south east id

[massNtrash]

Thanks for the tips panfish

I fished Montpelier for about an hour today on my way by so I figured I'd give a ice report. Where I was there was 12-14 inches of snow with 6-8 inches of slush under that. The ice was around 20 inches under all of that. The problem was with that much weight on top of the ice when you drilled your hole about 6 inches of water would come up on top of the ice. Fishing was good though the perch were hungry and so were the trout. I caught somewhere around 40 in an hour.

[IrishnId]

Thanks for the report. Monday is my first day home, and I've got a gnarly itch to drill some ice!

[panfishman13]

took another trip to Johnson yesterday, and absolutely cleaned house with over 125 fish landed between me and my buddy.

average size for bluegill was about 7", the biggest was 8". we also caught a few trout, a couple perch, and a nice little 9" largemouth.

a couple of the trout we caught were lucky to be alive, with big ol' muskie bite wounds on them, one was still bleeding. we measured one of the bite marks to be about 5" wide, so there's some really good muskie in there, and they're feeding on 8" to 10" trout.

there's about 10" of good clear ice under 2" of white ice, with 4" of slush and water on top (waterproof boots are a must, and snowshoes would be handy as well). old holes from more than a week ago are still not frozen over, so be very careful out there.

the road should be pretty passable for most vehicles, though it can get a bit rough in spots. if you have 4 wheel drive you'll have no trouble whatsoever.

i'll probably try and make at least one more trip out there this year, but if this weather keeps up i may have to pack away my ice gear early.

[IrishnId]

Awesome! Thanks for the report. Tomorrows my first day off, and I plan on hitting it. Care to share what was working for ya? If not I totally understand. I wanna try that perch chowder on the fixens page. Thanks a lot!

[panfishman13]

small glow jigs tipped with waxworms. i highly recommend setting a second rod next to you with a bobber, because it'll catch all the non-aggressive fish you miss jigging.

we tried plastics and had a couple hits, but only from the smaller, more aggressive fish.

[IrishnId]

Thanks! I'm thinking this will be the last week for me. Holy cow its warm out.

[panfishman13]

it's supposed to get colder after tuesday, but i'm eyeing my open water gear, might head down below the AF dam for some C&R smallmouth

this must be what we get for starting our ice season early   

speaking of ice conditions, has anyone been to Mctucker or Roberts Gravel pond recently?

[IrishnId]

Thanks panfishman13! Today was awesome!

[panfishman13]

glad to hear it! i read your other post and it sounds like it's gonna be safe down there for quite a while yet!

[troutking90]

any one know if you can get to winder res ? i went up to johnsons and that roads starting to get messy

[panfishman13]

anybody know the conditions at Mctucker? i'm gonna try and make a trip out there probably next week. i'll haul along the open water stuff just in case, but it'd be nice to be able to plan ahead.

[panfishman13]

took a drive out to Weston reservoir today, there's 8 feet of open water, then another 6 feet of slush before any kind of ice.

Deep Creek and Devil's Creek looked to be in about the same situation.