North Idaho Ice

[sihlms391]

Fishin,  I think the ice will hang in there.  Fernan might not be that great but ice on lower twin is holding up pretty good.  Glad someone is doing good on perch.    I  was in  50 feet of water just about hundred yards from dock on lower twin.   Lots of small perch and a few good ones.  I tried my normal spots but they were slow.    It is going to be freezing all next week at night and the highs won't be that warm.  I have never done good on fernan but haven't tried that much.    I don't know where the underground springs are on fernan.  Thanks for info.  Do you fish with a fish finder?

[plfish]

Icefire....arbor is right about Blue Lake being near Priest River,  just look about 8 miles north of Priest River.  The ice was good last Saturday, but with the warmer temps and rain this week I'm not too confident on its condition.  It will likely be OK still, but if you go  be careful as the warmer temps have definitely hit up north here.  The access to the lake goes through about 100 feet of cattails in shallow water.  Typically this area will show some ice pulling away from the shore first as the winter wears on.  It was good last weekend but I haven't seen it since then.  Just like everyone else said.....be careful.

[sihlms391]

Late spring fishing is spooky sometimes.  I am very cautious now.    I do feel more comfortable when someone goes with me.  Even if it is just my dog.  If I don't  try new lakes late spring because of run off.   

[icefire2012]

Ok, thanks for the info guys.  Sad to see such a short winter this year.

[sihlms391]

Looks like it might make it until first of year for ice fishing.  I think I might try some night ice fishing on lower twin.    Temp are looking good.   

[Idahogator]

Looks like it might make it until first of year for ice fishing. 

Didja loose  five weeks Sihlms391 ? Or are we gonna freeze up 'til 2014 ?   Oh, wait, it's Friday night, oops, sorry.   

[sihlms391]

Lower twin still  has 7 inches on it all the way to the other side Idahogator.

[fishinPA]

sihlms391,

Yes, I use a fish finder.  I have a Lowrance with a conversion kit for ice fishing.  I will usually see some movement just before the jig hits bottom if there's something down there.  I'll fish for about 10 minutes even if I see nothing, 'cause sometimes they're down there anyway.  No visual and no bites in 10 minutes and I move on till I find something.  At Fernan, I found that sometimes a school would swim through and the bite would be on for 15 minutes and then they were gone.  Other times I would hit their home base and it was gangbusters for 4 hours.  The other fishfinder I uses is sighting the hulking masses above the ice that give me a sense of the general location and depth.

[stjoemitch]

Is Fernan still fishable on the ice. Last time I was there, the ice was beginning to pull away from the shore/

[perchsoup]

ICE FIRE

AS STATED BEFORE TO GET TO BLUE LAKE TAKE THE EAST SIDE ROAD JUST EAST OF PRIEST RIVER, GO NORTH PAST COP SHOP A DISTANCE OF 8.5 MILES TO BLUE LAKE ROAD ON YOUR RIGHT AND THEN A MILE OR SO.
        ALSO YOU CAN GO NORTH OUT OF PREIST RIVER ON 57 A DISTANCE OF 3.6 MILES, HANG  RIGHT ON PENINSULA ROAD, GO 4.4 MILES PAST GREEN OWL TAVERN TO EAST SIDE CUTOFF ROAD TO EAST SIDE ROAD ,THEN BACK SOUTH TO BLUE LAKE ROAD.  TAVERN MAY BE OPEN ON YOUR WAY BACK IF FISHING WASN'T GOOD.

[sstaaben]

Went to Fernan Saturday, once you get past the shore line its not bad still 4" plus in most areas.

[DR0CK]

Pretty good crappie bite just after dark on twin until I left at eight. Would help if you had electronics but anywhere in the bottom 5-6 ft was where they were hanging. Good luck

[baetis_elk]

Pretty good crappie bite just after dark on twin until I left at eight. Would help if you had electronics but anywhere in the bottom 5-6 ft was where they were hanging. Good luck

How deep of water were you in DROCK and how was the ice?

[BlueDuck]

I drove by Round Lake and Cocolalla yesterday.  Open water is starting to show on both.  Im thinking its over on a lot of our north Idaho lakes.  Id like to see everyone switch over to My Fish Finder the sister site to Ice shanty for the spring and summer.  Its been way underused in the past but could be just as helpful as this site if people would use it.  The link is on the upper left of this page near the heading.  Hope to see you on the lake.  Mike

[DR0CK]

Baetis the depth was eighteen ft they were in the same area as the perch but after dark the only thing i caught was crappies

[DR0CK]

Sorry the ice is solid no slush 5-6" clear with a couple more of white frozen slush on top. Its always cooler that area .I'd be willing to bet that spirit is just fine also.

[baetis_elk]

Thanks for the good info DROCK, much appreciated.

[icefire2012]

Thanks for the site info BlueDuck....I'll try it out

[DR0CK]

No prob good luck

[sstaaben]

You are right Blue Duck, round and coco lake are done for ice but we hit Gamble, Shepard and Kelso today all 3 are solid still (for now) but not much happening any any of them. Anyone have any recent luck with any of them?

[icefire2012]

I sure as heck haven't had much luck on Kelso lately.

[sihlms391]

Well my wife gave me a bunch of money for v day so now I can get the marcum lx-5.   I hope cabelas still has one left,  I have a marcum vx-1pro that works great but I want the extra options the lx-5 has.   I was going to sell my vx-1pro  but my wife doesn't want me to sell it.

[icefire2012]

Nice!!  Why would she care if you keep the VX-1Pro or not??

[sihlms391]

She wants me to keep vx-1pro just in case I don't like lx-5.   Sold things and then end up buying them again at some point.  Icefire.   When we go fishing on saturday you can us my vx-1pro if I can get the lx-5 at cabela's.

[DR0CK]

That's a pretty cool ol lady she has good taste in gifts. I still think that vexilar is the top dog though when it comes to ice  fishing electronics.

[stjoemitch]

Thinking about going to Fernan on the east end. Fished it two days ago and the ice was still OK and if you picked your spot getting on and off was fairly easy.  How was it today?

[stjoemitch]

I have the Marcum VX-1 and my buddy has the next model up.  I like the VX-1 zoom mode.  My jigs are green bands and the bottom if hard is red. Orange or green bands that come off the bottom are generally fish and a slight lift and I can see how aggressive the perch are going to be.  My buddies unit has orange bands and occasional green with a red bottom read.  We have used it over the course of one winter here and at Cascade and we both agree, for perch my green bands are more distinctive.  How can we get his unit to read green with small jigs?

[sihlms391]

I am not sure on that one.  He must have the marcum lx-3?    I just like the idea of the lx-5 and the 8 degree.  I am just don't know if I want to spend 500 dollar right now.    It should pay for itself in a couple of years.    That is why I always buy knew on electronics if I don't like it I will return it.

[DR0CK]

The vex fl 18 genz pack I have has green,orange and red works the same as you were talking about with red being the strongest and green weak . It comes with a 12 degree transducer I got it about this time of year at cabelas for around three hundred on a close out deal it has a awesome feature called auto-zoom that locks in on only the bottom 6' on one half of the circle with 1" target seperation and the other half is the whole water collum .For as much as your talking you should check these out they  last forever my buddy has had a fl-12 for ten plus years and the original battery still holds a charge for multiple trips.

[stjoemitch]

Thanks for the information.  I really like the unit thus far. It has helped me learn a little more about finicky fish.  My buddy does have the lx-3 and we need to play around with it a little more.