Author Topic: North Idaho Ice (Read 540115 times)

Idahogator · « **Reply #450 on:** Feb 10, 2011, 09:43 AM »

That is really odd the way Round Lake opened up. I have a guess, as to why. Too much rain in the vast area that drains into Cocolalla Creek, then into that lake, then into Round and most of the area is shallow as that field to the east of Hwy.95 around 460-464 m. marker (tatonkas were grazing there for a while ~AKA bison). That field was flooded for weeks and the north end still is and with the mild temperatures a few weeks ago, and the resulting warmer large quantities of inflow fouled Round Lake and melted the good ice it had and is still on going.
So be VERY CAREFUL on both these lakes.

Might as well blame Al Gore for this too.

Tom

PS Poor luck with the brookies in Cocolalla ~ could only find 1/5 of a limit last Saturday.

perchhead1 · « **Reply #451 on:** Feb 10, 2011, 10:04 AM »

Wed was slow for me on Cocolalla brought home 5 fish, did not see much going on around me, about 40 people on the ice.

DakotaElkSlayer · « **Reply #452 on:** Feb 11, 2011, 11:07 PM »

Went to Elk Creek Reservoir today... Had a layer of ice, a layer of water, and then another layer of ice. All I know is by the time my drill made it all the way through, I was ALMOST to the powerhead!!! Probably couldn't pay me enough to fish it with a hand auger. Fishing was very, very slow. Was looking for brookies and caught three and one bow.

Jim

Hauser lake · « **Reply #453 on:** Feb 12, 2011, 12:51 AM »

Out of Hauser. Still a foot of ice

riske · « **Reply #454 on:** Feb 12, 2011, 12:50 PM »

Nice Crappie. If your walking off your dock I think you fishing one of my old spots. Try it at night.

Blueduck your back!!! Where you been?

fishslayerX · « **Reply #455 on:** Feb 12, 2011, 01:17 PM »

those are pretty nice crappie I went and fished cocolalla lake with minimal success then I fished the creek caught a 22" brown trout made my day I will post a pic when I figure out how to get them from my phone to photobucket.

riske · « **Reply #456 on:** Feb 12, 2011, 02:38 PM »

You didnt have success at Lalla land? Dang. I just got the boy dressed and ready to go.

Oh well we are gonna give it a shot anywho.
Where were you fishing?
I will post later how we do.

Jay K · « **Reply #457 on:** Feb 12, 2011, 09:31 PM »

Looking to try Hauser - aside from the non-resident fishing license (coming out of Spokane), will I need some sort of parking permit to park at the public launch? I'm not launching a boat, but will I still need to purchase the "launch" pass? TIA.

chipmunksniper · « **Reply #458 on:** Feb 12, 2011, 10:30 PM »

No fee to park there as far as i know. You can also drive around to the north end by taking cliffhouse rd, the big rocky point on that end has turnouts where people park and fish.

riske · « **Reply #459 on:** Feb 13, 2011, 11:10 AM »

So me and the boy went out to Cocolalla yesterday only to fish for 15 min and some Jackhole decided he was going to come out and spin doughnuts on his quad right by us. So we packed it up and headed for Kelso.

We fished until about 5 with zero takers. IDGF came out as we were walking off the ice and walked right up to my little spudhead and asked him if he had a license,, " Umm No" he said. So Johnny Law says " Do you want one?" SURE!!! So he wrote out a Junior Fishing Certificate for him. He was so Jacked up. Made that boys day.

We headed for the truck. And by the time I got all our crp packed up and snow clothes put away the GW was coming back off. We talked for a bit and he mentioned some lakes that are producing fish. All the same ones we all talk about here.

Speaking of the lakes we talk about. There must be alot of people reading these cuz I havent seen this many people on the lakes in a long time. Last time there was this much Ice interest people were driving on Spirit lake. I have been hitting multiple lakes on most of my trips and they are all packed.

HHHmmmmm? Where to go today?

jwice444 · « **Reply #460 on:** Feb 13, 2011, 11:36 AM »

I was wondering if anybody has ever fished antelope lake by Clark Fork. It is okay for trout in the summer, but I don't know how it is through the ice. Is the road even plowed? $:-\$

fishslayerX · « **Reply #461 on:** Feb 13, 2011, 12:23 PM »

I have never been to antalope in the winter I think if all the bows don't get pulled out in the summer they will still be their for ice season. It is good to here fish and game getting out their and checking some fishermen I have been checked twice this year. That equals the number of times I have been checked in previous 6 years, I was starting to wonder if they went out in the field anymore. I do think a lot of people check this web site the number goes up every day sometimes by the hundreds, that is pretty cool I hope they get some info and stay safe. As for the dude on the four weeler what a jerk people have no class sometimes. I would have chucked a perch at him haha

Jay K · « **Reply #462 on:** Feb 13, 2011, 10:36 PM »

Quote from: riske on Feb 13, 2011, 11:10 AM

There must be alot of people reading these cuz I havent seen this many people on the lakes in a long time.

Yeah, and you can also tell by the lack of ice fishing tackle left at Cabela's. Stopped by this afternoon hopefully to pick up some sale items, and everything that's left are the "weird colors" and "giant lures." Last year (probably cause of the short season) there was tons of stuff left on clearance. Now there's only 1 short shelf front and back.

fishinPA · « **Reply #463 on:** Feb 14, 2011, 12:06 PM »

Fished Round Lake for the first time this year. Caught my limit of 12 inch bows. Ice was about 5-6 inches just off the dock. A few guys were having some good luck there catching bows and an occasional brookie or small bass on worms and maggots. I swung around the open water and ventured out on the safe-looking ice on the back side of it. Caught my fish int he top 10 feet there mostly on a jig with shrimp. Ice there was consistently 4 inches and solid as far as I was willing to venture out.

I hit Cocolalla's east side for an hour or two on the way back home, but only managed 2 perch. Despite the weather reports of rain, not a drop fell on me. I count this as a win.

fishslayerX · « **Reply #464 on:** Feb 14, 2011, 04:24 PM »

shrimp may have try that sometime, I use them on the clearwater but never tried them ice fishing not shure why. Be safe on round lake with the open water my friends dog fell into it last year and the rescue cost them a fortune, keep your dog on a leash when their is open water. Be safe I do not like the sounds of it their may other thin spots.

plfish · « **Reply #465 on:** Feb 14, 2011, 07:33 PM »

I checked the ice on Priest Lake yesterday. Saturday night the warm winds came in and blew all night and the temp jumped to near 50 most of the night. By morning the temp was back down to 25 but alot of ice disappeared in the bays. Cavanaugh Bay was ice covered but I never went on the ice. From shore it looked to be about 2 inches thick with several large cracks and smaller holes showing. I hit Chase Lake for about 40 minutes or so with only some 6 inch perch showing up. I did have some wolves howling nearby though...

Idahogator · « **Reply #466 on:** Feb 14, 2011, 07:59 PM »

Good advise, this,

Quote from: fishslayerX on Feb 14, 2011, 04:24 PM

shrimp may have try that sometime, I use them on the clearwater but never tried them ice fishing not shure why. Be safe on round lake with the open water my friends dog fell into it last year and the rescue cost them a fortune, keep your dog on a leash when their is open water. Be safe I do not like the sounds of it their may other thin spots.

Also, just a little reminder here, as I recall the weather this season, we had ice and then a lot of snow that received a lot of rain, that then solidified (maybe jelled ). This sequence of events equates to a lot of gas in the ice we have remaining and what we are calling ICE is somewhere to be found on a scale that has whipped cream at the weak end. If I frighten you to be a little more attentive to being safe as well as staying on top, good.

Tom

fishslayerX · « **Reply #467 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 12:15 PM »

Are any of you from Washington what is up with the lack of Info on iceshanty I know a bit about Ice in eastern WA but their is nothing on here. Some one should, grab the fish by the gills, and start a blog on WA I for one would be interested. How is the ice in ID have not been out for a wile this weather is awful warm and rainy any how i am going fishing on thurs any sugestions?

Idahogator · « **Reply #468 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 01:01 PM »

It's an odd thing that Washington, with all the ice on many lakes, has no home here on IceShanty. There was an attempt in the last year or so to get it started. Why it didn't happen, who knows?

Have heard good reports from guys that fish Moses Lake (two years back) on iced perch, 350 between them in 2 days.

Saturday, the storm did a lot of destruction on the north side ice on LPO in Sandpoint areas.

My suggestion for your outing Thursday is be very careful what you step on and if you survive ~ please report the conditions and measured thicknesses of ice here. Thanks.

Good luck, Tom

fishslayerX · « **Reply #469 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 01:30 PM »

Good advice. I was wondering about the lakes in WA with Tiger trout I have caught them in the summer, was thinking of trying in ice season. Also I wish ID would jump on the Tiger band wagon, they can not reproduce and grow 9in a year pretty cool we never caught one under 18in they are tasty too. We seem stuck on bows that taste like dog food here, maybe we should take up a petition or something deversify our trout pop I am sick of Rainbows from the hatchery I don't even keep them unless they choke and croak. How bought some Browns in lakes were they can not escape, or a cool native like Bull trout even Cutthroat maybe I'm alone in this, but don't think so.

Idahogator · « **Reply #470 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 01:57 PM »

Ya, those "planters" do taste odd but, they sure smoke easily and all that off-fish taste is gone or at least masked. Sweet brine and one pan of chips ~ just don't over-smoke as they aren't to good dried out.

fishslayerX · « **Reply #471 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 03:08 PM »

Do you fillet them first or smoke em and pull the bones. I got a freezer packed with brookies frozen in blocks of brine and am planning on thawing em and having a smoke down, o and some Kokes too. I plan on buying a smoker any suggestions? I have only smoked turkeys so, if I can pull that off fish should be fairly easy I think.

fishinPA · « **Reply #472 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 04:34 PM »

I think the reason there are not many posts about lakes in Eastern Washington on IceShanty is because there's already an existing blog at www.washingtonlakes.co m. I see regular posts there on popular ice-fishing lakes like Silver Lake and Eloika Lake. You'll occasionally get one on Hog Canyon and 4th of July lakes when the fishing is hot. Ice fishing is more restricted in Washington than in Idaho. You can fish most of the lakes in the Panhandle all winter long, so there's more to talk about.

The only place I've caught Tiger Trout is at Fish Lake in Cheney WA. I usually hit that lake on or about opening day of fishing season and catch a limit of 12"-14" Tigers. They're fun to catch. Bows are acrobats, leaping out of the water. Tigers dive. At times I've thought I had a 4 pound fish and pull up a 12 inch Tiger. If you've found other spots where you catch the Tigers, let me know.

Idahogator · « **Reply #473 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 04:55 PM »

Quote from: fishslayerX on Feb 16, 2011, 03:08 PM

Do you fillet them first or smoke em and pull the bones. I got a freezer packed with brookies frozen in blocks of brine and am planning on thawing em and having a smoke down, o and some Kokes too. I plan on buying a smoker any suggestions? I have only smoked turkeys so, if I can pull that off fish should be fairly easy I think.

I've always sweet brined 10" to 14" planters. Brown sugar and canning salt dissolved in non-city water 5 hours to overnight. Drain and let pelicle form, only one pan of chips and depending on the weather, smoke 3 to 5 hours. Leave fish whole until time to eat.

Little Chief is a small unit that works well but, in winter I slide the box it came in, over the smoker and make a small notch for the chip pan handle to stick out. This gives a bit of insulation to get the heat up so, caution here and don't burn the contents. Check a mid level fish for doneness in 4 to 5 hours. If the bears are out, post a guard, ha. Enjoy.

Tom

DakotaElkSlayer · « **Reply #474 on:** Feb 16, 2011, 10:19 PM »

Quote from: fishslayerX on Feb 16, 2011, 12:15 PM

Are any of you from Washington what is up with the lack of Info on iceshanty I know a bit about Ice in eastern WA but their is nothing on here. Some one should, grab the fish by the gills, and start a blog on WA I for one would be interested. How is the ice in ID have not been out for a wile this weather is awful warm and rainy any how i am going fishing on thurs any sugestions?

I also suggested a Washington Ice Fishing dohickey on here early this winter to no avail. Like it was mentioned, washingtonlakes.com has some ice fishing information, but not a heck of a lot. Go on there and read the ice fishing forum and you will hear about a few lakes around Spokane that still has good ice. Here, the ice is good in the local reservoirs and Winchester is holding up well.

Jim

Jay K · « **Reply #475 on:** Feb 17, 2011, 01:32 AM »

I'm from Spokane, and I asked re: a WA thread and it was suggested that maybe more WA members need to officially join IceShanty as militia members, thereby obtaining a WA thread. I post at WAlakes under the same moniker.

eatumfish · « **Reply #476 on:** Feb 17, 2011, 08:54 PM »

look's like more cold coming, yeah!!!!

DakotaElkSlayer · « **Reply #477 on:** Feb 17, 2011, 11:18 PM »

Quote from: eatumfish on Feb 17, 2011, 08:54 PM

look's like more cold coming, yeah!!!!

jwice444 · « **Reply #478 on:** Feb 18, 2011, 12:27 AM »

kfedka · « **Reply #479 on:** Feb 18, 2011, 09:53 AM »

Quote from: Jay K on Feb 17, 2011, 01:32 AM

I'm from Spokane, and I asked re: a WA thread and it was suggested that maybe more WA members need to officially join IceShanty as militia members, thereby obtaining a WA thread. I post at WAlakes under the same moniker.

When I first showed up here, I was surprised how active the thread was for ID. It worth a try for WA, kinda late in the season, but it would be a good start for next year ice fishing.

News:

Author Topic: North Idaho Ice (Read 540115 times)