Martinsdale Reservoir is ON FIRE for Fat Trout!

[BoomerFTW]

Martinsdale Reservoir was BEYOND incredible Saturday 1/5/19!! The ice was plenty safe off of the boat ramp near the dam on Saturday (Clear 8+ inches) but did thin out once you got near the section of open water off the point. Check out the drone shots in the video I made below to get a better idea of what the conditions were like. The TROUT were insane, definitely my best fishing through the ICE ever.

My friend flew all the way from Oregon to try out Ice Fishing for his first time. He joined me on what would quickly become my BEST day on the ICE ever. Still can't believe how great of a day it was... HOOKED FOR LIFE!

[whitetail]

Very nice video,thanks for sharing.

[Cornbread]

The flasher you are using that has some type of blue tooth style connection to your smart phone, what is it?

[Wenger]

There are a few, IBobber is pretty popular.

[BoomerFTW]

The flasher you are using that has some type of blue tooth style connection to your smart phone, what is it?

It is a Deeper Pro+ and connects via Wifi to my phone yep

[Wenger]

Very nice video. Better than most on TV now...plus you are not doing commercials for  everything you took out on the ice!

[gened]

Wow, what a high quality video. Great trip, great job, I really enjoyed that. I'm glad you had such an awesome day. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!

[coldcreekchris]

great video...I am kinda in between..yes I love the drone footage...amazing...bu t if I was on the ice and saw that drone flying over me while I was fishing? probally would shoot it out of the sky.....also having that flasher app on your phone seems like a really stupid way to loose a very expensive piece of electronics....I guess its official...at 50.. I am now an old fart who shakes his head at the younger generation... all the apps..the drones....**censored** happened to fishing as I knew it.....guess I should watch grumpy old men again....cause I can relate to that...this new era..not so sure..but once again..the drone footage was spectacular....but once again..if I saw that drone hovering over me on the ice.....i'd f n blast it.....

[monk38]

very nice video.  looked like a fun day.  It was neat to see the drone footage I thought!

[Born Late]

I’ll be interested in hearing a before- and after-the-video headcount of anglers from regular users of Martinsdale. 🤔

[gramps2321]

Cool, Looks like you have a Black Lab Rainbow Retriever dog!

[G fish]

CCC, Born Late. Agree 100% ,  bird season for a couple hundred dollar piece of plastic on ya!!  Hunting season big no no. Keep Mt real. Not a movie n blow up somebody’s fishing spot.  Don’t get me wrong drones get awesome video.  Tell the wrong time n place.

[G fish]

BoomerFTW, nothing against your videos watch them and enjoy them. Content of where maybe little much. Keep up gd video’s.

[coldcreekchris]

Cool, Looks like you have a Black Lab Rainbow Retriever dog!

that dog is quite cool...best part of the video..imho…..

[njoy]

Well done---------last time you will see the parking area with so few vehicles!!

[PablitoPescador]

Hyperbolic spot burn! All to get a few views on YouTube. The monetization of the outdoors is pretty sad to watch...I'm only 31 and I'm already turning into a cranky old curmudgeon that hates my own generation

[coldcreekchris]

yep......

[missoulafish]

Remember when I was a dick for bringing this up all the time? People finally getting it.... And def. A cool video.

[CatchDeFeesh]

Great video! Loved every minute of it. Keep em coming.

If you caught a bunch of warm water fish and named the lake you caught them on you’d get crucified on this site judging by the comments due to catching a few rainbows. Maybe just call it “no name lake” and not show the surrounding scenery?

[BoomerFTW]

great video...I am kinda in between..yes I love the drone footage...amazing...bu t if I was on the ice and saw that drone flying over me while I was fishing? probally would shoot it out of the sky.....also having that flasher app on your phone seems like a really stupid way to loose a very expensive piece of electronics....I guess its official...at 50.. I am now an old fart who shakes his head at the younger generation... all the apps..the drones....**censored** happened to fishing as I knew it.....guess I should watch grumpy old men again....cause I can relate to that...this new era..not so sure..but once again..the drone footage was spectacular....but once again..if I saw that drone hovering over me on the ice.....i'd f n blast it.....

hahaha, I understand where you are coming from Chris, I love bird hunting and enjoy skeet shooting as well lol 
I am glad you enjoy the drone footage! That being said I always keep the annoyance factor in mind and don't fly it too close to the other people fishing.  I also only flew it once on this trip for exactly 11 minutes (and then just interspersed the footage from that 11 minutes throughout the video).  Also, a majority of that 11 minutes of flight time I was high enough and far enough away that you couldn't even hear the drone at all.  So in total, the sound annoyance level was about equal to someone dragging their sled to a new spot or drilling some additional holes with their gas auger.  I definitely try to keep it minimal and not bug others with my drone flying.  I have the capability to fly it around for almost 30 minutes but never do (even though it is pretty fun to fly).

As far as the phone app, people drop their phones down ice holes all the time, just gotta be more careful! haha 

[Mizayikaa]

You were high enough or the drone was? Had to ask. Just messing around. Glad you and your buddy had a good time.

[BoomerFTW]

CCC, Born Late. Agree 100% ,  bird season for a couple hundred dollar piece of plastic on ya!!  Hunting season big no no. Keep Mt real. Not a movie n blow up somebody’s fishing spot.  Don’t get me wrong drones get awesome video.  Tell the wrong time n place.

The drone I have is the cheapest of the DJI drones and still cost me $600, most of them cost $1000-$2000 so yeah, maybe don't shoot one if it isn't on your private property haha. 

People seem to have a preconceived notion that if they know about a fishing location it is "their spot". By definition it can't be "somebody's fishing spot" because it is a public fishing area.  I understand wanting to keep them clean and beautiful for others to enjoy, but having this mindset that a public reservoir shouldn't ever be shared seems rather silly.  Montana has a tiny population and a very large area.  A very small percentage of that already small total population ice fishes, and an even smaller percentage of those are willing to drive over an hour or two to go ice fishing. Thinking a video like this is going to "ruin" a fishing spot because a few more people check it out just doesn't make sense to me....

Well done---------last time you will see the parking area with so few vehicles!!

Awesome! Glad others are hopefully going to have a similar experience to me! It brought me so much joy being able to catch a trout like that, I hope some father and son (or daughter) have a similar experience. 

Hyperbolic spot burn! All to get a few views on YouTube. The monetization of the outdoors is pretty sad to watch...I'm only 31 and I'm already turning into a cranky old curmudgeon that hates my own generation

Your assumptions about my motives for making these videos are incorrect.  I have made $0.00 on my channel and don't expect to make anything over that.  I do it to share my passion of fishing and video making and hopefully get more people excited about fishing.  The fishing industry has seen a massive spike in interest and revenue due to videos like mine.  I also hope to show my kids someday and share my fishing adventures with them in a fun engaging way.  I am almost 29 by the way.   
Also keep in mind there are a lot of Montanan, family run businesses that depend on people passing through their small towns to stay open.  I know I frequent quite a few places I would otherwise never go to thanks to fishing. 

[Wenger]

Might be better not to hot spot though.  Lakes like Martinsdale are very susceptible to overfishing. Why not simply say in MT rather than name the lake. Locals and regulars will recognize the spot. 

[BoomerFTW]

Might be better not to hot spot though.  Lakes like Martinsdale are very susceptible to overfishing. Why not simply say in MT rather than name the lake. Locals and regulars will recognize the spot.

How is Martinsdale susceptible to overfishing?  keep in mind that FWP stocked this lake with 65,000 rainbow trout over the course of this last year, 28,000 of which was just in September! It's gonna be great fishing for many years to come. 

[Seamonkey84]

How is Martinsdale susceptible to overfishing?  keep in mind that FWP stocked this lake with 65,000 rainbow trout over the course of this last year, 28,000 of which was just in September! It's gonna be great fishing for many years to come.

First, I have to say I liked the video.
But if everyone flocks to that place, there’s more issues than over fishing. But to your point, that is definitely a lot of fish, compared to my state, holy crap. But if everyone starts putting the pressure on them and causing mortality (or keeping more than they should) then the future fishing might not be as good as you think.

[Wenger]

How is Martinsdale susceptible to overfishing?  keep in mind that FWP stocked this lake with 65,000 rainbow trout over the course of this last year, 28,000 of which was just in September! It's gonna be great fishing for many years to come.

Only a fraction of those survive in truth. Plus if a lake gets hammered the bigger fish get not only taken out but pressured and become far harder to catch. Great video, fun to watch but as I said perhaps not naming these smaller reservoirs that do tend to turn on and off under pressure would be prudent?   

We see this in Martinsdale, Bair and Newlan all the time and is why guys are reluctant to post detailed reports. It is also why the TV guys don't ever reveal their exact lakes or locations.

Like I said great video, fun look with the drone. Any geese around?

[Cornbread]

This is why Dog Lake is fished out over here by me. it is also how ice fishing on Noxon got ruined. It's best not to post the name of where you were at and just say it was in Montana. I subscribed to your youtube channel because I really like the quality of videos you are shooting even though I would prefer if you didn't name the places specifically. It's up to you whether you do or don't but if you are taking votes I would prefer you didn't.

[BoomerFTW]

First, I have to say I liked the video.
But if everyone flocks to that place, there’s more issues than over fishing. But to your point, that is definitely a lot of fish, compared to my state, holy crap. But if everyone starts putting the pressure on them and causing mortality (or keeping more than they should) then the future fishing might not be as good as you think.

Thanks Seamonkey! Glad you liked it!
I could see that happening in a place like Portland, OR or somewhere in California, but like I said above, Montana has a very small population and a small percentage of that population actually ice fishes.  Not only that but Montana has a very large amount of places with incredible ice fishing (ie Georgetown Lake, Fort Peck, Canyon Ferry, etc).  To think everyone is going to flock to this spot because I caught some nice trout and made a video is kinda silly in my opinion.  Maybe if my video got 1 million views it might have a substantial impact on the tourism to the area, but that is extremely unlikely to happen and currently it is only sitting at 630 views.... 
I have 3 other videos on my channel from Martinsdale where I catch nice sized Rainbow trout (one of which has over 1k views and was released a couple years ago) yet every time I have gone there the amount of people fishing has been pretty sparse. 

Only a fraction of those survive in truth. Plus if a lake gets hammered the bigger fish get not only taken out but pressured and become far harder to catch. Great video, fun to watch but as I said perhaps not naming these smaller reservoirs that do tend to turn on and off under pressure would be prudent?   

We see this in Martinsdale, Bair and Newlan all the time and is why guys are reluctant to post detailed reports. It is also why the TV guys don't ever reveal their exact lakes or locations.

Like I said great video, fun look with the drone. Any geese around?

Out of curiosity when you say that you "see this" in those places "all the time" what do you mean by that?

Thanks! Glad you liked the video, AND THERE WERE TONS OF GEESE AND MALLARDS! My trigger finger kept twitching while I was fishing haha

This is why Dog Lake is fished out over here by me. it is also how ice fishing on Noxon got ruined. It's best not to post the name of where you were at and just say it was in Montana. I subscribed to your youtube channel because I really like the quality of videos you are shooting even though I would prefer if you didn't name the places specifically. It's up to you whether you do or don't but if you are taking votes I would prefer you didn't.

Thanks for subscribing! Definitely some stuff to consider and think about.  I am on the other side of the fence at the moment, but am interested in hearing why people are so against it and have the potential to have my mind changed if they can logically and rationally discuss it instead of just saying "but... my fishing spot!".

[gf hardwater guy]

Count me in as one to say the video is awesome, but like many of the others, I'd follow along in stating that fishing this particular day was great, but not state precisely where you were fishing. Let those watching figure it out if they can. I have a piece of public property that is easily accessible that I deer hunt on a pretty regular basis that has yielded multiple really nice mountain mule deer. In all of the years the picture of the largest one has hung on the wall in my office, only one person to visit my office has been able to figure out where the picture was taken. I don't openly tell folks where I am at because there wouldn't be a mule deer buck to be found on this ground if I did. We were fortunate enough to harvest 2 muley bucks of this place in successive days this fall. Kind of a go to place. So keep the video's coming, but I'd say keep the exact location of such video to yourself. Everyone wins that way.

[PablitoPescador]

I could see that happening in a place like Portland, OR or somewhere in California, but like I said above, Montana has a very small population and a small percentage of that population actually ice fishes. 

It's this attitude right here that really gets under the skin of locals. Montana is full and is growing at an alarming rate. Our fear is turning this pristine state into Portland or your hometown in CA. Some things don't need to be broadcasted on every outlet on social media. By all means, make cool videos of your ice fishing adventures! It seems like most of the people who have watched it really liked it. But if you really want to fish these local gems with your kids, instead of just showing them videos of how it used to be, stop posting hyperbolic videos about how this is the best place to fish EVER and how ON FIRE the bite is. You're bummed out that the fishing at Cooney sucks, you'll be bummed out in 10 years when Martinsdale and all your other honey holes are fished out too.