Weather

[hunting-bum]

Anyone ever seen a winter, or lack of, start like this? Not looking good for upcoming tournaments.

[HookSet_J]

I hear ya. 

Particularly annoying in that I finally bought a new power auger for this season! 

We have some ice here in southwestern Montana, particularly shallower bodies of water -  but I spoke with southern Idaho, southern Wyoming, and eastern Montana yesterday - the story is about the same everywhere - still waiting.

Hang in there...

[hunting-bum]

I am trying my best lol. I got all my gear ready and am watching the weather several times a day.

Regretting winterizing the boat.

[RuralMT]

Did the cold snap over the holidays not hit the southwestern part of the state?  If not, head up here to the northwest corner!  My new perch spot put on 6 inches of ice from about Christmas through the New Years and the 93 chain of lakes has been locked up for a while.  Haven't been up the Thompson Chain this year, but I know Smith has some ice as well.

[Peterwheels]

A buddy went to Holter last evening to take a look. a few people fishing from shore. probably won't get on it this year.

[Cornbread]

The lakes I fish around Sanders county either don't have ice on them or have 1 to 4-ish inches of ice on them. I had to go up to Smith lake to ice fish over Christmas break. It has been warm and raining here a lot. Last couple years have been pretty warm winters here, this one is the warmest so far though as far as little ice goes. Last good ice winter we had here was 2014/2015 for good solid thick ice and the winter prior to that was excellent as well. This year and last year was warm enough that the bulk of the Whitetail rut in the Clark Fork valley around Plains went after the season had closed. We ended up with a lot of late born fawns this year so I imagine next spring will be the same.

[RuralMT]

The lakes I fish around Sanders county either don't have ice on them or have 1 to 4-ish inches of ice on them.

I'm sorry to hear that Cornbread, both for your sake and mine.  I'm heading to Plains for the weekend to jump some geese on the river and visit with my buddy and his wife.  I was hoping to bring my new Pistol Bit over to Dog and test it out.  Sounds like Noxon is still a no-go as well.    Extra time bird hunting is a fair consolation prize I suppose.

[mtmac94]

I was on lower and upper thompson yesterday.  Both had good ice.  8 inches on upper.  There had been 4 wheeler and snowmobiles on the ice. 

[Cornbread]

I'm sorry to hear that Cornbread, both for your sake and mine.  I'm heading to Plains for the weekend to jump some geese on the river and visit with my buddy and his wife.  I was hoping to bring my new Pistol Bit over to Dog and test it out.  Sounds like Noxon is still a no-go as well.    Extra time bird hunting is a fair consolation prize I suppose.

Dog has enough ice on it to fish it so you should be good there. I think it has around 5" - 6" of ice on it. I don't think you will probably catch much with how over fished it is but ice wise you should be fine.

[missoulafish]

That's bad news about the deer, only thing good about the warm winter is that they will have higher survivability...

[Cornbread]

Yes, it was 50 degrees here yesterday and the forecast says we will be in the low 40s for the next 10 days. If it doesn't get cold and snow a lot, fire season this year is going to be less than fun. We have whitetail deer coming out of our ears now though, unfortunately the bigger bucks that like to stay higher up are getting cleaned out by wolves but the amount of does and fawns/young deer we have all over the farm and ranching areas down by people is unreal. We have a LOT of wolves now though and as they decimate the ungulate populations higher up in the timber they move further and further down to where they are coming in to the outlying ranches(where I live) and doing a lot of damage. Most of the local ranches have started calving in contained areas right up by the ranch buildings to minimize loss and the deer have literally started having fawns next to our outbuildings to get away from the predators as the coyote population is way up now as well, especially near the ranches and farms as they got pushed down by wolves as well. So in a way I am glad it is warm so we will have better survival rates until hopefully something can be done about the wolf problem.

[Jpaull4]

New guy

[missoulafish]

Way to contribute... X3

[hi_tail]

What a difference from one January to the next.  Didn't dare take the tire chains out of the bed of my pickup last year, nor the 700lbs of weight, nor my shovel for that matter, oh yeah or my McLeod, tow strap, winch, ice auger extension... did I mention tire chains?  Kinda nice to ice fish out of the car this year         Hope yall are getting enough ice to get out and drill some holes!