IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Montana => Ice Fishing Montana => Topic started by: eroknroll on Dec 30, 2009, 02:47 PM
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Has anyone been out at bozeman ponds or the "bozeman beach"? Whats the skinny?
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I've been out a few times with my daughter. 4-6" ice or so on the Oak Street and the Mall ponds. Lots of stockers to be had on worms. Lots of dogs running free to make life interesting.
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buddies have been on the beach a few times with no luck. prolly will head out there tomorrow afternoon if my morning for ducks pans out well. ill post back what i run into. last year we landed a couple largemouths almost hitting 5 lbs!!! hopefully find those ones again!
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that's a riot. I will have to run out there sometime, can't beat the access... ha ha. I will go over there to dink around on occasion in the summer when I am really short on time/motivation to work for fish, so might as well give it a try in the winer too right. anything to get away from hyalite
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What are all the species of fish in the mall and oak street ponds. I have caught trout and bluegill.
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I think Oak is just trout and suckers. Mall has at least perch, bluegill, LM bass and trout.
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I fished the beach a lot last year and a few times this year. They are sorta jerks about dogs there now so I don't want to risk getting busted. 5 lb bass though. I had heard of a guy catching nice ones but thats friggin huge for around here. If a guy was to go out there searching for those bass.........Where could he go? I had been told by one of the ice skaters to go on the other side of the ice skating circle from the close parking lot in the shallow water (manly road side?). I've caught a few little bass over there in the summer messing around with new flys I tied. I rarely catch bass through the ice and it sounds fun. I guess I'll just have to head out there and mess around!!
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I had been wondering about Oak St. thanks for the info... how about the pond off of N. Davis?? Anyone been there? As for the "Beach" I usually take "newbies" or the kids over there just cuz its close and you used to be able to catch fish all day long.... those days are gone as of last year!! With the huge increase of ice fishing popularity Im affraid there is a good chance it has been fished out by greedy irresponsible "sportsman"! Fishing there the last several years I have seen dozens to buckets full of 6-8" perch being taken. As fun as it is and as tasty as they are they are one of the slowest growing fish around as it takes 7-9 yrs to produce a 12" fish in most cases. What exactly do you eat on a 6" perch?? I have been out 4 times this year and have only caught 1 and marked only a few :( Im thinking maybe this little pond should be catch and release or maybe restricted to youngsters with a low limit?? What say you?
Happy New Year!!
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when we caught those bass we were in the far parking lot and would walk south down to the willow line along the bank. we saw several good bass on the camera. there really isnt much structure along the bottom, the fish mostly were just cruising along. either close to the will bank or we would go out in the middle. hard to explain and hard to say exactly how to fish for them but we did catch a few in the past that were nice.
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thanks bugler....I was kinda thinking of heading out there this evening for a bit with the wife but she's huge pregnant right now and its going to take a fair bit of coxing on my part to get her out there, especially when she needs a restroom every two minutes.
So far as the beach being fished out, I highly doubt it. I only went out the one time this year and caught like 15 in a half hour or so when I got my new sonar. I remember days last year not catching or marking fish but thats fishing. If you don't see fish move, especially if thats what your electronics are telling you. Truth being told keeping those fish to me is sorta gross....it used to be a landfill. Personally I think the perch in the lake are stunted. There are so many fish in the 6-8" range and no larger fish. I think, and I am no biologist, there are either A: to many fish thus minimizing the amount of whatever food resource there is to each fish or B: there is not a food source large enough to sustain a large population of decent size perch. I personally could care less if people keep them out of there, though I don't think I ever would. If there are still dozens of people pulling out buckets of perch then there must be fish in there.
Anyway, time to get off my soap box.
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sorry to double post but I did go out to the beach for a bit this evening with my wife. Definitely not fished out. I marked crazy amounts of perch on the finder. Literally clouds of them. That said we only caught a handful. Very tough to catch. Extreme light bites and very picky about what they wanted. They wouldn't take maggots, had to use mealworms and didn't like certain colors.
Did fish for the bass for just a little while next to the single willow strip on the east side. We weren't in the back cove. I will be back there later trying some different stuff. Anyway it was a fun night.
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went fishing at the mall pond caught one trout then i tried the ponds on oak didnt catch anything on the first pond then moved to the second pond and caught 4 rainbows and a 1 sucker they all averaged about 8 inches so not big but there still fun to catch
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went fishing at the mall pond caught one trout then i tried the ponds on oak didnt catch anything on the first pond then moved to the second pond and caught 4 rainbows and a 1 sucker they all averaged about 8 inches so not big but there still fun to catch
It is kind of funny - I don't even think I've caught a fish in the first pond. But they must be there: I saw some very nice fish taking some flies off the surface there in the summer.
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It is kind of funny - I don't even think I've caught a fish in the first pond. But they must be there: I saw some very nice fish taking some flies off the surface there in the summer.
yesterday when i fished the first pond there was no old holes at all so nobody fished there recently everybody fishes the second pond and nobody fishes the far side of the second pond so im sure you can do good over there
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I only fished that pond once for grins and hammered the trout. Seriously couldn't keep them off. I remember talking to my friend on the phone to let him know he should take his little girls out there and I caught 4-5 just talking to him.
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I have caught lots of fish in both of the ponds of Oak in the summer. All I have ever caught is those little 8" trout. Anybody tried the pond in Valley West. I fished it two years ago and it was full of Cutthroats. Tried ice fishing it last year and during this summer and have not caught one since two years ago.
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anybody know if you can fish the river rock pond. I know some people fish it in the summer and there are supposed to be nice size smallies in there. I would love to ice some smallies but never see anybody ice fish it. I don't know if they want to keep people off because of all the kids around or what but I was wondering if anybody knew anything
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went back to the oak ponds and hammered the trout caught over 40
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I looked into fishing those ponds last summer and was told they are only for the people in the subdivision. Was I told wrong? thanks.
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I think anybody can fish those ponds I don't live in the subdivsion
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if you do go to those ponds though you should put spring bobers on your pole because the bites are usually very lite and you can miss a lot of fish
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ive fished river rock before and have never seen a sign that you cant fish it or been told otherwise by people walking around it. it was a couple years ago but we honestly went there to try and catch the goldfish they have in there......my buddy caught a fatty, prolly 6-8 in. i know theres bass in there as well, dont know if they are smallies or largemouths
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Fished the "beach" for the first time, horrible time, drilled first hole on the east end and was about 5fow, water was puky green diarrhea color could see 6ft down, moved toward the middle, same thing but deeper water, fished from 11:00am to 12:30. If anyone know where the honey holes are, please let me know, I read some guy caught a 5lbs bass out of there
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Fished the "beach" for the first time, horrible time, drilled first hole on the east end and was about 5fow, water was puky green diarrhea color could see 6ft down, moved toward the middle, same thing but deeper water, fished from 11:00am to 12:30. If anyone know where the honey holes are, please let me know, I read some guy caught a 5lbs bass out of there
Farthest east parking lot, walk down past the willows on the shoreline about 40 yards out drill holes perpindictular to the shore should be bout 15 fow there is a rock pile there. Blue swedish pimples lots of maggots or small jigging rapalas usually due the trick.
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Farthest east parking lot, walk down past the willows on the shoreline about 40 yards out drill holes perpindictular to the shore should be bout 15 fow there is a rock pile there. Blue swedish pimples lots of maggots or small jigging rapalas usually due the trick.
much appreciated info thank you
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same buddy that landed the 5+ pounder last year was out last night at the beach. took my cam with him and saw multiple big boys again. he couldnt get any of em to take whatever he was using but they were lippin it a bit he said. im assuming he was using a pimp with a dropper, the kid uses the same stuff alllll the time. pretty predictable. just thought id let you know those fat ones are still cruising around.
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gonna work the ponds in bozeman this weekend went to hyalite today and caught 3 brookies in 4 hours but still fun just being outside and sittin by the fire
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checked out the davis pond a couple days ago for the first time. checked 6 holes with the cam and didnt see a sign of life down there......anyone know whats in there?
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im not even sure if theres fish in there at all and where is a good spot on the mall pond for sunfish
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also where is good spot on the bozeman beach
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checked out the davis pond a couple days ago for the first time. checked 6 holes with the cam and didnt see a sign of life down there......anyone know whats in there?
I've never seen anything rising out there when I've driven by in the summer.
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Yeah me either and I drive by it all the time. For all we know Mr. Walter himself lives in there
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Where's the pond on davis?
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It's fairly new. It's close to Valley Center near the newer condo/apartment buildings northwest of costco/target I took the dogs out there a couple a times last year didn't look like much going on. Maybe they will put something cool like smallies or pike for a change. Trout get old after awhile
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Ok now I know where you are talking about. It's called cattail lake after the subdivion. It had trout in it but not sure of the kind. The developers of the condo's on the shore I believe are stocking it. I fished it twice for a couple of hours this summer but saw no rise or had a bite.
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I agree with not keeping fish just because of the former landfill thing. Plus I saw a kid catch a trout a few summers ago that swam up after his lure and beached itself. The big ones are old hatchery stock. I doubt very good eating. I'll leave 'em for the kids to keep. Not saying I won't fish it, I just won't keep em. To each his own. Not critisizing if you do yourself. I've caught bass right where the willows start on the NE end. Trout in the same place. Not very deep, only a few FOW. I've heard the SE area has a lot of springs, and not the safest place to try the ice. The lure I used was a black jig w/ a a black grub tail and had a little tear drop blade on it. I had a trout come out of the hole at the mall when I was flashing it around on the surface. It was cool. Haven't been able to find another jig that looked like that. It was probably 1/4 oz.
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By the by, I've been a little nervous about trying the river rock pond since theyhave those pumps going I wasn't sure about ice thickness.
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Went to the 'beach' this afternoon. Was on the south east side in about 12 fow. It was my first time there and i couldnt find any clean water until later on. Rods were set up for perch with one having gulp waxies and the other having a piece of nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is the only thing that worked...once... and I happened to be drilling a different hole and couldnt get there in time. Any place out there that is atleast able to get more bites? Took the girlfriend...she didnt last long. Hoping to find somewhere on the place to keep her interest. Also if anybody knows any place on the mall pond I may try there sometime.
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Let me start off realizing most people will think I am crazy. I think the perch in the "beach" are some of the toughest fish to catch. Don't ask me why but they seem tougher than anywhere else I go. I always find fish on the finder, lots of fish. At any given time I'll have 3-5 down there I can see just staring at my jig. Extremely light bites and they hardly ever hit the dead stick rod but maybe once or twice every other trip. They aren't picky on color or jigs really but you gotta have fresh bait always. I hardly use crawlers and stick to maggots and mealworms, not to say crawlers don't work I just don't like dealing with them. Mealworms seem to out fish maggots but they are soft and you go through them fast where as maggots last a good 2-3 fish or 15 minutes. AVOID THE PINK MAGGOTS. Get good strike indicators, jig a lot and look for soft soft bites if you want to catch a lot. I usually go to the other side of the skating circle, about 20 feet of water. There are a fair number of holes out there and anywhere is good. A lot of people fish the north side of the circle and do good as well. Any time of day is good but you might as well pack up when the sun hits the horizon, most likely the perch are done.
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In the police report this morning some one call the police because some one was fishing river rock.They said it's not aloud.
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In the police report this morning some one call the police because some one was fishing river rock.They said it's not aloud.
Yeah, I was the one who took the heat for that one hahaha. Was out there in the shack, apparently somebody didn't like me there and called the cops. Cops called the subdivision and the sub. president called me (number was on the shack). I quietly left. Sign there says catch and release fishing only, and thin ice. There was probably 18" of ice and i guess ice fishing is out. Second time I'd been there, only saw one fish both times I went, and no bites. Fish I saw was a giant goldfish, probably 10-12 in. and real fat. Guess if you want to catch those, wait for the open water.
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that sucks. Ice fishing is not a crime
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Yeah, I was the one who took the heat for that one hahaha. Was out there in the shack, apparently somebody didn't like me there and called the cops. Cops called the subdivision and the sub. president called me (number was on the shack). I quietly left. Sign there says catch and release fishing only, and thin ice. There was probably 18" of ice and i guess ice fishing is out. Second time I'd been there, only saw one fish both times I went, and no bites. Fish I saw was a giant goldfish, probably 10-12 in. and real fat. Guess if you want to catch those, wait for the open water.
Here is the report:
Someone has been "poking holes" and ice fishing in the pond at River Rock subdivision where it is not permitted.
The way Bozangelas is changing you will soon have to register as a fish offender, and be preventing from living in areas with ponds. Ice shanties, not to mention effigies of you in ultra-warm clothing, burning on your lawn you will see. ::) Well at least you didn't take a pee like that "50-year-old man who was cited for for public urination after pulling down his pants and relieving himself on some bushes by a hotel."
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ps... I'm heading to Oak street to catch some suckers for bait...
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Fished the mall pond this morning. Got skunked but I spent most of the time riding herd on my 2.5 year old. Ice is only bout 5-6 inches and getting slushy on top. Fished over on the east side by the mall.
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Might try the mall pond tomorrow morning on the south west side. Then maybe hit up the "beach" in the afternoon to see if I can actually catch somthing out there.
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Been out to the beach a few times in this past week. Fishing is tough. Plenty of fish so thats not the problem. They bite so light though. Often the fish hit it and I don't see the bite until I go to jig, even with light weight wire spring bobbers. I always see plenty on the finder but seems as the season drags on the bite is tougher. Only got two this morning, and probably 15-20 or so on the finder. Wasn't fishing to hard, sometimes its better to bs with the guys your fishing around.
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For sure. And thanks for bs-ing with me this mornin out there. Would have been a really slow, boring one without someone else there. I was out there later in the afternoon and out of four guys on the ice i didnt see a thing come up. More bites but they're just so light and quick you can't see or react fast enough.
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I had a feeling you might have been on the Shanty. Good to meet some members out there.
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Probably hit up the beach again tomorrow morning to see if anything has picked up or not. Im determined to pull something through the ice down there.
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We should all make up some shirts that say icefishing is not a crime, and go out to river rock. It'll be a the iceshanty riverrock movement.
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Hahaha, count me in!
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Hahaha, thanks for the support on the river rock fiasco. Couldn't believe someone called the cops on me, but that was the best laugh i've got in awhile. I'd wear a t-shirt
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Isn't it all sort of ridiculous. East gallatin pond, all be it kinda gross and nasty, is a pretty good place to hang out for a bit. The skating rink is pretty cool too, though I don't use it. I would say ice on the east gallatin is crappy at best with 3 - 4 inches of black ice and 4-5" snow ice on top. If river rock had 18" that would be a great place to have another ice skating rink. Maybe you could only use it from dec 30 - march 10 or something like that, so they could have some sort of safety regulation, but seems to me it is one more resource that just is not being used. There are always people on that pond. Imagine icing giant gold fish then playing a pickup game of hockey. Sounds cool to me.
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yeah and 18" wasn't an exaggeration. There was alot of ice on river rock for a pond. THe ol' hand auger definitely got a workout. I think a skating rink there is a great idea. The ice had snow, but was smooth underneath. It would be a great place with plenty of space for skating and fishing.
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Fished the three forks ponds yesterday. The biggest one on the west side of the road was just plain nasty. I couldn't see my blaze orange ice scoop 6 inches in the water. Tried the east pond and caught a lot of perch. The perch were in the 2 inch range. They were by far the smallest fish I have ever caught. Ended up also catching a #2 largemouth bass, sunfish and some type of shad looking fish.
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Went to the 'beach' last wednesday. Perch bite seemed to pick up. Caught a few nice ones with a bunch more bites. Seemed to hit the jigs a little harder but couldnt get them hooked. I will head back out there when my camera gets here.
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Got the cam dialed in at the 'beach' didnt see much for fish other than one perch and one big sucker. Caught a 14 inch rainbow though. That was kinda nice.
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so I don't get it how can you fish a place in the summer and it's off limits in in the winter that area is set aside as a public park as per development regulations so that is open for public use right I'm down with fishing that pond we got to all get together before the yuppies overtake us this is montana isn't it hunting and fishing is a 2 billion dollar industry in montana so we need to ask ourselves do we need the yuppies or do they need us .
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I'd make the drive from missoula to have a "protest" fishing day on the pond. I agree with the winter/summer use, just someone who probly doesn't like ice fishing or understand how anyone could like it, and wants to legislate those beliefs to everyone else. People no longer seem to pcatice tolerance, they instead try to figure out ways to make a law, ordinance, or policy to force their beliefs onto everyone else in the idea that they made the world a "better" place, but it is only better for their perception, and really pisses people like me off. then again, it really doesn't take that much.
Another bozeman area ice fishing related detail that really agrivates me is the fact that you can't have atv's or snowmobiles on the ice at hyalite. Last year a forest service lady told me they changed the "policy" because they were concerened that the tracks on the snowmobiles, and tires on atvs were tearing up the ground below the snow and damaging plant life, and their noise was disturbing elk and bears. What a crock of crap. What are you going to tear up that ice that is going to melt into water? and they can put speed limit restrictions on them so they are not too noisey. The reason they are really not allowed is because so many hikers and x-country skiers were upset that the prestine lake was all traked up, and it took away from the "natural beauty" of hyalite. One time last year i was sitting in my shanty on hyalite by the trail on the south side of the lake, an overheard some hikers who were upset that my shack was set up and that it "took away from the natural beauty of the outdoors", and somehow lessened their hiking experience. I promptly unzipped my door, and yelled back at them I can hear you!! and i have just as much of a right to be here as you!!! and thanks alot, you Really took away from my fishing experience!!! I don't have an atv or snowmobile, but the idea that i couldn't use one if i did does not make me happy. I would have loved on last year after treking all over that place in knee deep snow pulling a sled with 100#s of gear.
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Jimmer jammer you hit it right on the $$. I've lived in bozeman since 1989 and have grown up in this valley. It disgusts me to see what the tree huggers have done to what has alway's been one of the best outdoor communities. Why can't we all just do what we enjoy and stay out of each others business. I enjoy ripping around on a frozen lake once in a while...I also don't mind skiing or fishing but that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy them all at the same time. People need to freeking get a life... >:( Anyways, fishing up at hyalite meanwhile is going to pot. The freaking hippy's got the road plowed and now the traffic up there is ridiculous. I would put my life on the fact that we are now putting ten times the amount of pollution into the atmosphere and up there and damaging more "plant life" than when the road wasn't plowed and the only way to get up there was by snow machine or ATV. I love Bozeman, but hate what it is becoming :-\
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So before this warm weather melts away the ice, who's up for fishing river rock pond en mass?
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So before this warm weather melts away the ice, who's up for fishing river rock pond en mass?
;D ;D
I saw a funny thing at the Oak Street pond yesterday while the kids were sledding. If you walk to the corner of the pond closest to the parking lot you'll see a small section of open water. As you get close to the open water a bunch of minnows will get spooked under the ice, where there are trout waiting for them. The trout will start darting out from under the ice to grab the ones on the edge. This carnage kept me amused for at least five minutes ;). I was thinking of getting my flyrod and seeing if I could dab a fly at the ice edge and pick a few off.
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went to the bozeman beach for a couple hours yesterday and caught a nice amount of perch and a couple nice rainbows
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Nice, sounds like a good day, never fished that pond before, where on the pond do you like to fish? any size to the perch??
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i dont fish that pond very much but i fished by the wooden dock and the biggest perch was probably about 11-12 inches and the rest were about 9-10
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nice those are good sized perch, thanks
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went out to the beach again to mess around and got into another school of perch a couple nice ones and and a couple bows too overall abput 25 fish in 3 hours
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I think i say you out there this morning. It was a cold morning, I was thinking bout going this afternoon but had too much crap to do. Sounds like you had a good day. Nice Work!!!
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Does anyone keep the fish out of the beach???
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people do...but I know it used to be an old landfill
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hahaha, I knew that. Thats why I was asking. Nothing like eating fish that taste like a diaper. :o
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it actually has never been a landfill, it used to just be a gravel pit. the landfill was to the east of the pond!!
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it actually has never been a landfill, it used to just be a gravel pit. the landfill was to the east of the pond!!
mtman000 is correct, they pulled gravel out of there to make the N. 7th RR overpass many moons ago. I wouldnt hesitate and have taken a few home from there for the pan. Nice to hear of some bigger perch being iced out there this year.
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fished at the bozeman beach for a few hours this morning, pretty slow, jusst a few trout, no perch!! dang it!!
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My only thing about eating the fish is I know that the FWP puts some of the old breeding stock in the pond so the trout can get a little old and not so tasty.
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Anyone know where to pull some perch out of this pond and what they are biting on?
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We caught alot of smaller perch last night, nothing huge biggest was 8in, and a few rainblows, but the GF had fun so thats all that matters right? They were hitting on ratfinkees and a perch colored forage minnow, both tipped with maggots around 20fow. Good luck fishin'!
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Where you fishing the south end of the lake, or where were you located? Thanks
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Have fished both the Gallatin rec. area pond and the mall pond the past week or so. Had a little better luck at the gallatin rec area, but both places were pretty slow. A few weeks ago I had a good day out on the mall pond, caught around 12 fish. Mostly perch and a few rainbows. Are there any other ponds to fish around Bozeman or Belgrade area? I have read people posting about an Oak pond, is that just another name for one of these ponds? Any info would be appreciated!
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To get to Oak Street just drive west on Oak from 19th. The ponds are on the right about 1.5 miles down, after the small S-turn in the road (which is just past Davis Street). The ice on the first one seems questionable to me, but the back pond is usually pretty solid. Just trout and suckers in there, nothing special, but the kids can also sled on the hill if they get board.
rg
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I went out to the Oak ponds today. Caught a few rainbows minutes after putting my line in the water, and I left the bait at home, so I was just using a swedish pimple with a bare hook and got a few. Within 20 mins of getting there I had caught 3 small rainbows, then a bad wind/snow storm picked up, so I stuck around for a few more mins with no luck and got out of there. Nothing big out of there, but 3 rainbows in around 30 min of fishing isn't bad. Its fun to just catch some, even if they aren't very big. Around 4 inches of ice there, I just fished a few yards out from the parking area.
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I fished EGRA bozeman beach today from 12pm to 6pm and caught 3 perch. 23 feet of water on northeast side. Saw school after school on the finder, but most fish would not bite, just hover next to the jig. Seems like fishing pressure has made them smart. No bites on spoons or jigging baits, only fish caught were on ratfinkies. Probly would have gotten more bites if i was there in the morning vs afternoon.
(https://s10.postimg.cc/oo42baeit/58_C4_EF5_F-588_A-43_F9-_BAB4-99_D559232454.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/oo42baeit/)
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What are the ice conditions? Weather has been funky and I am curious how the ice is holding up in town.