Author Topic: North Idaho Ice (Read 540129 times)

NedShneebly · « **Reply #1050 on:** Jan 03, 2013, 08:56 AM »

Black is about where Thompson is. How about the Benewah? Drove by and it looked close

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1051 on:** Jan 03, 2013, 09:32 AM »

Been duck hunting the Benewah. Ice was about 1 1/2 on the river side of the trusle last weekend. the edge was very soft due to mud not being frozen. On the cam ground side of the trusle the ice was about the same but the edge is very iffy. Ice was above shore line about 4 inch and not touching the water.

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1052 on:** Jan 03, 2013, 09:35 AM »

Also if you are going to go to benewah. Stay away from the white ice big air pockets. Went throw one good thing i had my waders on and it was only 2 feet deep.

elkhuntinfool · « **Reply #1053 on:** Jan 03, 2013, 06:33 PM »

Went driving around and there were around 15 guys on hayden fishing and then some on fernan fishing and skating. I guess the ice on hayden was a little over 3 inches

plfish · « **Reply #1054 on:** Jan 04, 2013, 06:29 PM »

Hit Chase yesterday and the cold temps finally started doing some good. 4 degrees in the morning and the slush layers were mostly firmed up. The whole profile wasn't solid yet but I definitely felt comfortable on the ice. I imagine that it firmed up even more since yesterday. Total depth was 8.5 inches with two slush layers each at about 1/2 inch. Did pretty good with perch....landed about 18-20 in about 2 hrs, but kept only 6. Keepers were 6-8 inches and the throwbacks were pretty small (including one 6 inch largemouth). Usually the perch are bigger but I'm not complaining as I had fun. Used my VX-1P and without it I would have probably only caught a few. Definitely was able to adjust the jig to fish and get ready for them to strike. Still haven't checked Blue Lake yet.

baetis_elk · « **Reply #1055 on:** Jan 04, 2013, 07:56 PM »

Anyone know what the conditions are at Shepherd or Mirror?

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1056 on:** Jan 04, 2013, 09:23 PM »

I will be heading to Elk River tomarrow. Wife wants to go snowshoeing. So I figured I will check the ice and fish if its good enough for the kid. If not i guess i will go snowshoeing.

Idahogator · « **Reply #1057 on:** Jan 04, 2013, 09:30 PM »

You're a lucky fellow Sticks, outdoorsy wife.

idahonative · « **Reply #1058 on:** Jan 04, 2013, 09:51 PM »

Drove by Cocolalla and MacArthur today. Both completely frozen but nobody on them.

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1059 on:** Jan 04, 2013, 10:17 PM »

Guess I didn't mention that if the ice is good me and the kid will be fishing a the wife will be snowshoeing by herself.

BlueDuck · « **Reply #1060 on:** Jan 04, 2013, 10:27 PM »

I fished Upper Twin today. 3 1/2 to 4 inches of ice. Caught lots of small perch. Pike... not so much.

stjoemitch · « **Reply #1061 on:** Jan 05, 2013, 08:03 AM »

Fished Turtle Lake yesterday. 2-3" of good ice. Drilled holes in our normal "hot spots". Set up tip-ups for pike. No flags. Drilled more holes for perch. Digger found one hole that produced. I got bit off twice, so I moved my tip-ups to my perch holes. Nothing.

Theory ....The later start to ice fishing I believe is changing the catch rate.

perchhead1 · « **Reply #1062 on:** Jan 05, 2013, 08:30 AM »

I was able to get out on Jan 2. Slow fishing, my theory is it is slow for me and my style of fishing anytime we have a high barometer. I know the oxygen level will get low after 6 weeks or so of first ice. I believe when there is late ice like this year, light still penetrates to help the weed growth, and so the slowdown will be about 6 weeks after the first real ice up. The barometer is going to go down in a couple of days and I am going to fish my same spot, same holes, etc. I will post up a report. I have followed the pressure factor for a few years and I am a firm believer.

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1063 on:** Jan 05, 2013, 07:20 PM »

Just got backfrom Elk River. Not the fastest day but not bad ether. Brought 4 trout home that were hooked deep. Probably got 15 in all. Ice was 3 inches of white ice on top 4 inches of slush and 2 inches of black under that.

fishman101 · « **Reply #1064 on:** Jan 05, 2013, 10:23 PM »

Was hoping to go try upper twin monday. Anybody fish it today was wondering if anybody got into the pike or not? maybe i should try hayden???

Idahogator · « **Reply #1065 on:** Jan 05, 2013, 10:44 PM »

Quote from: sticksandstring on Jan 05, 2013, 07:20 PM

Ice was 3 inches of white ice on top 4 inches of slush and 2 inches of black under that.

Hey Sticks, at least you got out and stayed on top, with some good luck.

That laminated ice is a spooky challenge. Old timer told me about 18" of water between two "slabs" of good ice. For some odd reason, they caught most of their fish from the water part of that sandwich.

baetis_elk · « **Reply #1066 on:** Jan 05, 2013, 11:15 PM »

Fished Granite this morning for a couple hours. Ice was about 5.5 - 6 inches but was basically all white honeycomb. Still a slot of open water where the creek comes in. Caught two bass there, one about 6 inches and another about 14. Went up to Mirror next. The ice looked alright but was variable in thickness ranged from 3 inches up to 6. Pretty good hard ice though. Didn't fish there. I opted to go exploring and headed up to Chase lake. The ice there was not so good. was about 5-6 inches of relatively soft white ice with about an inch of slush then maybe an inch of clear black ice. Only caught a few small perch. The bite was slow and very light today. Sure was a beautiful day to explore some new lakes with a friend though.

idahonative · « **Reply #1067 on:** Jan 05, 2013, 11:56 PM »

Has anyone checked out Gamble yet?

sihlms391 · « **Reply #1068 on:** Jan 06, 2013, 12:06 AM »

idahonative. I have fished kelso. At least 2 inches clear ice and 2 inches of snow ice. Just avoid the dark spots. Gamble has about the same amount of ice off the end of the dock. There is no parking around gamble. They didn't plow into the camping area. Caught a couple trout and one perch at kelso the other day.

plfish · « **Reply #1069 on:** Jan 06, 2013, 11:16 AM »

Hit Blue lake yesterday. 4.5- 5 inches of firm ice. However, there were a few areas where there was a slush layer on top stretching out for a few hundred yards. I drilled one hole on the edge of this and it was 1 inch of slush on top of 3.5 inches of relatively firm ice. I decided to stay out of that area. Stayed closer to the access as we didn't have much time and only had a couple of real soft bites. I would have liked more time to test the ice going further out but didn't get to it.

Baetis....I think the heavy snow we had up here a couple of weeks ago has kept the ice pretty insulated on Chase. The 4 degree morning on Thursday was great for getting things firmer, but the day before, I left the ice after drilling one test hole due to the lack of hard ice and slush layers. We still need a couple more nights of single degree temps to firm up Chase. Usually Chase is hard and pretty thick compared to the other area lakes. Most years in early Jan I'm on 8+ inches and by the mid to end of January the last few years I've been on 14-18 inches of ice. When I was out Thursday on Chase my flasher was what saved me in catching fish....were you using one?

baetis_elk · « **Reply #1070 on:** Jan 06, 2013, 02:22 PM »

Plfish, that explains well what I found in the ice on Chase. Pretty much looked like the ice had formed from the snow/slush. There was almost 4" of slush below the last layer of ice in most the holes I drilled. I followed the line of old holes from the dock out toward the middle of the lake. The old holes had roughly 2" of clear hard ice in them... that was the only good hard I saw out there. We need some zero degree weather for a few days to really firm things up well.

I don't have a flasher but I was using a hummingbird fishing buddy, clamp on fish finder for a canoe/small craft. It's probably not as good a using a flasher but I've started figuring out how to spot fish on it even when it doesn't read a fish specifically. It has really helped my catch rate. I may not have hooked many fish yesterday without it. I even hooked a few without feeling any bite just because I could tell they were there and I figured the had my jig in their mouth so I set the hook and sure enough they were on.

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1071 on:** Jan 06, 2013, 07:16 PM »

Just got back from Turtle lake. Ice is still 2 to 3 inches. Very slow. 4 flags 1 pick no perch. Had my drag to tight on my jigging rod and snapped a nice pike off at the hole.

sihlms391 · « **Reply #1072 on:** Jan 06, 2013, 08:02 PM »

I was just looking back at the post that I did last year. I started fishing round lake December 11, 2011. This I didn't get on ice until January 1st. Now we are getting more snow and we don't have the best ice. Round lake isn't even ready yet. I was there Friday. Has anyone been out to round Sunday. This is going to be a real short year.

stjoemitch · « **Reply #1073 on:** Jan 07, 2013, 07:35 AM »

Fished Black Lake yesterday. 3" of ice in most places. The back bay wasn't safe only 2" with crusty snow on top. Caught a few perch in just a few holes. Never got into a good bite, but did OK. The weather was just right. No wind sunny.

idahonative · « **Reply #1074 on:** Jan 07, 2013, 02:09 PM »

How much ice does Fernan have?

baetis_elk · « **Reply #1075 on:** Jan 07, 2013, 02:14 PM »

I've heard 3-4" but I haven't checked it myself yet.

stjoemitch · « **Reply #1076 on:** Jan 07, 2013, 05:40 PM »

Fished Thompson lake today. The ice was better than the last trip, but 1-3 of snow on top could change things. By days end very slushy around the drilled holes. One pike a few perch and a constant wet rain/snow mix. Thanks goodness for our portable huts.

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1077 on:** Jan 09, 2013, 09:34 AM »

Are we going to be back on this weekend after the warm weather and the cold weather coming.

baetis_elk · « **Reply #1078 on:** Jan 09, 2013, 09:54 AM »

Quote from: sticksandstring on Jan 09, 2013, 09:34 AM

Are we going to be back on this weekend after the warm weather and the cold weather coming.

I'm wondering the same thing. There's alot of slush and water on top of the ice and it's supposed to be pretty breezy today. I don't know if two cold nights before the weekend will be enough or not. I think I'm going to be extra cautious on Saturday. Looks like it should be good by Monday or Tuesday though.

sticksandstring · « **Reply #1079 on:** Jan 09, 2013, 12:05 PM »

I think i will check ice on saterday to see in hops to go sunday

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Author Topic: North Idaho Ice (Read 540129 times)

sihlms391

sihlms391