after living both in Grandview and Mt. Home I have seen a few winters where it never froze hard enough to get on safe ice there. I like fishing CJ when it has enough ice, having relatives in MT. Home that I can stay with makes it nice.

Thanks for your service .... I will be up at Cascade Jan 6-9, it will be my first time out there, so just hoping I can find a few.  Been trying to find a topo that shows the channel over by Poison .... if not, not worries just nice being out away from everything and enjoy some fishing. 
Always nice to have family around your fishing areas .... got a friend up in Minnesota, may make a trip there this year as well

[Set the hook!]

Good luck to everyone this year!
We are northern Wisconsin transplants and have chased perch for close to 50 years now. For what its worth my observations over the 8 years we have fished Cascade:
The perch feed on bloodworms all winter, especially the big females. Their bellies are so full of spawn they cannot take a big meal... no where to put it! So they feed often to sustain the eggs but stay skinny all winter long as you may notice the lack of any rib or belly meat when cleaning them. The males do fill in nicely when you get them. We average 7-8 girls for every boy we catch through the ice. The bloodworms like a muckier bottom, like where old weed-beds had been and dies off under the ice.
Fish the edges and sharper drop off areas where the fish can dig the bloodworms out with their snouts by keeping somewhat parallel with the bottom and not having to stand on their heads. 6-12 inches off the bottom is a good place to start as many worms are uprooted and not found by the uprooter. So the next fish that comes along gets a free meal. I like that to be my bait! The fish are nomadic under the ice and we tend to catch them in waves as the loose schools work through our set up.
Post-spawn, right after ice-out they hit snail beds. The fish are exhausted from the spawn, but hungry, and last years yoy (young of the year) fish are to quick for them yet. We have cleaned some big fish with 150 small snails, shell and all, in them!
As the water warms into the spring they attack the larvae from what we call "lake flies" real hard for a couple weeks. For us the bite dies off like a light switch at this time. Side note, walleye on the Colombia time for us!
After the hatch they turn to the easiest and most abundant prey species in the lake, their own young. We have caught big female fish (15-16 inches) with 7 inch perch in them in mid to late May. Why they even hit with their bellies this full is another topic, we've all seen this I'm sure. So the yoy up to these 7 inch fish are on the menu.
Find the prey (open the bellies when you catch one) and you can dial in on what bait to mimic it with and where that particular food source is located.
Again, just my observations. Happy to help.

[curt69]

Thank you so much for your report . You are what makes this forum great .

[JPG]

 ...X2...AWESOME!  And thank you sir for the info. 

[PACKFAN-UT]

PM sent RustynMthome.

[AverysAdventure]

Great information Set The Hook!  Thanks for sharing.

[elkstalker]

I agree with the general sentiment of the original post, I'm more than happy to share ice conditions, but am a little more restrained when it comes to the details of the fishing.  I know that especially at early ice, you can post a picture of a bucket of fish and 100 people will show up the next day, just look at the view counters on some of these forums to see how many people see your reports.  FB is even worse, some of the state fishing forums we're a part of have tens of thousands of subscribers.  I love to help people out and contribute, but don't want to broadcast my favorite spots to the masses.

[kasilofchrisn]

Good luck to everyone this year!
We are northern Wisconsin transplants and have chased perch for close to 50 years now. For what its worth my observations over the 8 years we have fished Cascade:
The perch feed on bloodworms all winter, especially the big females. Their bellies are so full of spawn they cannot take a big meal... no where to put it! So they feed often to sustain the eggs but stay skinny all winter long as you may notice the lack of any rib or belly meat when cleaning them. The males do fill in nicely when you get them. We average 7-8 girls for every boy we catch through the ice. The bloodworms like a muckier bottom, like where old weed-beds had been and dies off under the ice.
Fish the edges and sharper drop off areas where the fish can dig the bloodworms out with their snouts by keeping somewhat parallel with the bottom and not having to stand on their heads. 6-12 inches off the bottom is a good place to start as many worms are uprooted and not found by the uprooter. So the next fish that comes along gets a free meal. I like that to be my bait! The fish are nomadic under the ice and we tend to catch them in waves as the loose schools work through our set up.
Post-spawn, right after ice-out they hit snail beds. The fish are exhausted from the spawn, but hungry, and last years yoy (young of the year) fish are to quick for them yet. We have cleaned some big fish with 150 small snails, shell and all, in them!
As the water warms into the spring they attack the larvae from what we call "lake flies" real hard for a couple weeks. For us the bite dies off like a light switch at this time. Side note, walleye on the Colombia time for us!
After the hatch they turn to the easiest and most abundant prey species in the lake, their own young. We have caught big female fish (15-16 inches) with 7 inch perch in them in mid to late May. Why they even hit with their bellies this full is another topic, we've all seen this I'm sure. So the yoy up to these 7 inch fish are on the menu.
Find the prey (open the bellies when you catch one) and you can dial in on what bait to mimic it with and where that particular food source is located.
Again, just my observations. Happy to help.

This is the perfect example of what many of us here are talking about.
You gave a ton of great information.
But at the same time didn't give a specific spot on the lake or how the ice or fishing currently is right now.
But those looking to fish this area now know what to look for.
They still have to find the bottom types you described and so were not handed a specific spot, but moreso the info they need to find their own.
This is what these forums should be about. How to find your own spot instead of exactly where somebody else's spot is.
While a lake was mentioned you did not put it in a way that would necessarily bring in those looking to snipe your spot.
This proves a person can share very valuable information while still protecting their fishing spots and not having them overrun!
Nicely done!

[FISHAMANIAC]

This is a great topic that can turn into a  show really quick! I live in Utah and see it daily lots of folks don't wanna get off their and check for themselves.. I reached out a couple days ago about Onieda Res conditions and didn't get a response in time so I took the drive and found out 1st hand no biggy.. Now I wouldn't want to drive 8 hours to Cascade  only to find un fishable conditions. I don't think it's that big of a deal asking local conditions by a local. What drives me crazy is the where what why? My response is usually in the lip in the water.