Tomorrow Morning

[DucksAndDogs]

Looking for somewhere dead nuts safe to take the family tomorrow morning.  We live in Townsend and had planned on going to the silos.  But, after all this crazy ice popping/shifting/shaking talk today, I don’t want to take my wife there for her first time fishing hard water and have her terrified to come back.

I don’t care if the bite is hot, or not, just looking for somewhere close to home to get out and have a good time tomorrow without worrying about talking ice and thickness.

Thanks!

[ARMY1]

I fished the regulating resevoir today and it was nice and quiet. I didn’t measure but the ice was over 5 inches or so where I was. Salmon were pretty scarce but I caught small perch right off the bottom easy enough.

[BloodShotP]

Would bet pretty safe at c ferry to just get on ice. Those earthquake moments happen but are very rare, like once every few years if you spend lot of time on the ice. Fished few days ago n was 7 inches, been darn cold so you should be safe.

[Idahogator]

DucksAndDogs,

Best just give yourself some time to learn ice.

Very low temperatures make ice and making ice makes the music, cracks, pops, splits and yes, a bit of noise.

Measure with something marked off in inches. At home in a dry place, Start at zero where your skimmer meets it's handle and felt tip marks 1 (one) inch apart all the way up the handle. Auger a hole, hook the skimmer under the ice and see the thickness on the handle.

If you are still and quiet and hear noise, very likely it's making ice. Welcome that noise. 

Good luck, stay safe, maybe go on Decaf.     


                                                                                     

[IceAce]

And bring a spud bar! We were on cf yesterday day close to pond four and the ice was great (6-7in) but You can never be too safe

[gf hardwater guy]

The spud bar. Don't leave home without it. Kind of like the electronics, you won't ice fish without them again. Speaking of electronics, I was in Scheels here in Great Falls late last week and they had a great deal on an old school vexilar for anyone looking to get in at a good price. $279.00 for a fl-8. Also had a hummingbird in that same price range. Fl-12 was 349.00.       

[scubohuntr]

The causeway was very noisy Saturday morning. I certainly wouldn't want to take a newbie out on it. Not dangerous, by any means, but definitely disconcerting to anyone not used to it. A few of the booms were shakers. There was 5-6" of ice, about the minimum I'll go out in, and a lot of people out.