North Idaho Ice

[Idahogator]

Howdy Cromag, welcome to Iceshanty.

Read back a few pages right here and you'll be up to date on what's been/is going on in the Panhandle.   

[elkhuntinfool]

I have been jealous of all you guys that have been able to get out during the week while I have been stuck working. Finally glad its the weekend going to go hit Hayden tomorrow

[RayneBidziil22]

i havent heard any news about the ice on hayden but i have heard that the pike bite is almost 0 fish being caught heard that from both fins&feathers and blacksheep

[baetis_elk]

Fished Fernan Friday afternoon (3:00-5:00) and Saturday morning (7:00-10:30).  The bite was slow and I didn't mark very many fish on either outing.  Managed to land a large crappie Friday evening.  Landed two large mouth bass (about 11" each) and one decent perch (9") Saturday morning.  Had one relatively large fish break me off, never saw what it was.

Ice is 7-8" most every where (measured) although there are a few thinner places along the shorelines where it pulled back a few weeks ago and has refrozen.

[cromag]

Thanks for the info! Is mirror lake access good ? The temps here are from 6 to 40 so the ice is really good ! Thanks again

[Idahogator]

Go beyond Mirror Lake to the Scout camp, on the left, free parking and no lake access fee.     

[RayneBidziil22]

upper twin lake
fishing is great caught over 90 perch most ranging from 6-10 inch seen a 18 inch large mouth bass swim by my camera and also a small pike that attacked my jig and took it. most of the perch caught were on a VMC wax tail jig in 1/100 oz(0.3g) and i didn't really need to bait it with maggots cause that's how aggressive they were (cabelas and fins&feathers sells the jigs) it didn't matter where i set up i was getting perch like crazy (just look for 3 holes drilled close together and you will know where i was). also does any one know if sportsmans access on hayden is doing for pike

[sihlms391]

Had a long day.  Fished gamble.   Got a nice ten inch perch and lots single hits that I missed.  Bite light. Then went to mirror.  Kokanee fishing  was slow.  Got two and some other fisherman I talked to got there limit but took hours.  Bite was lite.  Should have tried to catch brookies at end next to boy scout camp.   No one fishing Shepherd.  Anyone catch any crappie out of gamble?

[badlandspc]

what is the best northern Idaho kokanee lake to fish for quality salmon?

[elkhuntinfool]

I went and fished Hayden yesterday only saw on small pike caught going to go back out and give it another shot perch fishing was decent out there the ice was between 6-7 inches

[DEER4DINNER]

Had a long day.  Fished gamble.   Got a nice ten inch perch and lots single hits that I missed.  Bite light. Then went to mirror.  Kokanee fishing  was slow.  Got two and some other fisherman I talked to got there limit but took hours.  Bite was lite.  Should have tried to catch brookies at end next to boy scout camp.   No one fishing Shepherd.  Anyone catch any crappie out of gamble?

Fished gamble Saturday.  Our group (4 adults, 2 kids fishing) only caught 2 perch.  Good size though 12"+.  I caught one on a tip-up.  That was fun.  Had about 4 other flags.  Cooked white chicken chili on the coleman stove.  Fun day

[Idahogator]

what is the best northern Idaho kokanee lake to fish for quality salmon?

We need your definition of quality as to size or quantity per outing. Some lakes are in recovery mode and have a limit of only six. Someone gets a few 16" to 20", speaks up about it and gets more than a few requests for silence. The two largest lakes don't freeze over and it's a bit chilly fer a boat, ha.   

[stjoemitch]

Fished the Benewah Trestle and the perch were numerous, but small,  Did get a few keepers out of one hole along with a crappie.  A bunch of guys out with tip-ups searching for pike, but no flags as of 10:00 AM.

[sticksandstring]

Fished Benewah Lake the last two days. Lots of small perch. Hand full of nice size ones. Finally fount the crappy maybe 20 in all only 3 where keepers. Had 14 flags and only one pike to show for it. Really picky lots of runs and drops. O and one 3 1/2 bass. Not a bad weekend.

[elkhuntinfool]

Went back out to Hayden and ended up catching 2 2-3lb pike slow day not much was going on out there

[plfish]

Haven't been out much the past few weeks with some busy schedules.  Last Monday I took my 8 yr old and one of his friends on Blue Lake and only landed 2 perch.  We had to get back mid afternoon so had a short time on the ice.   Went back to Blue by myself today and did OK.  Had two tip ups out all afternoon but no takers.  I did find the crappie though and landed a dozen or so while jigging.  The flasher was the trick as the bite was finicky and very soft.  Also landed a few perch 7-9 inches and a few small pumpkinseed.  Ice was a solid 12 inches (measured) and had the whole lake to myself.

Also thinking about trying Freeman Lake....anyone have any experience on the ice there?

[Carguy]

Plfish: I haven't fished Freeman this year but I have fished it several times through the ice in years past.

You will want to fish the shoreline directly across the lake from the dock about 15 to 20 feet in from the shoreline. The rest of the lake is very shallow and weedy.

It has decent size trout, 1 to 2 lb bass, decent size bluegill, small perch and monster pike and tiger muskie.
Good luck and please post your results if you try it

[hugeinchina]

Fished Winchester Saturday morning for their Derby and only stayed about 2 hours. While the ice was good (8"+) it was making an awful lot of noise and scared the bejeezus out of my wife! We had only caught one dink perch so we hightailed it north to Spring Valley Res near Troy. The ice there is excellent (10"+) and the rainbow bite was very very good. Caught bows at every depth we tried from 6 inches off the bottom to 6 inches below the ice. Pieces of nightcrawler on glow hooks did the trick. Preferably a glow hook with a little red in it, but they were being caught on a variety of different variations. We took home 7 fish Saturday and went back Sunday to bag another 8. GREAT weekend! We are headed up north this next weekend though to try for some perch in the Sandpoint area. We got skunked at Round two weekends ago, are the fish biting there again? Any suggestions?
Thanks!

[Idahogator]

No good news from Round, yet.    Upper Twin seems good for lots of perch action. Good luck.

[hugeinchina]

Upper twin is a bit too far south for me. Especially if I am up in the Sandpoint area for the weekend. I read those reports though, sounds like they are killing them down there!

[sihlms391]

gamble is a good perch and bass lake up next to sagle.    bite is light.  helps to have fish finder.  I went there two days in a row.  got one  good  perch each day and then went top mirror to get kokanee.  bite for kokanee is slow and are hitting light. 

[hugeinchina]

Thanks, no fish finder here. Has anyone tried Cocalala lately or is the ice still bad? What about Sunnyside?

[sstaaben]

Fished Round Lake Saturday, 6 hrs- 4 Rainbows, good size. Night crawler didn't seem to matter what color lure but 8-12 feet depth was butter zone.

[hugeinchina]

Thanks for the report on Round. See anyone pull any perch out??

[sihlms391]

saw a couple guys on cocollala on ice next to railroad tracks on north end.  lots open water on it.  i haven't tried it.

[hugeinchina]

Yeah there was open water when I was up there week before last. Don't think I will test it.

[Socko]

Avondale lots of dinks no hogs :perch: fished from 14:00 till dark.  Getting on the ice a little sketch, but once there whole lake seemed safe! 

[sihlms391]

a guy i know showed me some pictures of some perch from avondale this year and where at least ten inches.     

[stjoemitch]

Fished Rose Lake today and after a lot of moving around I caught enough for dinner (if you are on a diet). Then switched gears and went to Cave. The sun was out, ice was OK and catching was no go.

[Socko]

"sihlms391" only a hand full of 9"plus but over 50 caught between two peeps