North Idaho Ice

[jagmt]

Merry Christmas!

[hugeinchina]

Fished Avondale for about three hours, balls was it cold. The ice was around 5 inches with the top inch or so being milky and the bottom 3 to 3.5 being completely clear. The perch bite was extremely light, but the trout were relatively active... if you’re into that. We took two nice perch home and put 8 trout back down the holes. This was to be the first time using my brand new Humminbird Ice 35... but it did not power on. I’ll plug it back into the charger and see if maybe I just prematurely took it off after unboxing and assembling it. Portable ice shelter arrives tomorrow and we sure could have used it today! Looking forward to getting back out there probably Thursday and definitely Friday! Tight lines!

[CMS]

My ICE 55 does that every once in awhile, I just unplug the battery and plug it back in and seems to fix it.

[hugeinchina]

That’s exactly what fixed it... after I got back home. I’ll have to wait until later in the week to try it again.

[Derrick NY]

Hey Hugeinchina, I might of ran into you yesterday I was the guy in the Otter shanty with my wife.
As china was saying the perch bite was incredible soft. They would show up on the flasher a couple at a time look interested then they'd swim away or stair at your jig for a minute or two. If you could get them to chase your jig up a couple of feet off the bottom the would bite.
Took home a dozen perch, one nice 9inch blue gill, released 10-12 trout and gave away 5.

[hugeinchina]

Derrick,

Yep, that was my wife and I out there. We would have been further out on the ice, but one of us is less sure of 5 inches of ice than the other.  I wish I had the Eskimo shelter yesterday. I think we could have given it a bit longer if we were out of the wind. We had not caught anything in about an hour when we decided to pack it in though. Perhaps if my flasher unit had worked, I would have seen that additional key bit of information you saw and improved our perch catch rate.  Anyway, we will probably be out there again Thursday and possibly Friday although the forecast currently has freezing rain in the forecast Friday. Stop by and say hi if you see me! I will have my three sons with me and sometimes my wife as well.

[AlpacasSayQuack]

Hi everybody. I'm Jason from Moscow. This is the first thread I've found that covers n. Idaho. Anyway, thanks for the reports and I thought I've give mine.
I went to Spring Valley today and there is about 6in. of ice with no slush. On three rods (I have a hand auger only and got too lazy to do any more) I limited out in less than 2 hrs with 6 nice sized rainbows. My father-in-law limited out within two hours too running the same depth.
I've fished many times there and I've always found lots of rainbows 7-9 ft down from top of ice. I have no flasher FYI. I just raise my rod 7ish feet above me and let line out to the ice to get depth measurements.

[Fishnfire1]

Anyone been checking on upper or lower twin in the last few days? I checked Saturday there was only about 2-3 inches.

[hugeinchina]

Have the perch in upper twin improved? We fished a couple winters ago and caught just tiny dinks.

[IceChatter]

Thank you for the report on Spring Valley Jason.  I've never fished it...but sounds like I should!  I'll put it on the radar.

We must be gaining ice.   it's 17 degrees out there right now (I'm in hayden). Sorry to change the subject, but I have a question I need to ask the group:

Are there cats in Avondale?   Reason I ask is that I was fishing it during the summer and coming off the lake at dusk.  A couple of guys were launching a boat.  I saw a big jar of something that looked like catfish bait so I asked them what they were going for.  They said "we are catfishing"  I said that I've lived here all my life and didn't know there were catfish in the lake.  They said "oh yeah, there's big ones in here"

Anyone buying that?

[hugeinchina]

According to the IDFG site there are bullhead in there. I haven’t seen any catfish taken through the ice there yet, but I’ve only fished it a half dozen times.

[RayneBidziil22]

The biggest bull head that's been pulled out of Avondale to my knowledge was almost 20 in and I know the guy who caught it

[WinterWizard]

I've caught a few Bullheads in Avondale over the years and they have been bigger than the ones I've caught out of Cd'A Lake.

[IceChatter]

wow...super interesting.  And that is a NICE bullhead!  Worth it enogh that I might start setting a few tipups with some bottom bait just for fun.  You never know.  If I put any on the ice, I'll post it!

[Derrick NY]

I've pulled quite a few bullheads through the ice back East, they put up a real good fight. I've caught them on accident jigging for perch laying on the bottom, and fishing with cut bait 100+ft down for lakers. I'd imagine dropping a tip-up down to the bottom on just off the bottom with a nightcrawler, cut bait, liver or dough bait would work.

[bullpine]

"https://www.amazon.com/drive/v1/nodes/Kpftx7EvNyWeoK3VvX_IhA/contentRedirection?querySuffix=%3FviewBox%3D713%2C950&ownerId=A00385623RFXSWPAW6SR2&cb=1514411568219"

Cut bait. Need to use sharp trebles as the smaller cats like to chew and not trip flag.

[Idahogator]

Hey bullpine,   I'm interested in your link, above.

You should click on it.

[bullpine]

Did it open for you? 

[Idahogator]

Unfortunately it didn't open, bullpine.  And I'm an Amazon user/member.
I would like to see what you linked.   

[houlzhouse]

On Avondale yesterday 5-6" good ice w inch of snow on top.  Bite was very light.  Iced 4 trout 14-16" and one 10" perch.  Fish are bigger than last year though.

[hugeinchina]

On Avondale yesterday 5-6" good ice w inch of snow on top.  Bite was very light.  Iced 4 trout 14-16" and one 10" perch.  Fish are bigger than last year though.

Thanks for the report! I think we are headed there today for a bit. I’ll post a report if we go.

[atholmike]

We went by Lower twin on Christmas day. I cautiously went out to a hole someone drilled about 50 ft out. The ice was about 5 in thick. the bottom 3 in clear with the top 1.5-2 in milky.

[bullpine]

(Image removed from quote.)

I have caught them just outside the weedy parts of lakes where the water flows into the lake.  They are bottom feeders and will find your bait if they are around.  I used those rainbow colored jigs shaped and about the size of  your thumb nail with a stinger treble hanging off the jigs single hook.   I take say a two to three inch strip of perch meat and hang it off the jig and the attach stinger.  I drop it slightly weight under my tip up and go jig for perch and stuff while they soak.  The smaller cats won't even flag so check them once and a while.  I have caught two at a time as they try to suck the perch meat off that setup.

Not

Prior post with photo bucket tag.  Not sure if it will repost but maybe you can see it in the North Idaho Archives Idahogator.

[bullpine]

Unfortunately it didn't open, bullpine.  And I'm an Amazon user/member.
I would like to see what you linked.   

Go to post here on Dec 30 2013 to see catfish photo.  Photo bucket and apparently Amazon don't work here. Photo bucket want $$$ to load to another site.  Oh well.

[hugeinchina]

5”-6” of ice at Avondale today. Very light perch bite again, but with the electronics working this time, we managed to ice ten good sized ones. We caught two trout. Good meeting you today, Raynebidziil22. Tight lines!

[Idahogator]

 I drug yer cat along, bullpine.   

[bullpine]

Thanks Idahogator.  That fish drag my line all over the lake, that's why the weeds are on the ice.

[jcmontgo]

Fernan safe ice yet?
Mirror lake isn’t great but building.
 Haven’t checked round yet.....maybe tomorrow.
I would say cocalala is not safe yet.
That is all.

[hugeinchina]

Fernan safe ice yet?
Mirror lake isn’t great but building.
 Haven’t checked round yet.....maybe tomorrow.
I would say cocalala is not safe yet.
That is all.

Isn’t Mirror a lake you have to pay to get on or no?

[jcmontgo]

No...Idfg bought us some parking spots! Pretty cool!